The Kaplan nursing entrance exam, section by section

The Kaplan nursing entrance exam, published as the Kaplan Nursing School Admission Test, is a 91 question multiple-choice exam sat in 2 hours and 45 minutes across four sections: Reading, Math, Writing, and Science. It is shorter than the TEAS and narrower than the HESI A2, and a smaller set of programs use it. If your admissions page names Kaplan, that is your exam, and the whole of your preparation should be aimed at those four sections and at the cutoff your program publishes.

The four sections at a glance

Section	Questions	Minutes	Minutes per question
Reading	22	45	about 2.0
Math	28	45	about 1.6
Writing	21	45	about 2.1
Science	20	30	about 1.5
Total	91	165

Two things fall out of that table immediately. Math is the largest section, so it carries the most weight in a composite score and deserves the largest share of your hours. Science is the tightest, at 20 questions in 30 minutes, so it is the section where hesitation costs you most. Read those two facts as a scheduling instruction rather than trivia.

One exam, several names. Programs call it the Kaplan admission test, the Kaplan nursing entrance exam, or simply "the Kaplan". They all mean the same four-section test.

What each section actually asks

Reading gives you passages and asks what they say and what they imply. The work is comprehension, main idea, inference, and reasoning from a text you have never seen, not recall of anything you studied.

Math is arithmetic and basic algebra put to practical use: fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, conversions between units, and word problems dressed in everyday or clinical language. Conversions matter more here than the topic list suggests, because dosage-shaped questions lean on them.

Writing is the section applicants most often misread. It is not an essay. You work with passages and judge how they are built: logic, sequence, paragraph structure, and the choice that makes a sentence clearer or more correct. Treat it as editing, not composition.

Science concentrates on human anatomy and physiology, with the body systems doing most of the work. Twenty questions cannot cover a semester of biology, so breadth across the major systems beats depth in any one of them.

How Kaplan scores it, and the number your program wants

Kaplan reports a percentage for each section and an overall percentage, and your result is usually available as soon as you finish. There is no national pass mark. Each program sets its own bar, and published cutoffs commonly sit somewhere between 60 and 70 percent overall.

Some programs add a second condition on top of the overall figure, most often a minimum on the Science section, so an applicant can clear the composite and still fall short. Find both numbers before you start studying, because they change what you practise. A program with a Science floor is telling you where your revision has to go.

Your target is not "a good Kaplan score". It is the two numbers on your program's admissions page, the overall percentage and any per-section minimum.

Retake rules are set locally too. Some schools allow one attempt per application period, others permit a retake after a waiting period of about a month so there is time to remediate. Confirm the rule with the admissions office, not with a forum thread, and confirm the fee at the same time, since the test is commonly booked through the school rather than through Kaplan.

Practising when the official material is thin

Kaplan publishes far less public detail about this exam than ATI does about the TEAS, which is why so many section lists circulating online disagree with each other. That has one practical consequence: your program's own information packet is your primary source, and anything you read elsewhere, including this page, should be checked against it.

Confirm, then commit. Ask the admissions office for the current section list, the time limits, the score they require, and the retake rule. Four questions, one email.

The good news is that the academic content is not exotic. Reading comprehension, applied arithmetic, sentence-level writing, and human anatomy and physiology are the same foundations the TEAS and the HESI A2 test, which is why applicants preparing for one of those exams find most of their work transfers. Our free full-length TEAS practice test and the TEAS study guide are built for ATI's exam rather than Kaplan's, so the timings and the question formats will not match. As drilling for the shared academic core, particularly the mathematics and the anatomy and physiology, they still hold up. Use them for the content and rehearse Kaplan's clock separately.

If you are still working out which exam you will actually sit, start with nursing entrance exams explained, which sets Kaplan beside the TEAS, the HESI A2, and the PAX.

Before you book

• Confirm that Kaplan is the exam your program requires. Many applicants prepare for the wrong test because a friend at another school sat it.
• Write down the overall cutoff and any per-section minimum. These two numbers define the project.
• Check the retake rule and the waiting period before your first attempt, not after it.
• Practise the shared academic content now, and rehearse the section timings once you have confirmed them.

Get those four things settled and the exam stops being a rumour and becomes a measurable target: 91 questions, four sections, and one published percentage standing between you and the seat. Start with the admissions page today, then put your first hours into Math.