Anyone who has taken the NCLEX RN after April 1st?

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Hello! I'm going to take the NCLEX RN on the 19th. I am really nervous about the test considering things have changed after April 1 on the NCLEX.

For those of you who have taken the NCLEX - RN, what is the exam like? What percentage of questions were select all that apply or the dreaded drag and drop? Where there drug calculation questions?

As for me, I am studying probably 3-8h a day with the saunders question cd, ATI online, and kaplan. Sometimes I read the book, but mostly I'm doing the questions and reading the rationales. I feel discouraged because I feel like I average anywhere from like 65% - 80% correct in my practicing questions. I wanna strive for an 80% and up but I don't always make it there. I know it is impossible to know everything about nursing before going into that exam, but I am so terrified to fail because I have a job lined up and I would lose that opportunity. I mostly get the select all that apply questions wrong in my practice.

How prepared did you all feel before going into the exam? How much percentage of questions did you get correct while practicing?

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I took my NCLEX RN just a few days ago on the 6th and now have my license number from my BON :) I felt like it was hard but not as crazy hard as I expected. I had 82 questions total and out of those I had around 8 select all that apply, 1 drag and drop, and then I had 2 multiple choice questions that had exhibits (a button you pushed on and extra information with like 3 tabs you could look at), and 1 question that had a picture. I was sooo irritated that I didn't get any math questions because (like you) I felt that they would be my saving grace. In my opinion, NCLEX is EXTREMELY similar to Kaplan (even in the way it looks). I saw questions on NCLEX that I'm sure I had in Kaplan question trainers and qbank. As for studying, my school required us to have Kaplan access throughout the program so when it was time to study I mainly utilized the qbank, and question trainers from that and read the Kaplan book for content I was unfamiliar with. If you are scoring above 60% on all your Kaplan stuff then you are doing great :) I was only doing 60-65% and I felt prepared.

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i took it but i failed..but anyway.. i had 152 questions. i had a couple ECGs, 1 dose calc, 1 exhibit, 2 drag and drops, maybe 10 SATA, a lot of priority and therapeutic response questions, and maybe 2 meds

i had a lot mental health/psych kind of therapeutic response questions, OB priority questions, and infectious diseases/control priority questions

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COngrats on passing! I really hope I pass too.. i have the kaplan review book for 2012-2013 and pretty much I did all the practice questions except for the last test which I will probably do this week. i really hope I get a test like you did. 8 select all that apply sounds great to me! But knowing my luck ill probably be the one with the 30 select all that apply. As you were in your test, were you able to tell which questions you answered correctly or which you answered incorrectly? or did you just not know. How did you feel after the exam? Did you do the pearson vue trick to find out if you passed?

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razzle red, you will pass next time! infectious disease is my poorest catagory. I hate OB. I wish they would have more on cardiology.

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I took NCLEX RN in May. I took the maximum 265 questions and unfortunately failed . I had about 10-15 select all that apply questions and unfortunately the last two questions on my NCLEX exam were select all that apply. I had no drag and drop or audio, images, etc. I had a few calculations that were all the same. Calculate the output of the pt, convert oz and so many priority questions. It was like every 3rd question near the end was a priority question. I found the questions to be complex and more on concepts rather than specific details which I reviewed for. I took Kaplan as my review and it was very good, I was getting about over 50 to over 60% on my exams there except for psych where I got pretty high around 80%.

I'm going to take NCLEX again this July and I'm using hurst and saunders QBanks to get my stamina up also. A big factor for me when I took was fatigue. Good Luck!

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Just took it on June 6th. The actual test form/content/etc isn't changing, but they are moving the passing level up and they are changing the percentage of the different catagories. Every test will contain a certain percentage of each catagory.

The following is where the changes occured:

Management of care is 17-23% of your test and it is up 1% from the NCLEX admistered prior to 4/1/13

Safety & Infection control is 9-16% and it is up 1%

Pharma & parenteral therapies 12-18% and thats down 1%

Reduction of risk potential is 9-15% and thats down 1%

NCLEX-RN® Exam April 2013 Test Plan Changes explained by Kaplan Nursing - YouTube gives a good rundown on the percentages of the 8 catagories and explains what info would be contained in each catagory

Changes in the passing standard

NCLEX-RN® Exam April 2013 Passing Standard Changes explained by Kaplan Nursing - YouTube

Drug calculations are lower level question and are placed at below the passing level so it doesn't matter if you get all of them correct, they won't help you pass.

You're Kaplan scores are fine Kaplan says to stive for 65% or better on the QBank questions.

The Qtrainer tests 1-3 all contain the lower level questions (those that are below the passing line which is more content info) tests 4-7 are the higher level questions (those which are at or above the passing line, analysis and application). for tests 1-5 Kaplan says to try for 65% or better, for test 6-7 (most like an NCLEX) they say strive for 60%.

Like nursebre, I found taking the NCLEX was almost exactly the same as taking Kaplans Qtrainer tests (4-7) and like nursebre I swear some of my NCLEX questions were on my Kaplan Qtrainer tests! After a few minutes of taking the NCLEX I felt like I was looking at the Kaplan screens for a test! Even the colors are the same!

My test had 1% that were SATA. I had several drag/drop (put in order on what to do 1st-last), I had 3 or 4 info box type things where they give you the question and below it was a box you'd click that would open up different sections (like a mini-chart) such as 'orders', 'labs', vitals etc. I had 2 drug calculations, I had no audio questions and no 'place the X' questions.

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Just took it on June 6th. The actual test form/content/etc isn't changing, but they are moving the passing level up and they are changing the percentage of the different catagories. Every test will contain a certain percentage of each catagory.

The following is where the changes occured:

Management of care is 17-23% of your test and it is up 1% from the NCLEX admistered prior to 4/1/13

Safety & Infection control is 9-16% and it is up 1%

Pharma & parenteral therapies 12-18% and thats down 1%

Reduction of risk potential is 9-15% and thats down 1%

NCLEX-RN® Exam April 2013 Test Plan Changes explained by Kaplan Nursing - YouTube gives a good rundown on the percentages of the 8 catagories and explains what info would be contained in each catagory

Changes in the passing standard

NCLEX-RN® Exam April 2013 Passing Standard Changes explained by Kaplan Nursing - YouTube

Drug calculations are lower level question and are placed at below the passing level so it doesn't matter if you get all of them correct, they won't help you pass.

You're Kaplan scores are fine Kaplan says to stive for 65% or better on the QBank questions.

The Qtrainer tests 1-3 all contain the lower level questions (those that are below the passing line which is more content info) tests 4-7 are the higher level questions (those which are at or above the passing line, analysis and application). for tests 1-5 Kaplan says to try for 65% or better, for test 6-7 (most like an NCLEX) they say strive for 60%.

Like nursebre, I found taking the NCLEX was almost exactly the same as taking Kaplans Qtrainer tests (4-7) and like nursebre I swear some of my NCLEX questions were on my Kaplan Qtrainer tests! After a few minutes of taking the NCLEX I felt like I was looking at the Kaplan screens for a test! Even the colors are the same!

My test had 1% that were SATA. I had several drag/drop (put in order on what to do 1st-last), I had 3 or 4 info box type things where they give you the question and below it was a box you'd click that would open up different sections (like a mini-chart) such as 'orders', 'labs', vitals etc. I had 2 drug calculations, I had no audio questions and no 'place the X' questions.

Well you just made me feel a little better...I'm testing this Thursday the 13th & have been mainly doing Kaplan. So I was glad to hear you say it's very similar. :)

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@legallybrunette224: I was sort of able to tell which questions I got wrong because the question after would be fairly basic and more content based. My last 5 questions were extremely hard but I could tell I got them right because the level of difficulty remained the same; I had an exhibit and several priority one's at the end and my very last question was a select all that apply. I was fairly sure that I got the last one correct so I did actually leave the test center feeling like I passed. I did the PVT about 30 minutes after my test ended and got the good pop up. The next day my RN license number was posted on my BON.

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I just took it June 4th. It was a lot harder than I was expecting. I used ATI, a lippincott book that had alternative questions, and Hurst review. I did a lot of questions every day. I knew the content. The main thing for me was knowing how to critically think. Know which patient you need to see first, know what precautions should be implemented based on the patient's presentation. I finished the test with 75 questions, half of which were alternative(all were SATA but 1 was drag and drop, 1 exhibit, 1 math). I was praying to go past 75 questions because I didn't feel like I was above the line, felt like I was missing more than I was getting right. In nursing school, I consistently got 1/2 of our alternative questions wrong on our test(we had 2-8 each test) so I was really worried about there being a lot on the NCLEX. My test cut off at 75 and I nearly cried bc I knew I failed so horribly. But I passed. I felt like I knew nothing on the test, and either I guessed right or I managed to stay above the line. I'd love to see my actual results on it. So, my suggestion is to study infection control, delegation, priority patients, and teaching.

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i took it june 3rd. i thought it was pretty hard. i had 75 questions total and passed. i had 20-30 SATA, 1 math problem, 1 ECG strip. i used hurst review and PDA by lacharity mostly.. those 2 helped me tremendously!

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I'd love to see my actual results on it.

Your results PASS :) And I'd say you got a 50% of the harder questions correct.

In the Kaplan Nursing Career Guide-Strategies for Launching Your Career (Judith A Burckhardt, PhD, RN an Barabara J Irwin BSN 2008) that I received at a student nurse job fair:

page 85-86

"According to the exam writers, at the end of the exam, everyone gets about half of the questions correct--that's 50%. The difference is that the people who pass the exam get half of the harder questions correct, and the people who fail the exam get half of the easier questions correct."

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