What examination do I need to pass to meet the registration examination requirement?

If you plan to register as a nurse in Ontario, you must first pass a registration exam approved by CNO’s Council for the nursing category for which you are applying (RN, RPN or NP).

RN applicants: You must pass the NCLEX-RN.

RPN applicants: You must pass the REx-PN.

NP applicants:  You must pass an approved exam for your specialty. See the Nurse Practitioner Examinations web page for details.

Some applicants may already have written an exam that meets this requirement. See Examinations for a list of exams the CNO accepts for RN, RPN and NP applicants. You must report all attempts you have written on any CNO-approved exam to CNO for our review.

Exam accommodation is available to those who qualify. See Requesting Accommodation for details.

Steps for meeting the requirement

  1. Wait for CNO to notify you that you are eligible to write the exam.
  2. Follow CNO’s instructions to arrange your examination date with the exam provider.
  3. Pay the exam fees.
  4. Write the exam.
  5. Wait for CNO to notify you of your results.

If you passed your exam, you have met the requirement.

If you have not passed the exam, you will need to write it again. The examinations for RN and RPN applicants have no limit on the number of times you can attempt them until you pass (although there are mandatory waiting periods between attempts).

Details about repeat attempts for the NP examination are in the next section.

NP registration examination: Repeat attempts

You can attempt the NP registration examination up to three times. If you have written the NP exam three times and you haven’t passed it, then the Registration Committee will review your application to CNO. The committee will consider whether there are any extenuating circumstances that might give CNO reason to annul (cancel) the results of one or more of your unsuccessful attempts.

Here are examples of extenuating circumstances the committee might consider:

  • a medical situation that was unforeseen and may have interfered with your ability to write your exam
  • the death of a loved one that happened shortly before your scheduled exam date

CNO will notify you if the committee is reviewing your application, to allow you the time you need to submit evidence to support your request for an annulment.

Here are examples of the kind of information the committee might consider for review:

  • a personal statement from you outlining what extenuating circumstances (if any) may have affected your ability to pass the examination
  • supporting evidence relating to the specific extenuating circumstances, such as information from a health care provider about a medical condition (including the description, date of diagnosis, impact on the applicant and other information), a death certificate in the case of a death in the family or other relevant information

You will be allowed another chance to write the exam if the committee decides to annul one or more of your examination results.

Reporting past examination attempts

If you do not disclose all previous attempts to write a registration examination, CNO may cancel your application for registration and/or cancel any certificates issued by CNO.

When we count your attempts at a registration exam, CNO looks at all your previous attempts to write that particular exam, whether you wrote the exam in Ontario or in another jurisdiction.

Note: Each time you start to write your registration exam, the attempt is considered one write of the exam, regardless of how much of the exam you completed or how long you sat down to write it.

If you arrive at the testing centre on the day of the test and you feel you are not able to write the exam for any reason, do not sit down to begin. Instead, tell the invigilator of that exam that you are not able to write that day and contact CNO for further instructions.

However, if after starting the exam you feel you can’t continue writing it for any reason, inform the exam’s invigilator and then contact CNO for further instructions. Although this attempt will count as one exam write:

  • you may have further attempts on the exam available to you if you have not reached the maximum number of allowed writes
  • if you write the NP exam three times and you are unsuccessful on all attempts, CNO’s Registration Committee can review the circumstances of your decision to not complete the exam to decide whether there were extenuating circumstances; if so, the Committee will annul the previous attempt and allow you another chance to write the exam.