by booski

Does the official and non official results differ in certain cases? Just wanted to know if there is a possibility that they have in the past or has anyone had an experience with this.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

The reason they are called unofficial is because they do not issue license only the BON can do that.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

Yeah, it's really strange, because the test and the license are 2 totally separate things. Pearson administers and grades the test, while each state's BON verifies that the NCLEX has been passed before issuing the license. Pearson seems to not really understand what is going on. They are the official determining board that officially grades the test, and officially awards a pass or a fail grade. Therefore, the results they give should be called official, and not unofficial. They should get a clue.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

They cannot be called official since they do not issue licenses. They only administer the exam for the Board that sponsors the NCLEX exam. Pearson-Vue has nothing to do with writing the exam or determining who can sit for it. That is all done by agencies other than them.

They do not issue any licenses, and any results from them for any other test that they administer are also called unofficial by the other boards as well. They are also not the official determining board for the results either, they are following a protocol that was set in place for them to follow. They are a contracted agency only, and a few years ago the exam was adminitered by a different agency.

There is nothing that they need to get together, they are just following an agreement made between them and actual licensing agencies.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

Nobody has ever accused Pearson of issuing a state nursing license. They just give a test, and they are the ones who grade the test and determine if the test has been passed or failed. Therefore, they should stop using the word unofficial. The Pass/Fail results they give absolutely ARE official results!!! I don't care whether they say "unofficial" or not because the state BON has no right to grade the test to determine whether it was passed or failed. They only issue a license. They have no right to determine if a pass/fail was official or not. They are not the ones who administer or grade the test. They CANNOT, under any circumstances, EVER determine if a person has passed or failed. They can only see results supplied to them by Pearson. It is Pearson who issues the grade, and therefore they are the only ones who can officially determine who has passed, and who has failed. The state can only see the official results supplied by Pearson, and then issue the license.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

They are under contract, and cannot provide official results per that contract. Same as they cannot do it for any other test that they administer.

They are strictly fulfilling a contract to administer the test, and nothing more than that.

Many people consider that if they pass the exam they will automatically get a license issued and that is not the case either. A state can place additional requirements on the nurse before issuing a license to them.

Same way that CGFNS evaluates credentials for the foreign nurses and issues the CES report, they cannot approve anyone to be able to take the NCLEX exam since they have no authority to do so. This is the same case as well. Pearson-Vue cannot release the ATT until they have been given written permission by the actual BON as well to release it. They make no decisions on it and there is no application for the NCLEX exam as well.

Re: official vs. unofficial results

There are also only about 1/2 of the states that participate in Quick Results as well from Pearson-Vue. So it is far from being something done in every state. And of the ones that participate in the Quick Results, a fairly large portion of those have the licenses on up on their site before the Quick Results are even available.