Help!!!!!!!!!

LPNtoRN1967 · Jan 24, 2006

:crying2: Desparately seeking help from my fellow nurses, nursing students, etc

I have to do a research paper for my research class, I'm clueless, don't know where to start....I kinda of have a topic, I want to focuse on the NCLEX, basically do nursing students do better on the NCLEX if they take a refresher course like Kaplan or if they study on their own, anothe idea was do nursing students do better with the computerized test or the paper test, I know the computerized test is probably all over now, but someone had to take it paper form and if I decided to focuse on this aspect, I'll just have to research further, so what I need help with is, if anyone know of any research sites that could give me a basis of how it's suppose to be written, since my text book is horrible and confusing, and also once I get all this stuff together would anyone be interested in be in my research party, i will probably have to email the survey form and need you to answer all questions truthfully, no names needed just info, please, please help me someone__________________

suzanne4, RN · Jan 24, 2006

First, the style of the NCLEX exam that is currently being used could not be given as a paper exam, that is why the exam is cancelled when the testing center doesn't have use of its computers. There is no paper back up system in place. The CAT can only be done on a computer, no other way.

When paper exams were used, there were 1000 questions and testing over two days on five Major areas. It took several months to get your results, and I mean several, about three. Exam was only give two times per year, and usually only in one or two locations, depending on the state. Everyone had to drive there and stay in a motel. If you did not pass a section, you were given one chance to retake just that section. You were also given a numerical score back then.

You may want to refine your project down to one specific area to really focus on it, or your paper may end up being 100 pages long. Much better to be more specific.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Jan 25, 2006

Welcome to the Nursing Student Assistance Forum, Tonya :) Perhaps these resources will be of assistance to you:

http://www.learningext.com/students/testinfo.asp

http://www.ncsbn.org/pdfs/NCLEX_fact_sheet.pdf

http://www.ncsbn.org/testing/development.asp

http://www.ncsbn.org/testing/psychometrics.asp

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 26, 2006

Since this is for your research class and you are most likely going to have to cite previous research, I suggest you kind of back-pedal on this and take a look at what research articles have already been published on this subject, or look for another researched subject that interests you. It will be much easier for you to find the research literature you will need to back up your proposal. You can write to other researchers and get copies of their testing tools. From there you either use one of their tools or tweak one to suit your proposed research. I think that if you are having difficulty finding research information on NCLEX it may be because either it doesn't exist or it is proprietary (owned by the company that creates it) and they aren't particularly eager to share it for free. The reason most of the nursing research is easily available is because it is done by MS, doctorate and PhD students. So, I would suggest that you review what resources are available to you to find research articles and then just browse through them to see if there is something that strikes you as interesting for a possible research project.