Slightly confused: How do you know what level (1,2,3) you are for ATI tests?

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  1. This is a discussion on Slightly confused: How do you know what level (1,2,3) you are for ATI tests? in General Nursing Student, part of Nursing Student ... hi all i am a nursing student. i will be taking my fundamentals & mental health atis tomorrow....

    by Feb 25, '10
    hi all

    i am a nursing student. i will be taking my fundamentals & mental health atis tomorrow. it is the end of our portion of this class, and we will be receiving a small grade for this based off of what level we score on these atis. i'm practicing, but don't see levels anywhere on the results. our teacher tried to explain is, but it's still really unclear to all of us and she had to leave. my understanding was that anything below a 70% is below a level 1...and that in order to score a level 3, you practically have to have a 90-95%. can someone enlighten me? thanks
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    by caffeineRx Feb 25, '10 8:20 pm
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  2. 17 Comments so far...

  3. Feb 25, '10 by
    You will not see the levels until you take the actual ATI on your exam day. In the meantime, continue practicing questions on ATI, try to read the books the complement it and you'll do fine

    good luck!
  4. Feb 25, '10 by
    How frustrating. I'm studying and ending up with 66%! That's scary, considering I have a good feeling about my score..and the practice test comes out to a 66%. I just texted my classmates..many of them said they are also scoring 50-60%. Yikes. I'm quite nervous. It's 9pm and I have to go to sleep in 2 hours. How in the world can one learn all of this in such a short amount of time?
  5. Feb 25, '10 by
    ATI leveling isn't based off percent score, but percentile - where you are in relation to the national and program mean scores. For example, you might score a 71% individual, but if the national mean is 61%, you're still way ahead of the curve, and your mastery level will reflect that. Looking at my own ATIs, I'd say it's pretty accurate to say that a Level 3 requires a percentile ranking in the 90s, but that doesn't mean you need a 90% score. (I recall seeing my results on several ATIs and absolutely losing my mind, thinking I'd failed, before I realized that the national mean was significantly worse - hence I still pulled a high mastery rating with what I thought was a horrid individual grade!)

    Hope this helps!
    caffeineRx likes this.
  6. Feb 25, '10 by
    yeah you wont get your level til you take the actual exam.


    GL!
    caffeineRx likes this.
  7. Feb 25, '10 by
    phew, thanks for clearing this up! i'm passing my class, but as you can imagine, these exams can be nerve-wracking..unless you have a nice solid a in the class anyway. i scored really high on my ati teas..i was in the 93rd percentile nationwide...however...these ati exams, coming up, seem to be in a whole different ballpark, if i'm not mistaken. i'm still wondering which level is what percentile.

    i find it upsetting that i don't know most of the stuff in these ati books/practice tests. it might be my school...i feel like i'm not learning a lot there. i hope i pass everything tomorrow. do you mind sharing what your ati scores were (percent-wise?). i'm looking @ my results right now and i'm just so baffled. i feel absolutely clueless and cannot help but to wonder how i can be doing so poorly.

    ps. are the percentiles based off of other nursing students...or just anyone who decides to take the test? (ie. rns, or those who may have previous experience or advantage?).
  8. Feb 25, '10 by
    the ATI exam is actually easier than practice tests.... if you just keep practicing & review your material, you will do fine!
    caffeineRx likes this.
  9. Feb 25, '10 by
    I can relate to this. During my first year, we all nearly lost our minds fretting over these exams. Our school program requires that we make at least Level 1 proficiency on every ATI test, or else we fail the corresponding nursing class - regardless of what our current grade is. So, say, if we were to fail the Fundamentals ATI exam, we fail our nursing fundamentals class - even if we have an A. We all thought it was ridiculous, but the more ATIs we take, the easier they seem to get. Most of my class panicked at the beginning because nobody could seem to make higher than a 60% or so on the practice exams. But once we got to the real thing, along with a little studying, it was fairly easy to make Level II or even Level III proficiency on any particular exam - and we've yet to have a student removed from the program because of a failed ATI. So, chin up! Turns out, it's not nearly as daunting as it seems.

    Oh, and while I'm not sure which percentiles you need to get which level, I've managed a Level II score with a number as low as 70%. Good luck!
    caffeineRx likes this.
  10. Feb 25, '10 by
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    Last edit by caffeineRx on Mar 14, '10
  11. Feb 25, '10 by
    The percentiles that you need for each level are different for each subject ATI test, all I remember is that we needed a 90 or 91 for Level 3 for Med-Surg. But yes, ~all~ of the practice ATI tests were much harder than the actual test.

    ATIs are a pain, and require a TON of studying (I only remember stuff by writing it down - if I just read a textbook, I'd never remember anything, so I literally went through the entire ATI books and re-wrote everything except for topics I was 100% confident on) but they really help you get ready for NCLEX.
    caffeineRx likes this.