Two steps before the CBT that cost money when they go wrong
Most of what goes wrong with the CBT goes wrong in the exam room. Two things go wrong before it, and both cost money that no amount of revision gets back. We have written a guide to each.
The first is booking. Once the NMC confirms you need to sit the Test of Competence, Pearson Professional Assessments emails you an account and a temporary password, and you book through Pearson VUE. There is one exam per field of practice, and the one you choose has to match the field on your NMC application. Book the adult nursing exam when you applied as a mental health nurse and the NMC will not accept the result, and Pearson VUE will not refund the fee. It is a ten minute job with a mistake in it that nobody warns you about.
The day itself has a few rules worth knowing in advance. The centre checks your passport against the one on your NMC account, so if you have renewed it, update the account at least forty eight hours before. Arrive thirty minutes early: more than fifteen minutes late and you may have to book and pay again, although a missed sitting does not count as one of your attempts. And no break is scheduled in the three hours, so a break you ask for comes out of your own time. How to book the NMC CBT walks through all of it, including the countries where Pearson VUE sells vouchers to candidates who cannot pay by card.
The second is English. The NMC accepts IELTS Academic at 7 in reading, listening and speaking and 6.5 in writing, or OET at grade B in those three and C+ in writing. Two things catch people out. General Training IELTS is not accepted, whatever the score. And a result counts for two years measured to when the NMC considers your complete application, not to when you applied, so a result that was fresh at the start can run out while your documents are being checked.
It is also worth knowing that a test is not the only route. A nursing qualification taught and examined in English can count, and so can a year of recent registered practice in a country where English is the majority language. People who qualify that way regularly pay for a test they did not need. The NMC's English language requirements sets out every route, how two sittings of the same test can be combined, and when an employer can vouch for a near miss.
Every figure in both guides comes from the NMC's own pages and Pearson VUE's, and where neither publishes something, such as a deadline for rescheduling, the guides say so rather than guess.