Run it next to your nursing courses
RN Ticket is free NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN practice that students can start in their first semester. Every question is also sorted by nursing course, so you can assign the unit you're teaching this week. Your class board shows who did it, the class's weakest topics, and each student's Pass Meter. This page is the plan, course by course.
What students get today
Every Next Generation format is there: select all that apply, matrix grids, drop-downs, highlight-the-chart, bow-ties, ordering and unfolding case studies, scored with partial credit the way NCSBN scores them. Each answer explains why the best choice wins and why each other choice loses, and names its source: the Open RN and OpenStax nursing textbooks (CC BY 4.0), or the CDC, FDA, NIH and AHRQ. Students see a Pass Meter (their chance of passing a practice test built like the minimum-length exam), a list of misses that comes back first, spaced reviews, and a printable review sheet.
Study is free. Full practice tests are free for every student on a board with a school plan. No student accounts and nothing to install: it runs in Safari or Chrome on a phone or laptop.
Course by course
In the guide, students tap By course to see these units. On your board, set one as the week's assignment. A question can sit in two units, like digoxin in Pharmacology and Heart and vessels.
| Course | Assign these units | Checkpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals / Foundations | Fundamentals and skillsHealth promotion Safety, infection control, mobility, hygiene, nutrition, elimination, comfort, documentation, med math. | Study days, not scores. Aim for a few questions on two days a week. |
| Health assessment | Health promotion plus each body-system unit the week you teach that system. | Weak topics on the board after each system. |
| Pharmacology | Pharmacology with the body-system unit for each drug class (anticoagulants with Heart and vessels, insulin with Endocrine and diabetes). | Pharmacology on the board's Teach next list before each exam. |
| Adult health / Med-surg I to III | One system per module: Heart and vesselsLungs and breathingBrain, nerves and sensesDigestion and liverKidneys, fluids and electrolytesEndocrine and diabetesBlood, cancer and immunityBones, muscles and skinSurgery and proceduresEmergency, shock and trauma The case studies fit here. | First full practice test at the end of Med-surg I. Watch the Pass Meter trend from here on. |
| Maternal-newborn | Maternal-newborn Prenatal care, labor, postpartum, the newborn, women's health. | Assignment completion and the unit's average on the board. |
| Pediatrics | Pediatrics Growth and development, immunizations, and the child with each system's problems. | Same. |
| Mental health | Mental health Therapeutic communication, psych conditions and their medications, crisis, grief. | Same. |
| Leadership / Transition to practice | Leadership and management Delegation, priorities, ethics and law. Then full practice tests. | Before booking the NCLEX: Pass Meter at 90% and a passed full practice test. The board lists everyone in that zone as READY. |
Your program's courses have their own names and order. Match the units to them; the units don't change.
A week in the semester
- Monday: set the assignment on your board: the unit you teach this week, 20 to 30 questions, due before the unit quiz. A one-line note is optional ("Before Thursday's lab").
- During the week: students open the guide, where the assignment sits at the top with a button that serves those questions. A few minutes of Today's 5 on a couple of other days keeps the earlier units coming back.
- Thursday: open the board. Spend ten minutes of class on the top item in Teach next, the topic the class gets right least often.
- After a quiz: students print or email their review sheet: each missed question, the best answer and the one line to remember. That's their remediation, and they can show it to you.
Grading it
Give credit for finishing the assignment (the board shows how many each student answered), not for the score. The Pass Meter is for coaching: who to check in with, and what to reteach. Don't use it as a gate for progression or graduation. ACEN's 2023 guidance on standardized testing says high-stakes testing for progression "is not a best educational practice," and points programs to the NLN Fair Testing Guidelines.
Source: ACEN, The Use of High-Stakes Testing in an ACEN-Accredited Program (May 2023).
Syllabus wording
Paste it, then put your class code in the blank.
To put it in your LMS course (Canvas, Blackboard, D2L or another), post the join link from your board as a link item. Nothing to install or connect.
For the program director
The board gives you numbers you can track by cohort: where the Pass Meters sit, how many students studied this week, the weakest Client Needs areas, assignment completion, and real NCLEX results that students choose to report. Print it at the start, middle and end of a term for a dated record, or download the CSV.
In Florida, section 464.019, Florida Statutes, puts a nursing program on probation after two calendar years in a row with a first-time NCLEX pass rate more than 10 percentage points below the national average for its program type. The director then brings the Board of Nursing a remediation plan with specific benchmarks. A cohort's Pass Meter spread, study days and weakest areas are benchmarks you can measure every week, not once a year.
Students report the real result in their guide (I passed / Not this time). The board counts each student once. We never contact students or your school about results.
Privacy and records
- No student accounts, emails or ID numbers. Students join with a first name or nickname they choose.
- For each guide, the board gets the student's Pass Meter, score by topic, last study day, practice test score, assignment progress and a reported result. Never answers to single questions.
- A student can leave the class at any time, which deletes their rows. One button at headedin.com/privacy#erase deletes everything their browser ever sent.
- The board's private link is the only key. There is no instructor account and no login to manage.
- Nothing comes from your student information system or LMS, and nothing goes back to it.
- Boards nobody opens or studies on for 180 days are deleted.
Full policy: headedin.com/privacy#study.
What it costs
Students: free to study. Every practice test is free for students on a board with a school plan.
Free board: up to 10 students. School plan: $5 per student per month, only the months your class runs, or $299 a year for a whole program up to 100 students, invoiced to the school.
Pilot programs: one class free in exchange for the class's real pass/fail counts at the end (counts only, no names). Write to hello@headedin.com.
Who makes it
Built by an RN and former EMT who knows what it's like to be restricted from passing due to having to pay for practice exams. So these are free. Headed In LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida.
The questions are our own, written to the 2026 NCLEX test plans. Under every answer there's a way to report a problem; we check it against the source and post the ruling under the question. RN Ticket is a study aid, not affiliated with or endorsed by NCSBN. NCLEX® is a registered trademark of NCSBN.