Engagement Drives Outcomes: A 98.2% NCLEX® Pass Rate Starts With Practice

Preparing students for NCLEX success requires more than access to resources and high-quality content - it requires intentional, sustained engagement that builds confidence, clinical judgment, and decision-making skills over time. When students actively practice, remediate, and revisit concepts across multiple learning modalities, they move beyond recognition and memorization into the kind of applied thinking the NCLEX demands. Kaplan’s Nursing Institutional Efficacy Study (2025) clearly demonstrates that student outcomes improve as engagement with Kaplan resources increases: at the highest levels of engagement, students achieved a 98.2% first-attempt NCLEX pass rate, while students who completed fewer practice activities experienced lower pass rates. This pattern reinforces a direct and meaningful relationship between engagement and readiness for licensure.

Fewer Activities, Lower NCLEX Pass Rates

A consistent and important pattern emerged from the data: lower engagement was associated with lower NCLEX pass rates. Students who completed fewer practice activities demonstrated reduced success compared to peers who engaged more frequently. As the total number of completed NCLEX activities increased, pass rates rose incrementally. Students completing approximately 100 activities had lower outcomes than those completing 120 or more, while students who completed 140 or more activities achieved the highest observed pass rate of 98.2%. This gradual progression underscores a critical point for educators - NCLEX readiness is not achieved through isolated or sporadic practice, but through repeated exposure, reinforcement, and application over time.

What Engagement Really Means

Importantly, engagement in this context is not simply about time spent logged into a platform. It reflects active participation in question-based practice, decision-making, and remediation. The NCLEX is designed to assess clinical judgment, prioritization, and the ability to apply knowledge in complex, evolving scenarios (Granoff et al., 2025). Students who engage less often have fewer opportunities to practice these skills, receive targeted feedback, and close learning gaps before exam day; factors that directly influence performance.

Supporting Multiple Ways of Learning

One reason higher engagement produces stronger outcomes is that Kaplan’s platform supports multiple learning styles, allowing students to interact with content in varied and complementary ways. Visual learners benefit from unfolding case studies, integrated testing formats, and performance dashboards that help them identify trends and patterns. Auditory learners gain reinforcement through video instruction and guided explanations. Reading and writing learners deepen understanding through focused review content, detailed item rationales, and structured remediation activities. Kinesthetic learners, those who learn best by doing, build competence through hands-on practice with Question Trainers, CAT exams, and virtual simulations (Hampton et al., 2023).

What This Means for Nurse Educators

Educators play a pivotal role in shaping engagement. The data suggests that programs see the strongest outcomes when they:

1. Encourage consistent, distributed practice rather than last-minute cramming (Davis & Morrow, 2021).
2. Intentionally integrate multiple Kaplan tools across courses and terms.
3. Normalize remediation as learning, not punishment (Radford & Wagner, 2025).
4. Support varied learning preferences, ensuring all students have multiple ways to engage (Hampton et al., 2023).

Importantly, the study showed that total activity counts alone were not enough. It was the combination of activity volume, NCLEX question type exposure, and question practice that mattered most.

The Bottom Line

NCLEX success is not accidental. Kaplan’s efficacy data confirms that students who actively engage with a diverse set of learning activities, designed to meet multiple learning styles, achieve the highest pass rates. The study offers practical insights for academic educators who want to design intentional engagement, support diverse learners, and strengthen outcomes program-wide. Kaplan’s 2025 Nursing Institutional Efficacy Study provides compelling evidence showing student engagement with NCLEX preparation products directly influences first-attempt pass rate.

References

• Davis, J. H., & Morrow, M. R. (2021). Professional preparation: Faculty practices for NCLEX-RN® success. Nursing Science Quarterly, 34(4), 360-365. https://doi.org/10.1177/08943184211031581
• Granoff, M., Gilbert, M., Lima, M., Nusbaum, E., & Bermidez, N. (2025). Exploring the lived experience of nursing faculty in preparing for the next generation NCLEX: A qualitative Study, Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal, 8(1), 19-29. https://scholarlycommons.baptisthealth.net/nhsrj/
• Hampton, D., Hardin-Fanning, F., Culp-Roche, A., Hensley, A., & Wilson, J. L. (2023). Promotion of student engagement through application of good practice in nursing online education. JNurs Admin Q, 47(2), E12-20. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000556
• Kaplan 2025 Nursing Institutional Efficacy Study and Pass Rate Claims (2025).  
• Radford, M., & Wagner, E. (2025). Intentional remediation to improve NCLEX success. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 20(4), 403-405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2025.04.002