By the way, all along I am saying that everyone gets a lot of priority questions, either he passes or fails.....that's why I am assuming that priority questions are at the level of difficulty near the passing mark.

Originally Posted by FutureUSRN

By the way, all along I am saying that everyone gets a lot of priority questions, either he passes or fails.....that's why I am assuming that priority questions are at the level of difficulty near the passing mark.

All candidates either pass or fail. I must not be understanding something here.

Sorry what I meant to say was "All candidates, whether they passed or failed, got a lot a priority questions. Never heard of someone who didn't get a lot of those. That's why I am assuming that priority questions are somewhat near the difficulty of the passing mark.

Originally Posted by LenaRN06

Eric and RNsRWe are right. There was a thread here awhile ago that someone got 265 questions and had lots of priority BUT THEY STILL FAILED. Any priority question can be an easy or a hard question. Depends how you look at it I guess. But the NCLEX is just a big mystery....

I haven't read the rest of this thread, but in response to this one I am quoting, I got up to 245, and most of my ?'s were priority and delegation. I had no math, no meds, no labs, and a few infection control. That's it. Mostly all priority and deleg.

I failed. My test print out from the BON said I came "near passing with all levels" ...Go figure. Hopefeully I'll have better luck retesting next week.

You can kill yourself in the exam trying to out guess the machine!

When I got my first priority question on my test I almost stood up & cheered because I'd heard they were on the harder line.

I nearly forgot to breath when trying to answer the 1st infection control one!

Then suddenly it dropped to an easier med question & I got that horrible sinking sensation, you know where it feels like all the blood is draining from your face. I tohught I must have answered the precious prioty/infection control questions wrong. Then it bounced straight up to a "who would you call first" that was REALLY hard (I guess now that the easier question was a test one.) After that I decided to forget the type of question being asked & stopped trying to guess where I was. I just answered each one that came along to the best of my ability. Luckily that was enough because I passed.

A hard priority question for you might be an easy one for the majority, you just don't know. So don't try & second guess the exam, take each question as it comes & try your very best to get it correct!

Just curious, have you got TRIAGE in your "failed" exam?

Actually, I am not trying to second guess the exam and I am not convincing everyone here to do that during the actual exam. The important thing here is that we should be able to understand how the machine works and at what level of difficulty a priority question might be.

Knowing this would help us prepare for the exam. For example if we know that priority questions are at difficulty level near the passing mark, then during our review, we must be able to achieve atleast 65% correct on all practice priority questions before we sit for NCLEX. That way, we know if we are ready or not and not just putting our $200 down the drain.

Originally Posted by FutureUSRN

Actually, I am not trying to second guess the exam and I am not convincing everyone here to do that during the actual exam. The important thing here is that we should be able to understand how the machine works and at what level of difficulty a priority question might be.

Knowing this would help us prepare for the exam. For example if we know that priority questions are at difficulty level near the passing mark, then during our review, we must be able to achieve atleast 65% correct on all practice priority questions before we sit for NCLEX. That way, we know if we are ready or not and not just putting our $200 down the drain.

I understand your desire to know this, really I do. The reasons you gave make perfect sense. HOWEVER, what we have been trying to tell you is that there is no "type" of question that really gives you a great indication of whether you are failing, near passing, slightly above passing, way above passing. You CANNOT tell. The overall thinking (and mine, too, up until recently) was that priority, delegation, infection control were higher level questions.

Reality kicked in. People reported that they had LOTS and LOTS of those questions--and yet failed. Obviously, the harder ones they got wrong, the easier ones (right or wrongly answered) were below the level of passing.

Triage questions, as you keep asking, are priority questions (what is your priority in this situation). Don't get hung up on symantics. Priority questions can be rather easy and will NOT PASS YOU no matter how many "below standard" ones you get.

I see you have many threads and questions on this subject; my best suggestion would be to read through them, read the facts from the Board itself, and then you'll know where your thinking is correct and where it's faulty.

Best of luck to you.

You are not getting my point. Understanding how the system works is not to determine the results of the exam but to help us prepare for the exam. Two different things. You might be thinking that we will be using this to predict the results of the exam after taking it. No! I want to understand this to help me better prepare for the exam.

As so many here have told, they got many priority questions so it means we need to get prepared for these priority questions. I know that TRIAGE is a priority question; but what level of priority question? easy? difficult? or maybe both?

Why we were not given a lot of pharma questions rather then priority questions? Is there a reason?

I am not trying to convince everyone here. If somebody here can say that he got a lot of pharma questions than priority questions; then I will rest my case.

Originally Posted by FutureUSRN

You are not getting my point. Understanding how the system works is not to determine the results of the exam but to help us prepare for the exam. Two different things. You might be thinking that we will be using this to predict the results of the exam after taking it. No! I want to understand this to help me better prepare for the exam. As so many here have told, they got many priority questions so it means we need to get prepared for these priority questions.

Ok...well, yes, you have to know how to do prioritization correctly in order to pass this exam. You will need to practice many of them, of course, in order to do them well.

I know that TRIAGE is a priority question; but what level of priority question? easy? difficult? or maybe both?

It is now you who are missing the point. As I have said a number of times now (with support of others), it is NOT that you can determine how difficult a question is by the TYPE. For instance, you can have a triage question that taxes your brain, has alot of components, and people with very similar severity, such that you have to really work at the correct answer. A difficult question. Or, you can have a triage question that places two of the four people in no danger at all, one person has a UTI, and the last person is bleeding out from a cut artery. Get it? Easy.

Why we were not given a lot of pharma questions rather then priority questions? Is there a reason?

Who was not given alot of pharm questions? Everyone has a different mix. I've seen people get one or two med questions in 75 questions, others get 12. Both passed. I've seen people get not many in the whole 265, and others get alot. Both failed. Do you see where I'm going here? A pharm question is just that: a question. Could be easy to answer or hard.

I am not trying to convince everyone here. If somebody here can say that he got a lot of pharma questions than priority questions; then I will rest my case.

LOL! Ok, resting your case or not, yes, *I* got alot of pharm questions, some that I found ridiculously hard. Meds I hadn't been familiar with used in unusual (to me) ways. Were they scored? Were they pilots? NO ONE knows, but I still passed pretty easily

If you still wish to chip away at this, you certainly may, but I hope by now you see the point you SHOULD be getting is that you need to be able to apply the knowledge you learned in school. That's IT. The test determines your judgment in nursing situations. It does so to a minimum standard, not a maximum. Everyone passes a minimum standard; about 85% the first time, anyway.