Free NCLEX Audio Review Courses

Free audio courses by topic

Pick the area you are weakest on, listen on the go, then go drill that topic in your question bank.

Start here: fundamentals and first semester

Foundational courses that orient you and reinforce early-program concepts. Audio review only; do your skills, labs, and questions elsewhere.

Foundations of Health and Nursing

Weekly Wrap

After this course you can explain core foundations of health, human development, communication, and care priorities across the lifespan.

9 lessons · ~1h 57mStart

Fundamentals of Nursing: Systems and Patient Care

NUR 102

After this course you can apply core nursing concepts across renal, GI, cardiac, and respiratory systems while integrating culture, ethics, nutrition, and end-of-life care.

16 lessons · ~3h 28mStart

Nursing 101: Care and Management of Acute and Chronic Illness

Nursing 101

After this course you can describe nursing care and management for kidney tumors and surgery, pain, anaphylaxis, and hypersensitivity reactions.

5 lessons · ~1h 5mStart

Med-surg core

The largest body of NCLEX content, mapping to Physiological Integrity. Coverage is strong on neuro, GI, skin, and burn care, and lighter on cardiac, respiratory, renal, and endocrine as standalone audio. Use a Q-bank to find and fill the gaps.

NCLEX-Ready Med-Surg Fundamentals

NSG3037 Adult Medical Surgical 1

Review endocrine, oncology, cardiac, vascular, and respiratory med-surg essentials.

11 lessons · 2h 44mStart

Neurosensory Nursing for Med-Surg: Brain, Stroke, and Sensory Disorders

NSG3046 Adult Medical Surgical 2

Assess and manage neurological and neurosensory disorders, from increased ICP and stroke to eye and ear conditions, with NCLEX-ready clinical reasoning.

5 lessons · 26 minStart

Med-Surg Nursing: Nutrition, GI, Skin, and Burn Care

NSG3046 Adult Medical Surgical 2

Apply med-surg nursing care for nutrition, metabolic, gastrointestinal, integumentary, and burn patients at the bedside and on the NCLEX.

6 lessons · 1h 43mStart

Pharmacology

Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies is one of the most heavily weighted subcategories (13 to 19 percent). This course names pharmacology in scope but is not a systematic drug-class survey, so treat it as a touchpoint and do the bulk of your pharm prep in a Q-bank and drug-class flashcards.

Nursing School Core Topics: Pharmacology, Neuro, and Care

Got to be a Nurse, Baby!

After this course you can review core nursing-school topics including pharmacology, neuro care, wound care, and evidence-based practice.

11 lessons · 1h 38mStart

Clinical judgment (NGN reasoning)

The Next Generation NCLEX tests clinical judgment via the six-step NCSBN model. This course reinforces how to reason through a real clinical scenario, though it is not built around the NGN item formats (bow-tie, matrix, trend). Practice the actual item types in a Q-bank with NGN case studies.

Clinical Reasoning for Rotations and Rounds

AI Med Tutor Podcast

Practice missed-question triage, next-step thinking, and verbalizing reasoning on rounds.

9 lessons · 1h 38mStart

Legal, ethical, and management of care

Maps to the Safe and Effective Care Environment category. Good for legal and ethical concepts and documentation; reinforce delegation, prioritization, and infection control with question practice, since those are only lightly covered in audio.

Legal and Ethical Principles in Nursing Practice

NSG4070 Legal and Ethics

After this course you can apply ethical theories, professional values, and tort principles to nursing scenarios and answer NCLEX questions on ethics and legal practice.

5 lessons · 59 minStart

Nursing Informatics: Data, EHR, and Digital Health

NUR 703

After this course you can apply advanced nursing informatics concepts across health policy, EHR adoption, digital health innovation, data and AI, and cybersecurity.

7 lessons · ~1h 31mStart

How to use this hub (read first)

These are free audio courses with no signup and no app. Treat them as a review and reinforcement layer: a way to keep high-yield NCLEX content warm during your commute, a walk, or chores, then go drill the same topics in a question bank. They are built to pair with a Q-bank (such as UWorld or Archer) and your nursing program, not to replace a Q-bank, your program, or your instructor. No resource can guarantee a pass, and nobody honestly claims one. This is exam-prep education, not medical advice or clinical instruction. The content below is organized for NCLEX-RN candidates, with NCLEX-PN notes where the exams differ. Always defer to your program's materials and current NCSBN test plan for what is on the exam.

NCLEX-RN exam overview

The NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses) is the licensure exam you must pass to practice as a registered nurse in the United States. It is developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and used by state, commonwealth, and territorial boards of nursing to make licensure decisions. Its single purpose is public protection: it measures the competencies needed to perform safely and effectively as a newly licensed, entry-level registered nurse.

The NCLEX-PN is the parallel exam for licensed practical and vocational nurses (LPN/LVN). It uses the same test-plan framework and adaptive scoring but reflects the narrower PN scope of practice, so the RN and PN passing standards are not directly comparable.

The Next Generation NCLEX (NGN)

On April 1, 2023, NCSBN launched the Next Generation NCLEX, an enhancement that shifted the exam from rewarding recall of isolated facts toward measuring clinical judgment in unfolding clinical situations. Clinical judgment is structured around the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, a six-step process:

1. Recognize cues (identify relevant information from history, vital signs, and other sources).
2. Analyze cues (connect those cues to the client's clinical presentation).
3. Prioritize hypotheses (rank by urgency, likelihood, risk, and time).
4. Generate solutions (define expected outcomes and interventions).
5. Take action (implement the highest-priority intervention).
6. Evaluate outcomes (compare observed to expected results).

Clinical judgment is measured in two structures: the case study (a single unfolding scenario followed by six items that walk through the six steps in order) and the stand-alone item (a single question outside a case study). To support this, the NGN added response formats beyond single-best-answer multiple choice, including bow-tie, trend, matrix/grid, extended multiple response, extended drag-and-drop, cloze (drop-down), and highlight. These formats let the exam award partial credit and probe reasoning. Confirm the exact current format labels against NCSBN's official NGN materials before relying on any single label. The 2026 test plan keeps this NGN structure.

The test plan: Client Needs framework and 2026 weights

Exam content is organized into four Client Needs categories, two of which split into subcategories. The percentages below are from the 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan (effective April 2026), based on the 2024 RN Practice Analysis. In the 2026 plan, the subcategory formerly called "Safety and Infection Control" is now "Safety and Infection Prevention and Control."

What the weights tell you: Physiological Integrity as a whole is the largest area (its four subcategories sum to roughly half the exam), with Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies the single heaviest physiological subcategory. Management of Care is the heaviest single subcategory overall, which is why delegation, prioritization, and scope-of-practice questions appear so often. Use these weights to allocate study time, not to skip anything: every category is testable. Six Integrated Processes run throughout all categories rather than carrying their own percentages: Caring, Clinical Judgment, Communication and Documentation, Culture and Spirituality, Nursing Process, and Teaching/Learning.

How the NCLEX-RN is scored

The exam is delivered by computerized adaptive testing (CAT). After each answer, the computer recalculates your ability estimate and selects the next item at a difficulty that gives you roughly a 50 percent chance of answering correctly. The NCLEX-RN consists of 85 to 150 items (this range includes unscored pretest items), with a maximum testing time of 5 hours. The exam ends as soon as the computer can reach a confident decision, so length varies by candidate. Stopping at 85 items is not by itself good or bad news; it only means the computer reached a confident decision quickly.

Scoring is criterion-referenced: you pass or fail based solely on whether your demonstrated ability is above or below a fixed standard for safe entry-level practice. There is no preassigned pass percentage, and you are not competing against other test-takers. Mechanically, the exam seeks 95 percent confidence that your ability is above or below the passing standard. If your ability is too close to call, the exam keeps presenting items. If you reach the maximum number of items, the decision is made on your final ability estimate. If time expires, the decision uses all responses given as long as you answered at least the minimum. Scores are never reported; the result is only pass or fail. The RN passing standard is 0.00 logits, upheld by NCSBN through March 31, 2029. Always confirm the standard in effect on your test date with NCSBN.

For context, first-time, US-educated RN candidates have historically passed at roughly 85 to 91 percent (about 91 percent in 2024, with reporting indicating a decline toward the high 80s in 2025). Overall pass rates are lower because they fold in repeat and internationally educated candidates. Use these as context, not a personal prediction. Your readiness is better gauged by performance trends in a quality question bank than by a national average.

High-yield pharmacology: learn drugs by class, suffix, and stem

Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies is one of the most heavily weighted subcategories (13 to 19 percent of items, about 16 percent on average). You cannot memorize every drug, but generic names are not random: the WHO and the USAN Council assign a shared stem (usually a suffix) to drugs in the same class, so you can infer mechanism, key side effects, and nursing priorities from the name. The NCLEX rewards this class-level reasoning. Two cautions: stems are reliable but not absolute (read the full name), and the exam tests the nursing action (assess, teach, hold, report), not trivia.

Cardiovascular and renal families (the densest exam territory)

Quick lab-pairing hook: ACE inhibitors and ARBs push potassium up (hyperkalemia); loop diuretics push potassium down (hypokalemia). That single contrast answers many items.

Anti-infective families (read the stem, predict the harm)

A useful framing: anti-infectives are mostly about what organ they damage (kidney, ear, tendon) and what you screen for first (allergy).

CNS, GI, and other common families

The most-tested safety cluster (memorize cold)

This is the cluster the NCLEX returns to again and again, because a wrong nursing action here causes real harm. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices flags high-alert medications as those carrying heightened risk when used in error; the classic NCLEX trio is insulin, anticoagulants (heparin, warfarin), and opioids. When a question involves one of these, slow down.

Insulin onset and peak: the peak is when hypoglycemia risk is highest, so it is the most-tested number (values are approximate; follow your source).

Mixing rule: when drawing regular and NPH into one syringe, draw the clear (regular) before the cloudy (NPH). Mnemonic: clear before cloudy, "RN" (Regular then NPH).

Anticoagulant monitoring (the highest-frequency safety item):

Memory hook: PT = Pill (warfarin, oral), aPTT = Parenteral (heparin). For warfarin, teach consistent vitamin K intake (do not swing green leafy vegetable intake wildly), not total avoidance. Both cause bleeding, so teach patients to report bruising and blood in urine or stool and to use a soft toothbrush and electric razor. Heparin also carries a risk of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), so monitor platelets.

Digoxin toxicity: therapeutic level roughly 0.5 to 2 ng/mL (narrow window). Before giving, take the apical pulse for 1 full minute and hold if below 60 bpm. Early toxicity is GI (anorexia, nausea, vomiting); later signs include bradycardia, visual disturbances (blurred or yellow-green vision, halos), and dysrhythmias. Hypokalemia increases toxicity risk, which is why digoxin plus a potassium-wasting loop diuretic is a high-risk pairing. Antidote: digoxin immune Fab (Digibind, DigiFab) for life-threatening toxicity.

Lithium: narrow therapeutic index, used for bipolar disorder. Maintenance levels commonly target about 0.6 to 1.0 mEq/L (acute can run higher; some texts cite up to about 1.5 mEq/L; follow the prescriber's plan). Levels above about 1.5 mEq/L are increasingly toxic. Low sodium or dehydration causes the body to retain lithium, raising the level, so teach consistent sodium and adequate fluid intake and caution about NSAIDs and diuretics. Toxicity progresses from GI upset and fine tremor to coarse tremor, ataxia, confusion, and seizures.

Potassium: never give potassium chloride by IV push or bolus, ever. It must be diluted and infused slowly via pump; rapid IV potassium can cause fatal cardiac dysrhythmias. Watch the hyperkalemia stack: ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and potassium-sparing diuretics (spironolactone) all raise potassium. Loop and thiazide diuretics lower potassium, which then worsens digoxin toxicity.

Core high-yield: lab values, fluids and electrolytes, acid-base, prioritization, delegation, and safety

Reference ranges vary slightly by textbook and lab. The NCLEX does not expect you to split hairs over a decimal; it expects you to recognize when a value is clearly out of range, know which way it is off, and know what to do. Defer to your program's printed ranges.

Lab values to know (with red-flag values)

Calcium and magnesium are the two ranges textbooks report most inconsistently (different units, different cutoffs); learn the directional concept and your program's exact numbers.

Fluid and electrolyte imbalances (signature sign plus the one priority)

The dominant theme: severe potassium and sodium shifts are the ones that kill, through the heart and the brain.

• Hyperkalemia (above 5.0): peaked T waves, muscle weakness, eventually cardiac arrest. Priority: protect the heart. Get an ECG, place on a cardiac monitor, anticipate IV calcium gluconate to stabilize the myocardium, then insulin with dextrose and/or albuterol to shift K+ into cells, then removal (kayexalate, dialysis).
• Hypokalemia (below 3.5): flat or inverted T waves, U waves, weakness, ileus, increased digoxin toxicity. Priority: replace potassium safely. Never give IV potassium as a push or bolus; always dilute and infuse slowly via pump and confirm adequate urine output first.
• Hypernatremia (above 145): thirst, dry mucous membranes, restlessness to agitation, seizures. Priority: protect the brain and correct slowly (rapid correction causes cerebral edema).
• Hyponatremia (below 135): headache, confusion, nausea, cramps, seizures; common with SIADH and overhydration. Priority: protect the brain, institute seizure precautions, restrict fluids if dilutional, and correct gradually (too-fast correction risks osmotic demyelination).
• Hypercalcemia (above 10.5): "stones, bones, groans, and psychiatric overtones." Priority: push isotonic fluids to promote excretion, encourage mobility, monitor for dysrhythmias. (Hypocalcemia, by contrast, causes tetany and positive Chvostek and Trousseau signs; the priority is airway and seizure protection.)

Cross-link: low magnesium often travels with low potassium and low calcium and must be corrected for the others to respond.

Acid-base: the ROME approach

Anchor on normals: pH 7.35 to 7.45, PaCO2 35 to 45 mmHg, HCO3 22 to 26 mEq/L, PaO2 80 to 100 mmHg.

ROME means Respiratory Opposite, Metabolic Equal. For respiratory disorders, pH and PaCO2 move in opposite directions. For metabolic disorders, pH and HCO3 move in the same direction. Steps: (1) read the pH (below 7.35 is acidosis, above 7.45 is alkalosis); (2) decide whether PaCO2 (respiratory) or HCO3 (metabolic) matches the problem using ROME; (3) check whether the other value is compensating.

Worked example: pH 7.30, PaCO2 50, HCO3 24. pH is low (acidosis); PaCO2 is high and moves opposite, so respiratory; HCO3 is normal, so uncompensated. Answer: uncompensated respiratory acidosis (classic cause: opioid oversedation or a COPD exacerbation).

Prioritization and delegation (heavily weighted under Management of Care)

The exam rewards a consistent decision framework over gut instinct. Apply, in order:

1. ABCs: a compromised airway or breathing problem almost always comes first.
2. Maslow: physiologic needs (oxygen, fluids, nutrition, elimination, pain) before safety, then psychosocial needs.
3. Acute over chronic, unstable over stable, unexpected over expected.
4. Safety and the least-stable client: among physiologic needs, pick the client most likely to deteriorate.

Heuristic for "who to see first": the client whose problem is acute, unexpected, and threatens airway/breathing/circulation, and that you can act on, is usually the answer. A normal or expected finding (even an abnormal-looking number that is expected for that diagnosis) is usually not the one to see first.

Delegation rests on one foundational NCSBN rule: the RN cannot delegate the nursing process or clinical judgment. You delegate a task, never the thinking behind it.

What can never be delegated: a common aid is "you cannot delegate what you EAT" (Evaluate, Assess, Teach, plus nursing judgment). The unstable patient also stays with the RN. When delegation is appropriate, it satisfies the Five Rights of Delegation: right task, right circumstance, right person, right direction/communication, and right supervision/evaluation.

Infection control: isolation precautions

Standard Precautions apply to every patient, every time (hand hygiene, gloves, and PPE based on anticipated exposure). On top of those, the CDC defines three Transmission-Based Precautions.

Memory aids: airborne "My Chicken Hez TB" (Measles, Chickenpox/varicella, disseminated Herpes zoster, TB) need an N95 and a negative-pressure room. C. diff and norovirus require soap-and-water hand hygiene because alcohol sanitizer does not reliably kill C. diff spores. Varicella and disseminated zoster are both airborne and contact. Neutropenic (protective) precautions reverse the goal: they protect the immunocompromised patient from the environment (positive-pressure room, no fresh flowers or standing water, no sick visitors).

An honest NCLEX study system: where audio fits

There is no shortcut to passing the NCLEX, and any resource that promises one is selling you something. What works is well documented: do a high volume of practice questions, study the rationale for every question (right and wrong), and review content to fill the gaps the questions expose. That is the engine. Audio is support. Used correctly, it is a genuine review and reinforcement layer for time you could not otherwise study. Used as your main method, it gives a false sense of readiness.

The core loop, in order (active first, passive second):

1. Drill questions in a Q-bank (this is what passes). Active recall under pressure is the highest-value activity. UWorld or Archer forces you to commit to an answer and then shows you why it was right or wrong. Aim for steady daily volume over occasional cramming.
2. Review every rationale, right and wrong. The rationale is the lesson, not the score. Forty questions with every rationale studied beats 100 questions with none read.
3. Review content to fill the gaps the questions expose. Let your wrong answers tell you what to relearn from your program materials.
4. Reinforce with audio during downtime. After you have drilled a topic and read the rationales, listen to that same topic on your commute, walk, or while doing chores. You are not learning it for the first time; you are keeping it from fading through spaced repetition.

A simple mental model: the Q-bank is the workout, the audio is the warm-up and cool-down. Both help, but the workout builds the strength.

How to use the Jellypod courses specifically: find your weak domain from your Q-bank data, listen to that domain's course on the go, then drill that exact topic in your Q-bank and read the rationales. When a rationale corrects something you had wrong, re-listen to lock in the correction over the next few days.

Guardrails, plainly stated:

• Audio cannot replace doing questions. The NCLEX measures whether you can reason to an answer under pressure; you only build that by practicing it. If you have time for only one thing on a given day, do questions.
• Passive listening is not studying and does not measure readiness. Recognizing an explanation when you hear it is not the same as producing the right answer on a question you have never seen.
• This is review, not first-contact learning. Reinforce topics you have already worked through actively.
• These courses are exam-prep education, not medical advice or clinical instruction, and they supplement (not replace) a question bank, your nursing program, and your instructors. Use the official NCSBN test plan as your source of truth for what is on the exam. No resource guarantees a pass.

NCLEX-PN candidates: these courses are RN-oriented. The fundamentals, med-surg, and legal/ethical groups still help, but pull the current NCLEX-PN test plan and use a PN-aligned question bank, since the PN exam tests a narrower, more supervised scope and uses a different (lower) passing standard.

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