Are your nursing school tests timed?

[tlc2u]

How much time per question does your nursing school allow on tests?

I was always under the impression that nursing's final test "the NCLEX" allowed one minute per question. However if you do the math there is more than one minute per question allowed on the NCLEX.

Now I am curious where the idea of one minute per question came from?

Do most nursing schools time student's tests?

And is one minute per question the standard for the timing of the tests?

[AstronomyNerd86]

We get one minute for every question, then an extra 10 minutes on top of that. So for a 60 question exam, we get 70 minutes to complete it.

Ashley

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

When I attended school, we received 2 hours to complete exams with 70 questions.

I've taken NCLEX twice (NCLEX-PN in 2005 and NCLEX-RN in 2010) and never encountered a 1 minute time limit per question. While it is very wise to pace oneself and not spend more than 1 minute on any single question, the NCLEX has no time limit per question. It has an overall time limit of 5 hours for the PN version and 6 hours for the RN exam.

[Mike R, ADN, BSN, RN]

We get 1 hour to do 50 questions. Two hours for a 100 question final. Scantron, so no individual question time limit.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I think we get something like an hour. In some courses it's been 50 minutes, and in others it's been 70. I usually finish in 20-25.

[ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN]

our exams are usually 50 questions and we get an hour, but i usually finish in 25-30 minutes. some people use the whole hour.

[Wave Watcher]

50 questions in 1 hour.

I took the NCLEX and was one of the lucky ones (insert explicit word here) that was given ALL 267 (if I remember right) questions and passed.

My point: 50 questions can be done in 1 hr and 267 questions can be done in less than 3 hrs. Both make you feel like you've been run over by a train.

[RNCEN]

Last year, our tests were 80 Q's, and we had 90 minutes. This year, they are 100 Q's, and we have 2 hours. Finals were 150 Q's, IIRC and 3 hours.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

For fundamentals the tests are 25 q's and we get 30 minutes. For pharm it's 40 q's and we get 50 minutes.

[NCRNMDM, ASN, RN]

Each exam we take, except for final exams, is 50 questions each, and we get 60 minutes to take the exam. The bad thing about a 50 question limit to all unit exams is that you never have any idea what is going to be on the test. Some units encompass 15 or 20 chapters, and you know that the instructor can't ask more than two or three questions about each topic covered. However, some units cover only two or three chapters, and you know the instructor can go really in depth. At our program, our instructors often also throw in material that we covered months ago in skills lab, or that they think we should have learned during clinical. They give us questions about drugs we've never covered in class, because they feel that we should have seen them in clinical, they ask questions about lab procedures we haven't reviewed in three months, and then they ask questions about the material we just covered. Our tests are always interesting.

[livelifeloveRN]

Our school is doing the 'one minute a question' thing; since ATI HESI exams are set up that way. I honestly don't see the point when in reality the NCLEX gives us all a 6 hour time limit

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

When you take the NCLEX, the time that it takes you to answer the initial practice questions, plus any break times count into your total test time.

So assuming you get the maximum number of questions, you could have 265 questions in 360 minutes. That averages to about 1 minute 20 seconds per question. That's without the initial questions and any breaks. So depending on how long you take for breaks and the practice questions, 1 minute per question is a good goal to shoot for.

Your school can't assume that you will get the minimum number of questions and allow you to practice taking tests with 5 minutes per questions. (Plus, it wouldn't be a very efficient way to manage class time if you were given 6 hours to complete a 70 question test.) So most schools will give you approximately one minute per question, since that's the average amount of time you'll have if you get the max on the NCLEX.

One of the things that nursing school is trying to teach you is how to break down the NCLEX questions effectively. One minute should be more than enough time to read the question, break it down, and decide on a good answer. Of course, some harder questions will take you more than a minute and others will take you less, so don't get caught up in the time, just do your best and work efficiently.