NCLEX Buddy: Separate RN and PN Courses, Plus 44 Free Practice Exams
Published · Education & Coaching
NCLEX Buddy is an online study site for nurses getting ready to sit the NCLEX. Its main idea is simple and a little unusual: the RN exam and the PN/LPN exam get two separate courses, written separately. The site's own line on this is that the PN course is "not a thinned-out version of an RN course," and its PN course page says most prep products treat PN candidates as an afterthought. On top of the two core reviews, it gives away a short course on how the exam works and 44 practice exams with a written explanation for every question.
At a glance
- Who they are: An online NCLEX prep site whose lessons are written by the NCLEX Buddy team. It describes itself as a one-stop study, tutoring and digital-course platform.
- What they sell: An NCLEX-RN Core Review and an NCLEX-PN/LPN Core Review for subscribers, plus a free orientation course, free practice exams and a study blog.
- Where: Online. Courses and exams are taken in the browser.
- Who it's for: NCLEX-RN candidates and NCLEX-PN/LPN candidates, especially practical nursing graduates who want material built for their own test plan.
- Website: NCLEX Buddy's website
Two exams, two courses
The two core reviews follow the structure NCSBN publishes for each exam, which is eight Client Needs categories.
- NCLEX-RN Core Review: 30 lessons in 8 modules, about 7 hours of reading. Modules run in the order the RN exam weights them, starting with Management of Care and ending with Physiological Adaptation. Along the way it covers prioritization and delegation, isolation precautions, high-alert medications, reading a basic metabolic panel, and a four-step method for acid-base problems. The course page says it is included with a Study Plan subscription.
- NCLEX-PN/LPN Core Review: 32 lessons in 8 modules, about 7 hours 22 minutes of reading. It is built on the current NCLEX-PN test plan and has a full module on scope of practice and delegation from the LPN's side, with lessons like "Data Collection vs. Assessment" and "Scope Varies by State." Clinical modules include fluid and electrolyte balance, pharmacology by class, fetal heart rate patterns for the LPN, and therapeutic communication.
Both courses are text lessons. The PN course page promises plain-English lessons, a citation behind every clinical fact, and no pass-rate promises. You can see the full module lists on the NCLEX Buddy courses page.
The free part is bigger than a sample
Two of the four courses cost nothing, and the home page says there is no card and no trial countdown.
- How the NCLEX Actually Works: six short lessons, about 50 minutes in all. It explains how the test plan is built, how the adaptive algorithm decides when your exam is over, what the Next Generation item types look like and how they are scored, the six-step clinical judgment model, what the national pass rate does and doesn't tell you, and test-day logistics like the ATT, Pearson VUE, results and retakes.
- NCLEX Practice Exams: 22 topics, each with two 50-question exams, for 44 exams in total. Every question has a written rationale. Attempts are unlimited, and there is no timer unless you want one.
The practice topics read like a nursing school syllabus: fluids and electrolytes, arterial blood gas interpretation, cardiac rhythms and ECG, maternity and newborn, pediatrics, psychiatric and mental health, pharmacology by drug class, and high-alert medication monitoring. There are also sets on Next Gen NCLEX case studies and on test-taking and question analysis, which are about reading the question rather than knowing the content. Students can start on the free NCLEX practice exams before deciding whether they need a full course.
A blog about how to study, not just what to study
Most of the blog posts are about method. Titles include "Track What You Miss by Reason, Not by Topic," "The Final Two Weeks: Narrowing Instead of Cramming," "Select All That Apply Without Overselecting" and "Studying for the PN Exam While Working Full Time." That last one is aimed at people working shifts, whose free evenings don't fall in a reliable pattern.
The posts lean on NCSBN's published numbers instead of rules of thumb. The PN study plan post, for example, takes the PN test plan's category ranges and turns them into weekly blocks. Coordinated Care, which NCSBN weights at 18 to 24% of the PN exam, gets a block every single week. The post also offers an eight-week and a four-week version of the same plan, and it is clear that neither is a "typical" timeline.
For candidates still deciding which exam material they need, there is a plain comparison post, "NCLEX-RN vs NCLEX-PN: What Actually Changes Between the Two Exams."
What it doesn't claim
NCLEX Buddy is careful about promises. There are no pass-rate guarantees on the site and no testimonials. Its course pages say that where the evidence didn't support a specific number, the lesson says so. The site also states that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by NCSBN, the organization behind the exam.
That restraint is part of the pitch. The free orientation course sells itself on being accurate rather than hyped, and the rest of the site keeps the same tone: what the test is, how it is scored, and a structured way to get ready for it.
CloserAccess built and hosts NCLEX Buddy's site, and you can find it among our clients at NCLEX Buddy on CloserAccess.