TCRN Exam Prep: The 2026 Blueprint, Passing Score, and a Free Study Planner

The TCRN exam is 175 questions in 180 minutes. Only 150 questions are scored, and BCEN currently publishes 96 correct as the passing standard. That standard took effect November 29, 2025. On the published 96-of-150 standard, you can miss 54 scored questions and still pass.

One scoring detail belongs above the fold, not buried in fine print: BCEN's Candidate Handbook says statistical equating can move the raw passing requirement slightly up or down for a particular exam form. So 96 of 150 is the current published target, while your form-specific cut can vary slightly to account for difficulty.

Here's the part that should make you sit up. You may still see TCRN exam prep material telling you the number is 104.

That number does not match BCEN's current standard. We could not verify 104 in an official archived BCEN source, so we will not pretend it dates a resource by itself. But it is enough to tell you that the score claim needs checking before you trust the rest of the material.

We'll show you how to check your study guide in about sixty seconds, what the six current content areas contain, how the official item weights translate into a study plan, and what the exam actually costs. Every official claim on this page is tied to a primary source we checked on August 27, 2026.

Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. We verify official exam claims against current owner documents and publish corrections when those claims change.

One thing up front, because you'll wonder: we don't sell a TCRN product. No book, no question bank, no course, and no affiliate links to anyone else's. The planner above and this page are what we have. That's also why the comparison table further down has nothing riding on it.

Is this page for you?

Yes, if you're:

• An RN who has decided to sit the TCRN and wants to know exactly what's on it
• Holding a study guide and wondering whether its score and blueprint are current
• Trying to work out what this costs before you commit
• Coming back after a first attempt that didn't go your way

No, if you're:

• Looking for TNCC — that's a trauma nursing course, not the TCRN board-certification exam. Jump to the difference.
• Preparing for the CEN, CPEN, CFRN, CTRN or CBRN — different exams, different outlines. Go straight to BCEN's certification pages.
• Preparing for the CCRN — that's AACN Certification Corporation's acute and critical care credential, not BCEN's trauma exam.
• Looking for real, recalled exam questions. We don't use them and we never will.

The right prep path isn't the same for every TCRN candidate. It depends on the outline active on your test date, your RN license status, the areas where your experience is thin, and how far your current practice score sits from 96. The official handbook and BCEN set the rules, not a checklist. Run your current score, study material, weak areas, fee tier, and break plan through the free TCRN 96 Check above before you spend anything.

The TCRN exam at a glance

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What is on the TCRN exam in 2026?

The TCRN exam has six parts. The biggest is Trunk and Pelvis, worth 38 scored questions. The smallest is Professional Practice, worth 10. BCEN sets the split in its current TCRN Examination Content Outline, which took effect November 29, 2025.

That outline is free and three pages long.

A content outline — you'll also hear it called a blueprint — is the document the exam is built from. It gives you the six scored areas, the item count assigned to each, and the knowledge entries inside them. It does not tell you exactly how many questions attach to each listed entry.

Head and Neck — 31 items

BCEN splits this into neurologic trauma — traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and secondary injury prevention — and maxillofacial and neck trauma, including facial fractures, ocular trauma and neck trauma.

Two sub-areas. Eight enumerated entries in our count. Thirty-one scored questions. That does not mean each entry produces the same number of questions. It does tell you this is a heavily weighted block with a relatively concentrated published scope.

Trunk and Pelvis — 38 items

The biggest area is split three ways: thoracic trauma, abdominal trauma, and pelvic and genitourinary trauma.

We counted 14 enumerated entries under this area. BCEN assigns 38 scored items to the area but does not publish an item-by-entry map, so use the official 38-item weight — not a made-up questions-per-topic ratio — when you plan your time.

Note the name. It is Trunk and Pelvis on the current outline. Material that only says "Trunk" needs a version check.

Musculoskeletal and Wound — 13 items

The smallest clinical area covers vertebral injuries, then extremity injuries broken into compartment syndrome, amputations, extremity fractures, soft-tissue injuries and dislocations.

This area was renamed. The current title is Clinical Practice: Musculoskeletal and Wound. Material using "Extremity and Wound" does not match the current area name.

Special Populations — 22 items

This is the widest mix of patient populations on the outline: geriatric, pediatric, pregnant, burn, bariatric, patients with comorbidities or pre-existing conditions, and patients with substance use disorder.

It also holds the forensic content — intimate partner violence, child abuse, elder abuse, human trafficking, evidence collection and preservation, chain of custody, and intentional self-inflicted injuries.

The area is now Special Populations, without the old Clinical Practice prefix. We counted 19 enumerated entries. Treat that as a breadth warning, not proof that every entry receives one question.

Continuum of Care for Trauma — 36 items

The second-biggest area runs well beyond initial stabilization.

Its published scope includes resuscitation, all four shock categories, acute care and reassessment, consequences of resuscitation such as TRALI and TACO, the tertiary exam, complications and hospital events, psychosocial issues, rehabilitation, end-of-life, injury prevention, pre-hospital care, transfer and discharge planning.

We counted 38 enumerated entries under this 36-item area. This is where the outline's breadth hides, especially for candidates whose daily work is concentrated at one end of the trauma continuum.

Professional Practice — 10 items

Ten scored questions cover disaster triage and decontamination, trauma quality improvement, over- and under-triage, missed injuries, mortality and morbidity review, trauma registry work, outcomes follow-up, evidence-based practice, debriefing, patient safety, SBAR handoff, event reporting, HIPAA, EMTALA, workplace violence, and trauma center designation and verification.

We counted 22 enumerated entries. Those entries are not equal study units, but the count makes one point clearly: "only 10 questions" is not permission to skip the area.

Ready to turn the six official item weights into a plan built around your own weak areas? → Open the Load Map

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How many questions is the TCRN exam, and how fast do you have to move?

The TCRN exam presents 175 questions in 180 minutes of total seat time. Of those, 150 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest items. That works out to about 61.7 seconds per question, and breaks come out of the same clock.

Here's the arithmetic: 180 minutes × 60 = 10,800 seconds. Divide by 175 questions on screen. 61.7 seconds each.

A word on that denominator, because it's a trap. If you divide 10,800 by the 150 scored questions, you get 72 seconds. That is not the pace you face on screen. You must budget the 180 minutes across all 175 questions.

What the clock actually gives you after breaks

BCEN's Candidate Handbook allows up to two breaks of no more than 10 minutes each. The exam clock keeps running.

That's our arithmetic on BCEN's rule, not a recommendation to skip a break. The useful move is deciding your break plan before test day and practicing at the pace that plan leaves you.

BCEN gives you five practice items to learn the interface, and every exam question has a Comment button that sends the comment to BCEN's Exam Construction Review Committee. BCEN does not provide individual responses to those comments.

Choose your break count and review reserve before the exam chooses your pace for you. → Open the Pace Check

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What score do you need to pass the TCRN exam?

BCEN currently publishes 96 correct out of the 150 scored questions as the TCRN passing standard. That is 64.0 percent of scored items. On that published standard, you can miss 54 scored questions and still pass.

BCEN publishes the number in its TCRN FAQ and dates the change in its TCRN exam update.

There is no honest conversion from 96 scored answers to a fixed number you must get right out of the 175 on screen. The 25 pretest items are not part of your score, and BCEN does not publish a distribution that would support a whole-form estimate. Keep 96 of 150 in your head — not a fabricated 175-question target.

Why "96" and "the passing score can vary" are both true

BCEN's FAQ gives the current published standard: 96 of 150. BCEN's handbook also says passing scores may vary slightly for each form and that statistical equating adjusts the raw passing score up or down for small differences in form difficulty.

In plain terms: 96 is the public target for the current TCRN exam, and equating protects the standard across forms that are not perfectly identical in difficulty. The exam is not curved against the people testing with you.

What to do when a resource says 104

A figure of 104 of 150 still appears in TCRN prep material. It does not match BCEN's current 96-of-150 standard.

We did not locate an official archived BCEN document proving that 104 was BCEN's prior standard. That means 104 is a current-version failure, not a reliable publication-date stamp by itself. Check the resource's area names, delivery vendor, credential term, and current-outline terms before deciding how much of it you can still use.

What your score report will tell you

Every score report indicates pass or fail and includes a breakdown of the major content areas and how you scored in each. If you do not pass, BCEN says you are also given your raw number correct in each content-outline area.

That makes the report useful either way. A pass shows where the credential was earned with room to spare. A non-pass gives you the area-level numbers to build a different retake plan.

Know your target. Now find out how far your latest practice score sits from it. → Run the 96 Map

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How hard is the TCRN exam?

BCEN's calendar-year 2025 table reports 2,333 TCRN exams delivered, 1,260 passed and 884 failed. Those columns do not reconcile: passed plus failed equals 2,144, leaving 189 delivered exams outside the two outcome columns.

So we will not label one denominator "the official pass rate." We show both ratios instead.

Delivered, passed and failed are BCEN's published figures. The percentages and reconciliation column are Castleport arithmetic.

Three things fall out of that table.

One: the columns do not reconcile for any of the six programs. BCEN does not define the gap on the statistics page, so we are showing it instead of guessing what belongs there.

Two: the denominator moves the TCRN ratio by 4.76 percentage points. A page can publish 54% or 59% from the same BCEN row simply by dividing differently.

Three: this is an exam-based table, not a candidate-based table. BCEN publishes exams delivered, exams passed and exams failed. It does not publish unique-candidate counts, first-attempt counts or an eventual-certification rate.

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Did the TCRN exam change? Yes — November 29, 2025

BCEN changed the TCRN exam on November 29, 2025. A new content outline took effect, and BCEN set the current published passing standard at 96 of 150. Three area names changed. Older material can still look current on the cover.

Run this on whatever you already own. It takes about a minute, and it works on books and courses we've never opened and don't sell.

One more check if you want to be thorough. The current outline names the trauma diamond of death, pre-intubation optimization, human trafficking, chain of custody, TRALI and TACO, the tertiary exam, bariatric patients and substance use disorder. Search the index of any resource you're considering. Missing one term proves nothing; missing the current area names and most of these terms is a reason to stop and verify.

What BCEN changed — and why score and content need separate checks

BCEN says more than 1,000 trauma nurses answered its 2024 role-delineation survey. A 10-member advisory committee of TCRN-certified trauma nurses converted that work into the new content outline. A separate passing-point committee established the passing standard.

That separation matters. A resource can update its chapter list and still carry an old score claim, or update the score while leaving old area names in place. Check both.

Where BCEN's own documents need a current-source rule

The Candidate Handbook remains the source for detailed procedures such as breaks, ID, score reports and equating. But its footer reads "Rev. 01/21," and its international-credential section names CGFNS. BCEN's current TCRN eligibility page names TruMerit instead.

For dynamic items — partner names, prices, scheduling instructions and active policies — use the current BCEN exam page first. Use the handbook for the detailed procedure, then resolve any conflict with BCEN before you pay or schedule.

Check the book on your shelf before you buy another one. → Run the Version Check

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Who can take the TCRN exam?

To sit the TCRN exam, you must hold a current, unencumbered RN license in the United States, a U.S. territory, Canada or Australia. BCEN also accepts an equivalent international nursing credential after verification through TruMerit. BCEN recommends two years of specialty experience but states that it is not required.

BCEN sets that out on its current TCRN eligibility page.

The 1,000-hours line, and why it stops people it shouldn't

That figure is real. It comes from BCEN's handbook. It sits under Recommended, not Required.

If you hold the required current, unencumbered RN license, the 1,000-hours recommendation is not an eligibility gate. Whether you're ready to pass is a separate decision, and a practice score plus an area-level study plan answers that better than pretending a recommended hour count is a rule.

If you've left the bedside

BCEN states that a nurse who no longer works in the clinical setting may still sit, as long as the RN license or accepted international equivalent is current and unencumbered.

If you were licensed outside the United States, its territories, Canada or Australia

You may still be eligible. BCEN's current eligibility page routes international credential verification through TruMerit. Start there rather than relying on the older partner name in the Candidate Handbook.

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How do you apply, schedule, and reschedule the TCRN exam?

You apply online through a BCEN account and pay in full. Once BCEN processes the application and payment, it sends an eligibility notice with a 90-day testing window. You schedule with PSI and must sit inside that window.

The sequence, from BCEN's TCRN FAQ and Candidate Handbook:

1. Create or log into your BCEN account and open a new application next to the TCRN logo.
2. Pay in full. Credit card, eCheck/ACH and voucher payments process immediately. A mailed check can take up to four weeks.
3. Receive the eligibility email. It carries your 90-day window and scheduling instructions.
4. Schedule with PSI through the BCEN dashboard or by phone after the application and payment have processed.
5. Sit within the window. A rescheduled appointment must still fall inside the same 90 days.

The four ways this costs you money before you ever sit

• No-show forfeits the fee. A new application and payment are required.
• Refunds end once you schedule. BCEN accepts a written exam-fee refund request only before a PSI appointment is scheduled and before the 90-day window closes.
• Rescheduling is free only when both conditions are met. You must be at least 24 hours out, and the new appointment must remain inside your 90-day window.
• A new testing window carries new fees. That is BCEN's language; do not assume an unused window rolls forward.

Our editorial read: pick the date you want before you apply. The window begins when the application and payment are processed, not when you finally feel ready, and PSI availability is first come, first served.

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How do you request TCRN exam accommodations?

Request accommodations inside the BCEN application — not after you have already scheduled a standard appointment.

1. Answer Yes to the exam-accommodation question in the application.
2. Download, complete and upload BCEN's Exam Accommodation form.
3. BCEN reviews the request and determines the approved accommodation.
4. For accommodations beyond extra time, complete PSI's additional accommodation form. PSI then contacts you to help schedule the exam.

BCEN publishes the current process and PSI contact details in its TCRN accommodations FAQ. Use that page for the live form and contact information rather than an old downloaded copy.

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How much does the TCRN exam cost?

The TCRN initial exam costs $380. It is $285 for Society of Trauma Nurses members and $195 under BCEN's military discount. Standard retesting within one year costs $200; BCEN states the military rate is $195 for initial, retest and recertification applications.

Every figure below comes from BCEN's current TCRN fee page, Test Assurance page and recertification page, checked August 27, 2026.

What Test Assurance actually covers

Test Assurance is a $70 add-on available to initial exam takers. After an unsuccessful first attempt, it covers one additional attempt at no exam fee.

The limits matter:

• You still wait 90 days before the second attempt.
• You must submit the retest application within one year of the initial exam date.
• BCEN says that one-year date cannot be extended.
• The $70 is non-refundable and non-transferable if you pass the first attempt.
• It cannot replace a missed appointment, an expired first testing window or a no-show.

Is Test Assurance worth $70? Here is the clean arithmetic

The break-even point depends on your retest fee, not on BCEN's aggregate statistics.

That is Castleport arithmetic, not a recommendation and not a prediction of your result. Enter your own estimate in the Cost Check and compare the expected totals. Do not use BCEN's fleet-wide outcomes as a substitute for your preparation, experience or practice performance.

The STN discount is 25% — and the fee table names STN

$285 is 25 percent below $380, a $95 initial-exam saving. BCEN's TCRN fee table names the Society of Trauma Nurses. Its FAQ uses the broader phrase "professional association members."

If you expect a different association membership to qualify, confirm that directly with BCEN before you apply. STN did not publish a public dues amount on the page we could verify, so the honest break-even rule is simple: compare the current dues with the $95 initial-exam saving and any recertification saving you expect to use.

Run your own tier, your own risk estimate, and your own total. → Open the Cost Check

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How long should you study for the TCRN, and what's the best plan?

BCEN does not publish a required or typical TCRN study duration. A fixed "8 to 12 weeks" claim sounds useful, but it is not an official rule and it ignores the difference between a candidate working across the whole trauma continuum and one encountering large parts of the outline for the first time.

Start with two things you can verify: the official item weights and your current confidence in each area.

We also built a breadth inventory that does not appear in BCEN's table. We counted every lettered, numbered and sub-lettered entry below the six major area headings in the three-page outline: 108 enumerated entries.

Item counts are BCEN's. The enumerated-entry count is Castleport's hand count of the current outline.

The 108 entries are not 108 equal topics, and BCEN does not publish how many questions map to each one. Use the count as a breadth signal, not a study-time formula.

What we would actually do with the map

• Anchor the plan to the official item counts. A 38-item area gets more base time than a 10-item area.
• Raise the weight of your weak areas. The planner multiplies an area's official item count by your self-rating before allocating hours.
• Give Continuum of Care an explicit lane. Its 36 scored items span 38 enumerated entries from pre-hospital care through discharge.
• Do not skip Professional Practice. Ten scored items can still decide the result, and its scope is not limited to bedside clinical management.
• Cover Special Populations broadly. Its 22 scored items cross patient groups, burns, violence, evidence handling and substance use.

A weighted plan beats a generic calendar

The planner uses the six official item counts, then applies Castleport's transparent confidence weights: 1.35 for weak, 1.00 for developing and 0.75 for strong. It normalizes the result to the weeks and hours you actually enter.

Those are editorial planning weights, not BCEN scoring weights. They do not predict a pass. They turn a vague intention — "study trauma" — into a visible hour budget you can change.

Rate your six areas, enter the time you really have, and get hours per area. → Build your plan

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Which TCRN prep resources are worth using?

Version fit matters more than a current year printed on a cover. The resource should match the outline effective November 29, 2025, use the current area names, and state what it does — and does not — promise.

Here's our conflict of interest, stated plainly before you read the table.

We don't sell a TCRN product. Not a book, not a question bank, not a course. We take no commission on anyone else's either — no affiliate links, no sponsored placements, nowhere on this page. We'd obviously rather have something to sell you.

The BCEN course deserves one precise description. It is sold by the body that owns the exam, but BCEN itself says the course was created independently of the people developing the certification exam and shares no proprietary information. Do not turn "sold by BCEN" into "written by the live exam writers."

Find yourself in one of these four

If you already own a book. Don't buy a second one yet. Run the Version Check on the one you have. If the current score, area names and key outline terms match, your next need may be application and retrieval practice rather than another textbook.

If you learn by working questions. Look for rationales, references and coverage across all six official areas. A publisher's category mix is not automatically BCEN's item weighting.

If you need CEs anyway. Compare CE hours, completion rules, access term and accreditation status. BCEN's current review course lists 21 CEs; its practice exam lists 3 CEs.

If your employer is paying. Ask about BCEN's voucher program before anyone pays retail. BCEN says organizations or groups can buy as few as three vouchers, and the program includes certification, retest, recertification, Test Assurance, review courses and practice exams.

Whatever you buy, start from the free source everyone skips: → Open BCEN's current outline and sample questions

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What is TCRN test day actually like?

PSI runs the TCRN exam at testing centers and through live remote proctoring. Both deliver the same 175-question, 180-minute exam under BCEN's security rules.

The way online testing goes wrong

BCEN warns that employer-provided computers frequently fail compatibility checks and says unresolved hardware, software or internet problems can cost the testing session and additional fees. Use the exact computer and network you plan to test on when you run PSI's compatibility check.

The ID rule that catches military candidates

BCEN's live-remote-proctoring rules say military IDs are not accepted. Accepted forms listed in the handbook include an international travel passport, driver's license, visa, or state/province photo ID, subject to BCEN's name-match and country-of-issue rules.

On an exam with a military fee tier, that's worth reading twice. Your discount status and your accepted test-day ID are separate questions.

Small things nobody mentions

• Five practice questions familiarize you with the interface.
• Two sheets of scratch paper are allowed at a testing center and through live remote proctoring.
• Testing-center calculators must be non-programmable, silent, battery operated, without paper tape or an alphabet keyboard.
• The Comment button sends item comments to BCEN's Exam Construction Review Committee; individual replies are not provided.

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What should you do in the final seven days?

In the last week, stop buying new material. Confirm test-day details, work your error log, and put the remaining hours into weak areas that carry real item weight. One timed run at the pace created by your break plan beats three days of passive re-reading.

This sequence is Castleport's editorial recommendation, not a BCEN protocol.

The highest-value item on that list is Day 3. Reading the outline aloud and marking what you cannot explain finds gaps that a question bank can miss, because a question bank only tests what its author chose to write. The outline is the territory.

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What happens if you fail the TCRN exam?

If you do not pass, you can retake the TCRN after 90 days. BCEN allows unlimited attempts. The discounted standard retest fee is $200 for applications within one year of the initial exam date; BCEN states the military retest rate is $195.

Every score report includes a major-content-area breakdown. A non-passing report also gives your raw number correct in each outline area.

So here's the move. Take the report straight to the Load Map. Raise the weak areas, enter a new date no earlier than the 90-day wait, and let the planner reallocate the hours. A second attempt built on the actual area report is a genuinely different plan from the first one.

Use the 90 days rather than waiting them out

Ninety days is roughly 13 weeks. At five deliberate hours a week, that is about 65 hours you can direct at the areas the score report exposed.

The common mistake after a non-pass is changing the date without changing the method. The report gives you the evidence to do the opposite.

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Is the TCRN the same as TNCC, CEN, or CCRN?

No. The TCRN is a board certification earned by meeting BCEN's eligibility rule and passing its exam. TNCC is an Emergency Nurses Association trauma nursing course that awards a certificate. CEN is BCEN's separate emergency nursing certification. CCRN is an AACN Certification Corporation credential for acute and critical care nursing.

BCEN itself distinguishes a certification from a course certificate. A certification requires eligibility, examination and ongoing maintenance. A certificate recognizes completion of an educational offering such as TNCC.

TNCC is not listed as a TCRN eligibility requirement, and its course objectives do not replace the current six-area TCRN outline. Use the product that matches the decision your employer or career path actually requires.

If your employer says "trauma certification" without naming it, ask whether the requirement is the BCEN TCRN credential or completion of ENA's TNCC course. That one question can prevent buying the wrong thing.

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How do you keep the TCRN once you have it?

A TCRN lasts four years. You can recertify through 100 continuing-education contact hours or by taking the exam again. The renewal fee is $280, $210 for STN members, or $195 under BCEN's military discount.

BCEN's recertification process uses attestation: you affirm that you met the requirements when you apply and retain documentation in case of audit. All hours must be completed before submission.

• 100 contact hours inside the four-year certification period
• At least 75 clinical hours specific to the specialty; no more than 25 non-clinical
• At least 50 hours from an accredited source under the current rule
• Or recertify by exam and complete the exam inside the 90-day window after approval

The rule that changes on January 1, 2027

For applications submitted on or after January 1, 2027, at least 75 of the 100 hours must come from an accredited source — up from 50.

A candidate certifying in 2026 will reach the end of a four-year cycle after that change takes effect, so plan accredited hours from the start instead of discovering the gap in year four.

CE that will not count — including courses trauma nurses often take

BCEN does not accept activities approved only by an EMS provider such as CAPCE or NAEMT, or activities taken toward paramedic or EMT renewal. Its current page names PHTLS, ITLS and AMLS as not accepted when they only carry EMS approval.

If an activity is approved by both an EMS provider and a nursing provider, BCEN says it will accept the contact hours. Check the approval line on the certificate, not just the course title.

Hours earned after the credential expiration date do not count, even inside the late grace period.

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What we actually verified for this page

Every official claim on this page was checked against a primary source on August 27, 2026.

Checked and confirmed:

• The three-page TCRN Examination Content Outline and its November 29, 2025 effective date
• The six current content areas and their scored item counts
• BCEN's current published 96-of-150 passing standard and the handbook's form-equating language
• 175 total items, 150 scored, 25 pretest and 180 minutes total seat time
• The score-report content-area breakdown for every candidate and raw area scores after a non-pass
• 2025 exam statistics for all six BCEN programs; the ratios and reconciliation gap are Castleport arithmetic
• Initial, Test Assurance, retest, military and recertification fees
• Test Assurance limits, including the 90-day wait, one-year deadline and no-show exclusion
• Eligibility, international verification partner, scheduling, accommodations, ID, breaks and refund rules
• Recertification rules and the January 1, 2027 accredited-hours change
• BCEN review-course and practice-exam prices and current published features
• STN's published course, guide, question-count, access and contact-hour details

Original evidence built for this page:

• A six-area, 108-entry breadth inventory hand-counted from the current outline
• The two-denominator TCRN outcome calculation and the 189-exam reconciliation gap in BCEN's 2025 table
• Tier-specific Test Assurance break-even math, including the different military retest amount
• A version map that separates a current-score conflict from a provable publication date
• A study planner that combines BCEN's official area weights with transparent user-selected confidence weights
• A pace planner that converts optional breaks and reserved review time into visible checkpoints without using unreviewed clinical questions

What we could not verify, and did not turn into fact:

• 104 as an official former BCEN passing standard. It appears in third-party material, but we did not locate an official archived BCEN source proving its status or date.
• STN's public annual dues amount. We published the verified exam saving and a break-even rule instead of inventing dues.
• A typical TCRN study duration. BCEN does not publish one, so the planner uses the candidate's real time and weak areas.
• A first-time TCRN pass rate. BCEN publishes delivered, passed and failed exam counts, not a clean first-attempt candidate rate.
• A fixed correct-answer target out of all 175 questions. Pretest items make that conversion unsupported.

How the planner was built: the six item counts come from BCEN's outline. The 61.7-second no-break pace is 10,800 seconds ÷ 175 questions. The confidence weights — 1.35 weak, 1.00 developing and 0.75 strong — are Castleport editorial planning weights. They are not BCEN scoring weights and do not predict an outcome.

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Where to go from here

You came for a number. Here it is one more time: BCEN currently publishes 96 of 150, effective November 29, 2025. On that published standard, 54 scored misses remain inside the line.

Check those facts against whatever you're studying from. If the material says 104, do not throw out every clinical page on sight — but stop trusting its version claims until the current area names, delivery vendor, credential term and outline details check out.

Not sure where you stand? → Run the free TCRN 96 Check above. Instant result, no sign-up, nothing stored.

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Castleport Test Prep is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, approved by, or connected to BCEN, the Society of Trauma Nurses, the Emergency Nurses Association, AACN Certification Corporation, PSI Exams, or any exam owner, certifying body, testing vendor or licensing board. Exam, certification, credential and provider names are used descriptively to identify the exams and services discussed. Castleport claims no ownership in those names or marks.

Castleport publishes and sells its own exam prep materials. We do not currently sell any TCRN product, and this page contains no affiliate links or sponsored placements.

This page is exam-prep guidance, not licensing, legal, employment or scope-of-practice advice. BCEN's current official pages control registration, eligibility, scheduling, fees, accommodations, scoring and recertification.

Written by the Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team. Last verified August 27, 2026. How we verify exam claims. · Corrections log. · Our independence policy.