News & updates
Raising concerns, and why the NMC has said sorry
The NMC answered the Thirlwall Inquiry in September and accepted it should have acted sooner. Raising concerns is on the exam, and this is the duty failing.
The NMC is consulting on a new Code
The consultation was due to run from September to December 2026. The NMC has since said it needs more time: the Code consultation now opens by the end of November, and revalidation has been split off and delayed by at least six months.
New OSCE stations from 26 October 2026
Fifteen new evidence based practice and professional values stations reach adult, mental health and children’s nursing, and mental health and children’s nursing also gain new assessment and skills stations, for anyone sitting the OSCE for the first time after 26 October 2026.
Right maths, wrong answer in Part A
Part A is typed rather than chosen, so the form of your answer is part of the answer. Units, decimal places and tablets are where correct arithmetic loses marks.
Two steps before the CBT that cost money when they go wrong
Booking the wrong exam code loses the fee, and an English result can expire while your documents are checked. Two new guides cover both.
What the CBT can ask you about
If you are learning the names of NHS committees, information governance clauses or reflective models, you are revising something the test cannot ask you. The boundary is published.
Your mistakes now collect in one place
Every question you get wrong, in practice or in a mock, now gathers into a mistake bank you can work through and answer again. A question leaves it once you get it right.
NMC fees rise on 1 October 2026
The first increase in eleven years. The annual fee goes from £120 to £143, and the two fees an internationally trained applicant pays go up by the same 19.2%.
The question bank has more than doubled
It is now just past two and a half thousand questions, and ten mock papers in a row generate for every nursing field before the bank runs out.
Sit the four APIE stations in sequence
The four scenario stations on one patient, in order, the way the exam runs them. And a station now waits for you rather than ending if you are called away.
Your field of practice now shapes what you see
Adult, mental health, learning disabilities or children's nursing: practice, mocks and OSCE stations now follow the field you are registering in.
New OSCE stations came into use this year
Eight new adult nursing stations from 23 February, and new children's, mental health and midwifery stations from 13 April. The exam is still ten stations.
Questions now link to the page that explains them
Get a question wrong and you are shown the exact revision page that covers it, by name, rather than being left to go and find it.
Two OSCE test centres have closed this year
Oxford Brookes closed at the end of July and Northumbria closed in February. Three providers are left, and a resit is no longer always at the centre you started at.
What the NMC CBT pass mark is, and what we got wrong
The NMC publishes the CBT pass marks: thirteen out of fifteen for numeracy, and generally sixty to seventy per cent for the clinical paper. This post used to say otherwise.
Failing one part is not failing the CBT
If a result letter has just told you that you failed a part, here is what actually happens next, without the panic.
The CBT is two exams in one appointment
One booking, one seat, three hours, and two results. Understanding the split changes how you should practise for it.
Practise an OSCE station with a simulated patient
You can now work through an assessment scenario by talking to a simulated patient, and get a marked report at the end.