Complete Guide to the NLE 2026: Schedule, Requirements, and Tips

TL;DR: PRC Resolution No. 2113 set two Nurse Licensure Examination sittings for 2026 — February 26-27 and August 29-30. Under Section 15 of RA 9173 you pass on a general average of at least 75% with no rating below 60%. The part most guides get wrong: if you average 75% or better but drop below 60% in one part, you repeat only that part and need 75% in it, not the whole five-part exam.

Introduction

The Nurse Licensure Examination is the gate between a BSN diploma and practice as a Registered Nurse. It is administered by the Professional Regulation Commission through the Professional Regulatory Board of Nursing under Republic Act No. 9173, the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002.

This guide sticks to what the governing documents actually say: the statute for eligibility and the passing rule, PRC Resolution No. 2113 for the calendar, and the Board of Nursing's own examination programme for the test structure and the exam-day rules. Where a number is not in one of those, we have left it out rather than estimated it.

2026 NLE schedule

PRC Resolution No. 2113 promulgated the schedule of licensure examinations for 2026. These are the two nursing rows from that resolution, in full:

Both filing windows for 2026 have closed. If you are planning ahead, watch for the next annual schedule resolution rather than assuming the pattern repeats — PRC moved nursing off the old May and November slots for 2026, which is exactly the kind of change an annual resolution can make.

Resolution No. 2113 also lists the testing centres for each sitting, and they are not identical. The August sitting adds Cabanatuan and Cauayan and drops Koronadal from the February list. Both sittings cover NCR, Baguio, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Palawan, Pampanga, Rosales, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, Zamboanga, Ilocos Sur, Dumaguete, Laguna, Lipa, Tagbilaran and Urdaneta, with Calapan appearing on the August list.

Who may sit: Section 13 of RA 9173

Section 13 sets the qualifications for admission to the examination. The applicant must establish to the Board's satisfaction that they are a citizen of the Philippines or a citizen of a country that permits Filipino nurses to practise there on the same terms, of good moral character, and a holder of a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from a college or university that complies with the standards of nursing education.

There is no age ceiling and no time limit after graduation. There is also no refresher-course requirement for repeat takers — a contrast worth noting, because the accountancy law disqualifies a candidate who fails two complete examinations until they complete 24 units, and the nursing law contains no equivalent provision.

Documentary requirements and fees

Applications are filed through PRC's Licensure Examination and Registration Information System (LERIS) and completed at a PRC Regional Office or Offsite Service Centre. The PRC 2026 Citizen's Charter sets out the fee schedule for licensure examination applications:

Nursing is a baccalaureate programme, so a full NLE application is the PHP 900 line. The PHP 450 line matters if you end up taking a removal exam under Section 15 — see the passing rules below.

The documents themselves are the standard PRC set: PSA birth certificate, transcript of records with the Special Order number where applicable, evidence of the BSN degree, marriage certificate if your name has changed, the LERIS-generated application form, ID photos to PRC's specification, and a valid government-issued ID. Check the current list on the PRC site before you file, because PRC revises the documentary checklist more often than it revises the statute, and a list that was right last cycle can be wrong this one.

Exam coverage: the five parts

The Board of Nursing publishes a programme for each sitting. It states that the examination consists of five parts:

• Nursing Practice I — Care of individuals, families, population groups and community (community health nursing)
• Nursing Practice II — Part 1, care of the mother and adolescent (well clients), at risk or with problems, acute and chronic; Part 2, human growth and development
• Nursing Practice III — Care of clients with problems in surgery, oxygenation, fluid and electrolytes, infectious, inflammatory and immunologic response, and cellular aberrations, acute and chronic
• Nursing Practice IV — Care of clients with problems in nutrition and gastro-intestinal function, metabolism and endocrine, perception and coordination, acute and chronic
• Nursing Practice V — Care of clients with maladaptive patterns of behaviour, acute and chronic; care of clients with life-threatening conditions, acutely ill and multi-organ problems, high acuity and emergency situations

Each part is a two-hour test. Three parts sit on day one and two on day two.

The programme does not publish an item count per part, so we do not state one. Reviewers that promise an exact number of questions per subject are quoting each other, not PRC.

Two things the programme does say that most guides skip. First, the tests draw on major subject areas that cut across all five parts — fundamentals of nursing including professional adjustments, maternal and child nursing, community health and communicable disease nursing, nursing of adolescents, adults and the aged, and mental health and psychiatric nursing. Second, five areas of knowledge are integrated into every part: anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology and therapeutics, nutrition and diet therapy, and parasitology and microbiology.

That integration is the practical reason pharmacology repays early study. It is not confined to one part; PRC says explicitly that it is folded into all of them.

The programme also frames the exam against the Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme outcomes at Level 6 of the Philippine Qualifications Framework — applying knowledge of the physical, social, natural and health sciences; delivering safe, appropriate and holistic care through the nursing process; applying evidence-based practice; practising within existing laws and ethical principles; communicating and documenting; collaborating across disciplines; beginning management and leadership skills; techno-intelligent care systems; and upholding the profession's core values.

Passing criteria: Section 15 of RA 9173

This is the section most often misreported, so here is what it provides:

• A general average of at least 75%, with a rating not below 60% in any subject.
• An examinee who averages 75% or higher but rates below 60% in any subject takes the examination again only in the subject or subjects rated below 60%.
• To pass that succeeding examination, the examinee must obtain at least 75% in each subject repeated.

So there are three outcomes, not two. You pass; you fail outright; or you carry a removal in one or more specific parts. Guides that tell you a single sub-60% rating voids everything and forces all five parts again are describing a rule the statute does not contain. PRC's own fee schedule confirms the mechanism exists, with its separate PHP 450 conditional or removal application.

The bar in a removal exam is higher than the bar you missed. You dropped below 60% in that part; to clear it you now need 75% in it.

What the passing rates actually show

Two 2026-relevant cycles have been announced by PRC, and the contrast between them is more instructive than any trend line:

Look at the examinee counts before reading anything into the percentages. November 2025 was a mass sitting of about 45,000; February 2026 drew about 8,000. A sitting a fifth the size, taken off-cycle, is not the same population as one that absorbs a national graduating cohort. The gap is a composition effect first and a difficulty signal at best second.

We have dropped the longer historical table that used to sit here. Several of its rows were not traceable to a PRC announcement, and one was written as an approximation with a tilde. A passing rate you cannot source is worse than no passing rate, because readers plan around it.

PRC releases results per cycle and separately announces top-performing schools and topnotchers. The February 2026 results were released on March 6, 2026, with four examinees' results withheld pending determination of their liabilities under the rules governing licensure examinations.

Exam-day rules, from the PRC programme

These come straight from the Board of Nursing programme and they are stricter than most reviewers suggest.

Bring: Notice of Admission, official receipt, two or more No. 2 pencils, black-ink ballpens, one long brown envelope, one long transparent plastic envelope for valuables, and packed snacks, meals, medication and sanitary items in transparent containers with enough drinking water for the day. Nobody may hand food to an examinee once the exam is running, delivery services included.

Prohibited: books, notes and review materials; all kinds of calculators; smart watches, phones, Bluetooth devices, earplugs, transmitters, portable computers, USBs and any other device that can store, retrieve or transmit data; and bags of any kind, including handbags, shoulder bags, attaché cases and backpacks.

Wear: clinical uniform. Male examinees with white shoes and white socks, female examinees with white shoes and white stockings, in both cases without nameplate, school insignia, logo or pin. A school uniform is the alternative. Pregnant examinees wear a white clinical scrub suit.

Timing: verify your school and building assignment on prc.gov.ph two to three working days beforehand, visit the venue before exam day if you can, and report before 5:30 a.m. on the first day. Late examinees are not admitted. Except for restroom necessities, no examinee may leave the room while the exam is in progress.

PRC applies its rules on bodily search and inspection of belongings under Annex A of PRC Memorandum Order No. 57, s. 2020.

Preparing for the exam

None of this is regulated, so treat it as practical advice rather than requirement.

Give yourself a real runway. Three months of structured review is the common floor for covering five parts with time left for full-length practice. Working full-time compresses what you can do in that window, so plan the calendar you actually have.

Front-load the integrated sciences. PRC states that pharmacology and therapeutics, anatomy and physiology, and pathophysiology are folded into every part. Time spent there pays in five places.

Practise at the real length. Each part is two hours. Sitting three two-hour tests in a day is a stamina problem as much as a knowledge problem, and it is the specific thing untimed reviewing does not prepare you for.

Use the nursing process as the default frame. The PRC programme names it as the framework for nursing care across settings and stages. When a scenario item offers several defensible actions, the sequence assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation is the one the exam is built around.

Diagnose before you drill. Take one full mock, then weight your remaining time toward the parts you actually scored worst on rather than the ones you have been told are hard.

For a comparison of options, see our roundup of NLE review centres, and our post on NLE results and passing rates for cycle-by-cycle figures.

After you pass

Oath. Section 16 of RA 9173 requires all successful candidates to take an oath of profession before the Board or an authorised government official before entering nursing practice.

Registration. Section 17 provides that a certificate of registration and professional licence is issued on payment of the prescribed fees, showing the registrant's full name, serial number, the signature of the Commission Chairperson and Board members, and the Commission's official seal. PRC has moved initial registration for the professional identification card and certificate of registration online.

Renewal and CPD. The professional identification card runs on a three-year cycle, and Section 10 of RA 10912, the CPD Act of 2016, makes continuing professional development a requirement for renewal. PRC has repeatedly extended acceptance of a CPD undertaking in place of full compliance for renewal, most recently to 31 December 2026 under Resolution No. 2200, s. 2026. That is an extension, not a repeal, so check the current PRC issuance at your renewal date rather than assuming it holds.

Practice. An RN licence opens hospital, community, occupational, school, research and academic nursing. Nurses aiming to practise abroad take a separate route — the NCLEX for the United States, for instance, is a different examination with a different format and its own eligibility path through the relevant state board.

Sources

• Republic Act No. 9173, Philippine Nursing Act of 2002 — Sections 12 to 18, in particular Section 15 on ratings
• PRC Resolution No. 2113, Schedule of Licensure Examinations for the Year 2026 — nursing rows 9 and 45
• PRC Professional Regulatory Board of Nursing, Programme of the Nurses Licensure Examination — test parts, integrated subject areas, attire and prohibited items
• PRC, February 2026 Nurses Licensure Examination results
• PRC, November 2025 Nurses Licensure Examination results
• PRC Citizen's Charter 2026, 1st Edition — examination application fees
• Republic Act No. 10912, Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016

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