Nurses & Midwives Prometric Exam: The Complete 2026 GCC Guide

Every week we speak to a nurse who has paid for a Prometric exam, sat it, and failed - not because she did not know her nursing, but because she booked the wrong paper. An experienced labour ward midwife sits the general Registered Nurse exam, spends three hours answering questions about ventilator settings and orthopaedic traction, and walks out wondering what happened.

There is no single "nursing Prometric exam". There are four separate papers for nurses and midwives across the GCC, each with its own exam code, its own blueprint and - this is the part almost nobody tells you - its own pass mark. Getting that choice right is the single highest-value decision you will make in this whole process.

This guide covers all four: what each paper asks, how the seven licensing authorities differ, what the paperwork actually involves, and how to prepare in six weeks while still working full shifts.

The four papers - and which one is yours

Your exam is decided by your qualification and your registration category in your home country, not by what you currently do at work. Here is how the four break down.

All four run to the same shape: 150 single-best-answer questions in three hours, computer-based, delivered at a Prometric test centre. No negative marking, which means a blank answer is simply a wasted mark. Always guess.

The five-point gap between 45% and 50% sounds trivial. On a 150-question paper it is seven and a half questions - and candidates lose exams by two.

What the nursing paper actually asks

The Registered Nurse and Assistant Nurse papers share the same four domains. The proportions differ - the assistant paper leans harder on fundamentals - but the territory is identical.

• Fundamentals of nursing. Infection control, vital signs, medication administration and the five rights, documentation, mobility and pressure area care, catheter and wound care. Unglamorous, and the biggest single source of marks.
• Adult nursing. Cardiac, respiratory, renal, endocrine, neurological and post-operative care. Fluid balance, electrolytes, common drug classes and what to do when an observation goes the wrong way.
• Maternal and child nursing. Antenatal and postnatal care, normal labour, neonatal assessment, paediatric dosing, immunisation schedules, growth and development.
• Unit management and leadership. Delegation, prioritisation, patient safety and incident reporting, ethics, consent and confidentiality. Routinely skipped in revision, and routinely the difference between a pass and a fail.

What surprises most candidates is the style. These are not recall questions. A typical stem gives you a patient, a set of observations and four defensible actions, then asks which you take first. That is a prioritisation skill, and you build it by working through hundreds of questions with explanations - not by re-reading a textbook.

What the midwifery paper asks, and why it is a different exam

This is where the wrong-paper problem bites hardest. The midwifery blueprint barely overlaps with general nursing. If you are a midwife, preparing from a nursing bank will leave you badly exposed.

The Registered Midwife paper is built on nine areas:

• Antenatal care - booking assessment, screening, monitoring fetal growth, recognising deviations from normal.
• Antepartum care - complications before labour: bleeding, hypertensive disorders, preterm labour, reduced fetal movements.
• Intrapartum care - stages of labour, partogram interpretation, fetal heart monitoring, malpresentation, obstetric emergencies.
• Postpartum care - haemorrhage, involution, infection, breastfeeding support, perineal care, maternal mental health.
• Newborn care - immediate assessment, Apgar, resuscitation, thermoregulation, jaundice, feeding and early screening.
• Gynaecological care - common presentations a midwife is expected to recognise and refer.
• Pharmacology in midwifery - uterotonics, analgesia in labour, anti-hypertensives, magnesium sulphate, drugs in breastfeeding.
• Ethics and legal issues - consent, autonomy, documentation, scope of practice, safeguarding.
• Counselling and education - contraception advice, birth preparation, infant feeding, discharge teaching.

Two of those nine - ethics and counselling - are pure marks for anyone who revises them, and they are the two most commonly ignored. Midwives tend to revise clinical emergencies because that is what feels frightening. The exam rewards breadth.

NCLEX is not the same thing

A steady stream of nurses arrive believing NCLEX will get them licensed in the Gulf. It will not, on its own. NCLEX is the United States licensure examination; the GCC authorities run their own Prometric papers. Some authorities may recognise certain international credentials in specific circumstances, but the default assumption should be that you are sitting the Prometric exam. We have written a full comparison in NCLEX vs Prometric for nurses if you are weighing both.

The paperwork comes first

You cannot book the exam whenever you like. The sequence is fixed, and it catches people out.

1. DataFlow. Primary source verification - your nursing or midwifery degree, your home-country council registration and your experience letters are checked directly with the institutions that issued them. Not notarised copies. Expect several weeks, and longer if a hospital you left years ago is slow to reply. Our DataFlow guide covers timelines and the usual rejection reasons.
2. Good standing certificate. Most authorities want one from your current registering council, and it expires - typically within three to six months of issue. Order it at the right moment, not too early. How to get one fast.
3. Experience. Authorities generally expect around two years of post-qualification clinical experience for registered nurses and midwives, and they care whether it is recent and continuous. A long career gap is the most common quiet rejection.
4. Application and eligibility letter. Submitted through Sheryan, Mumaris Plus, the DOH portal or the relevant system. Only once it clears are you allowed to book.
5. The exam. Booked with Prometric at a centre near you. Results usually within a couple of weeks.

Start DataFlow and start studying on the same day. Waiting for the eligibility letter before opening a question bank is how people end up cramming into whatever slot the centre has free.

Seven authorities, one profession

The clinical content is essentially the same wherever you apply. What changes is the process.

• DHA - Dubai, via the Sheryan portal. DHA licensing guide
• DOH - Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Formerly HAAD, and the strictest on experience recency.
• MOHAP - Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain. A licence here does not cover Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Which UAE licence first
• SCFHS - Saudi Arabia, with a classification step before you can book. SCFHS guide
• QCHP - Qatar, which expects a sponsoring employer at the licensing stage. QCHP requirements
• NHRA and OMSB - Bahrain and Oman. Smaller markets, less competition for posts, and often faster. Bahrain and Oman guide

Pass marks and rules do get revised without announcement, so confirm the current figures for your authority before paying anything - our pass scores by authority page is kept up to date.

Why capable nurses fail this exam

They prepared from the wrong bank

A midwife studying general adult nursing. An assistant nurse studying the RN syllabus and drowning. Check your exam code before you buy anything, before you revise anything.

They studied from WhatsApp recall files

Recalled questions circulate constantly. Some are real. Many are misremembered, a fair number have the wrong answer marked, and almost none explain the reasoning. Learning a wrong answer confidently is worse than not studying the topic at all.

They ran out of time

150 questions in 180 minutes is a little over a minute each - comfortable, until you burn six minutes on question 9. If a question has not resolved in ninety seconds, flag it, answer something and move on. Nobody fails on the question they guessed. Plenty fail on the thirty they never reached.

They never sat a full timed mock

Twenty questions on your phone between shifts is practice, not preparation. Three hours in one sitting is a physical experience, and exam day should not be the first time you have done it.

They revised what they enjoy

Everyone revises their strong subject. Chapter-level scoring exists so you can see in writing that you are at 79% in maternal-child nursing and 43% in unit management, and then spend your evenings where it actually hurts.

A six-week plan that survives shift work

• Week 1 - confirm and map. Confirm your exam code first. Then work across the whole blueprint without caring about the score. You are producing a map of your gaps, nothing more.
• Weeks 2-3 - fundamentals and your weakest domain. Chapter by chapter, reading every explanation including on questions you got right. Keep one page of notes for what refuses to stick: drug doses, normal ranges, Apgar scoring, immunisation ages.
• Week 4 - first full mock. Timed, 150 questions, one sitting, ideally at the time of day your exam is booked. Then review it properly. The review teaches more than the mock.
• Week 5 - targeted repair. Redo only your weakest chapters. Unlimited retries matter here.
• Week 6 - second mock, then taper. One more full paper early in the week, then light revision of your one page. No new material in the last three days. After a run of nights, sleep is worth more than another chapter.

Exam day

Carry the passport you registered with - not a copy, not a different one, and not one that expired last month. Arrive early enough to absorb a traffic problem. Expect security checks, lockers and no personal items in the room; you get a marker and a laminated sheet, not paper. Use the flag function from question one. And when you finish, do not reconstruct the paper with the candidate in the car park. It tells you nothing and ruins your evening.

After you pass

A pass is not a licence. It is one component of a file that still needs your verified documents, usually an employer or sponsor, and the authority's final approval. Results carry a validity window measured in years, so passing before you start job hunting is a sensible order to do things in, and it makes you a far easier candidate for a recruiter to place.

If you are weighing where to go, the money is not identical across the region. Our nurse salary comparison for Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar is worth ten minutes before you commit to one authority. And if you want to avoid the common filing mistakes, read the ten reasons applications get rejected first.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Prometric exam for nurses and midwives?

It is the computer-based multiple-choice licensing exam that GCC health authorities require nurses and midwives to pass before they can be licensed. It is delivered at Prometric test centres worldwide, but the questions and the pass standard are set by the health authority - DHA, MOH, DOH, SCFHS, QCHP, NHRA or OMSB.

What is the passing score for the nursing Prometric exam?

It depends on your exam code. Registered Nurse (RNT0312) and Registered Midwife (MID5104) papers are set at 50%. Assistant Nurse (ARN5061) and Assistant Midwife (MID5101) papers are set at 45%. Confirm the current figure with your authority before booking, as these are revised from time to time.

How many questions are in the nursing Prometric exam?

All four papers use 150 single-best-answer questions with three hours allowed. There is no negative marking, so never leave a question unanswered.

Is the midwifery exam different from the nursing exam?

Yes, substantially. The midwifery paper is built on antenatal, antepartum, intrapartum, postpartum, newborn and gynaecological care plus midwifery pharmacology, ethics and counselling. Preparing from a general nursing bank is one of the most common reasons midwives fail.

Can I use NCLEX instead of the Prometric exam?

Generally no. NCLEX is the United States licensure exam and does not by itself license you in the GCC. Assume you are sitting the Prometric paper unless your authority confirms otherwise in writing.

Do I need DataFlow before the exam?

In almost all cases yes. Primary source verification of your qualification, council registration and experience must clear before the authority issues an eligibility letter, and you cannot book without it. Start it early.

How much experience do I need?

Most authorities look for around two years of post-qualification clinical experience for registered nurses and midwives, and they pay attention to how recent it is. Requirements vary by authority and by role, so check yours before applying.

How long should I study?

Six weeks of consistent daily practice is realistic alongside shift work. Question volume with explanations matters far more than total hours, and at least one full-length timed mock before exam day is non-negotiable.

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First Medical Consultancy - part of Care Bridge HR Consultancy & Recruitment - prepares nurses, midwives and doctors for GCC licensing exams and supports them through DataFlow, licensing and placement. Browse the full range of practice exams.

This article is general guidance. Exam formats, pass marks, fees and eligibility rules are set by the individual health authorities and change from time to time - always verify current requirements on the official portal before applying or paying any fee.