Priority Questions Level of Difficulty is the Passing Mark?

Nursing Students NCLEX Nursing Q/A

Everyone who took NCLEX, passed or not, has in some point of their exams encountered many priority questions. I am thinking that priority questions' level of difficulty is the passing mark.

If you were able to get priority questions, then you are near the passing mark. If you were given TRIAGE or more difficult questions towards the end of the exam, then you might have surpassed the passing level.

If you were given basic nursing assessment, planning, implementation towards the end of the exam, then you might have failed it.

If you answered more priority questions correctly towards the end of the exam, you might have passed or the other way around.

I had priority, delegation, infection control, meds, triage, you name it! And they were all over the place. I had "easier" questions towards the end of my exam. It is what it is and there's just no way to rationalize it. I just tried to not even think about the questions I was asked and just told myself, "well, it's done." Then there was the 47 1/2 hour wait. That was the worst part! :trout:

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

No, there must be someway to rationalize NCLEX because NCLEX CAT is based on logic and reasons.

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....

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

Actually I am not pinning it down, it's all assumptions. But to say that the assumption is wrong is also wrong unless you know exactly the correct assessment.

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. :uhoh3:

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

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

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

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.

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

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.

Specializes in med/surg.

I got LOADS of priority questions from about the 5th one onwards. The vast majority of them were "which patient would you call first" & there were always 2 who were really hard to choose from & there were ones where airway was probably the red herring.

I got 2 delegation types, 2 what was being done right/wrong by lower grade staff, about 5 infection control, several teaching & 7-10 "tick all that apply" which were mostly drug related. I passed at 75.

This was my exam & it won't be yours but now you know.

Specializes in Clinical exp in OB, psy, med-surg, peds.

I had lots of priority questions, who do you see first and delegation questions, but guess what I am an A student and I did not fail because I did not know the enemy, but because I was very nervous and when I saw question 76, I frozed and evey question after that was a blind out of focus choice I had chosen, so now I fully know that no matter how many questions, you get, it means nothing, it's just a number. I think all of my questions were prioritizing to me, a few med-surg, but LOL, I guess the computer throwed those at me, when I was not doing too well, but take no offense, do not scrutinize an A student, just remember even someone who had never done nursing courses, if given the NCLEX exam might pass, some people are very good guessers per say, it is all about knowing your content and test taking strategies along with critical thinking, that's how it is in NCLEX hospital, all your supplies are there, no need to say what if, cause there is no what if, all the best, I know I will pass the next time around.

NCSBN is evil! They make us take a test that does not give you a set amount of questions. You have no clue how many you will have. That's just wrong!:devil:

Specializes in awaiting for Schedule A visa...

I must agree with you! Critical thinking is needed to answer priority questions correctly!

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