How to review wrong answers when you prepare for the NMC CBT

Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked 8 October 2026.

People tend to spend a few seconds on a wrong answer and move on. Seeing the right answer is easy, since the explanation shows it. What helps is working out why you chose the wrong one, because the cause decides what you should do about it.

A method for every question you miss

• Name the cause before you read the explanation. Was it a gap in knowledge, a misread question, a calculation slip, a judgement call between two defensible options, or the clock? Each has a different fix.
• For a knowledge gap, write the rule in your own words and tie it to its category. If you cannot say it without looking, you have not learnt it yet.
• For a misread question, find the word you missed. Words such as first, most, safest and not decide the answer, and the habit of underlining them is cheap to build.
• For a calculation slip, redo it on paper from the start and find the exact line where it went wrong. Unit conversions and decimal places account for most slips of this kind, and each can be checked on its own.
• For a judgement call, ask what the question is optimising for. Safety, the patient's consent and escalation often settle which of two reasonable options is best, so ask which choice protects the patient first.
• Come back to it. Test the same point again after a gap of days rather than minutes. If you get it right then, it has moved from recognised to learnt.

Where candidates come unstuck

• Reading the correct option, thinking "of course", and moving on. Once you have seen the answer it always looks obvious, and that says little about the next question.
• Reviewing only the questions you got wrong. A right answer you guessed is a wrong answer you have not yet met.
• Collecting a long list of misses and never revisiting it. A list you never test yourself on does nothing for your marks.
• Treating every miss as a knowledge gap and answering it with more reading. Most misses are about how you read or reasoned, and that needs a different fix.

Common questions

Should I redo questions I have already got wrong?

Yes, but after a gap. Seeing the same question straight away only tests your short-term memory. Wait days and see if you can still answer it and say why.

How do I find my weakest category?

Track your accuracy by category rather than overall. The paper is built from 9 clinical categories plus the numeracy ones, and a good overall score can hide one that is much weaker than the rest.

Is it worth keeping a notebook of mistakes?

It is, if each entry states the rule or the reason in your own words and you test yourself on it later. A notebook that copies the explanation just repeats what you already have.

Does this site bring missed questions back?

In mocks, yes. A question you answer correctly is retired for you, while one you got wrong or left blank stays in your pool and comes round again on a later paper. Practice is separate and never retires anything.

Where these figures come from

• NMC Test of Competence 2021 (nursing) Test Specification, V1.1, the structure of both parts, the category weightings and the pass marks, link checked 8 October 2026

This page is one part of the exam. Work through the whole thing with the NMC CBT study guide.