NHRA Nursing Licensing Format & Logistics: What to Expect on Test Day
In short
The NHRA nursing licensing exam is computer-based and multiple-choice, sat at a Prometric test center. You get 2.5 hours of testing time inside a three-hour seating. NHRA publishes no question count, so the clock is the only pacing information you have. Before you can book anything, NHRA has to issue you an eligibility code through its Mehan portal.
The format at a glance
Every item on the NHRA Nursing Licensing exam is a multiple-choice question, answered on screen at a Prometric test center. One continuous session, start to finish.
The seating is three hours. The testing time inside it is 2.5 hours — 150 minutes on the clock — and the spare half hour exists so you can check in and work through the on-screen tutorial before the first question appears.
The question count is the gap in all of this. For the nursing exam NHRA releases no question total and no content blueprint. Prep sites quote figures from roughly 100 to 150 questions; they disagree with one another, and none of them names a source. Treat any specific number you find outside NHRA's own materials as unverified.
So minutes-per-question is a sum you cannot do. Pace yourself in fractions of the paper. At the 75-minute mark you should be about halfway through the items, whatever the total turns out to be. Check the clock twice across the session and correct once. The way to find your real pace beforehand is to sit a full set under timed conditions — that is what the free practice questions are for.
The pass mark is the one number where the official sources contradict each other. In NHRA's licensure-examination booklet, nursing sits alongside midwifery and allied health at a 50% pass mark, while every other profession is held to 60%. Prometric's own NHRA page still shows a flat 60% for every Bahrain licensure exam. Both are official documents. Until they agree, prepare to clear 60% and email NHRA at licensure@nhra.bh or nursing@nhra.bh to confirm which figure applies to you.
What test day looks like
You cannot walk up to Prometric and book this one yourself. NHRA has to approve you first, and a sitting that goes ahead without that approval will not count.
The order of operations:
Apply through NHRA's Mehan portal →
have your qualifications, your experience and your good-standing certificates verified at source →
collect the NHRA eligibility code, which is valid for four months and covers a single attempt →
book your Prometric seat inside that window.
Four months is about 17 weeks, and Only Ever's own plan for this syllabus runs 21 weeks and roughly 150 hours. Ask for it in week one and it expires before you finish. Start the studying first, and request the code once your intended test date sits inside the four-month window.
Check whether you have to sit it at all before you pay for any of this. If you are Bahraini, or a GCC national already holding a valid GCC license, you are exempt. NHRA also accepts the DHA, HAAD, Qatar and Oman "Registered Nurse" exams, along with the Saudi "Nurse Specialist". The Saudi "Nurse Technician" is not accepted. General nurses coming from outside Bahrain have to show a year of clinical experience after registration before they can apply. Bahraini new graduates entering at basic level do not.
The money lands in three places. The Prometric seat is USD 184.5, or roughly BHD 69.5. Applying to NHRA costs BHD 20, and the license itself is BHD 50 once you have passed. Source verification varies by vendor and speed: a single DataFlow check is BHD 60, the regular service BHD 120, and express BHD 171. QuadraBay and Clean Sheet Group are accepted in DataFlow's place.
On the cheapest route you are BHD 149.5 down before you sit anything: BHD 69.5 for the Prometric seat, BHD 20 to apply, BHD 60 for a single verification. Add the license fee and the running total reaches BHD 199.5. Choose express verification and the same path comes to BHD 310.5. Fees move, so confirm the current ones before you commit to a date.
If the day goes badly, you have four consecutive attempts, and all of them have to fall within three years of your first sitting. A pass, once you have it, is valid for five years.
Common questions
How many questions are on the NHRA nursing exam? No official source says. NHRA does not publish a count, Prometric does not either, and the numbers circulating on prep sites contradict each other with nothing behind them. Plan around the time, which is published.
How long do I get? 2.5 hours of testing time within a three-hour seating, run as one continuous session. The extra 30 minutes is check-in and the on-screen tutorial.
What score do I need to pass? NHRA's licensure-examination booklet puts the nursing, midwifery and allied health pass mark at 50%, and every other profession at 60%. Prometric's NHRA page still lists 60% for all Bahrain licensure exams. Prepare for 60% and write to NHRA for confirmation.
Where do I sit it, and can I book it myself? At a Prometric test center, on a computer. Booking runs through NHRA: you apply on the Mehan portal, NHRA issues an eligibility code good for four months and one attempt, and only then do you pick a seat.
What does the whole thing cost? Around BHD 199.5 on the cheapest route — BHD 69.5 for the Prometric seat, BHD 20 to apply, BHD 60 for a single DataFlow check and BHD 50 for the license. Express verification pushes the same total past BHD 310.
What happens if I fail? You get four consecutive attempts, and they must fall inside three years of your first sitting.
Only Ever's practice questions and study guides for this exam are free, including the AI-generated sets other providers put behind a paywall. Since NHRA publishes no blueprint, your own scores are the closest thing to a weighting you will ever get. Try the free practice questions and mark them by area. Whichever is weakest of fundamentals of nursing, pharmacology and critical care nursing is where your next study hour goes.