Failed NCLEX 5 Times! Am I The Only One Who . . .

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Am I the only one who is concerned about someone who has failed multiple times, finally passes and then wants to share their experience with everyone else? Am I the only one who is concerned about working with nurses who finally pass on their eighth try? Granted, I'm so experienced that I took my licensing exam on paper eons ago when it was offered only twice a year, everyone answered all the questions over a two day period and it took six weeks to get the results. In those days, you only got two tries. That was it. So I could be someone biased and/or out of touch. I just wonder, though, about the knowledge base and learning capacity of a nurse that took the exam eight times to pass. Although perserverence is a virtue, and those folks obviously have plenty of that. Is nursing so different now that it's OK to take eight tries to get your license? Or is this a development of the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality? Keep trying and everyone gets a license?

Good for you ! Would you like a trophy?

Wow. I was just kidding around. Thought it was a cute picture, trying to take a step back from the heat.

Grumble grumble grumble. OK. I'm back on track.

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Specializes in Psych & Gero psych.

Well as someone who took the nclex and passed in 75Q's. I think it may be harder now since it's adaptive. In the old days, I'm guessing everyone got the same test and there weren't ordered questions and SATA questions. Perhaps they even looked like the questions in NCLEX books. None of the questions I got was as easy a NCLEX book question.

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You should not judge others unless you have walked in their shoes. I have test anxiety and took a class to pass the test. Not giving up is a great challenge so give a person a break.

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Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.
Maybe menopause is kicking in ??? Not sure what is up with some of the mood swings... moving on to another thread. Done with this one...

Carry on folks. Got better things to care about....

Apparently you aren't done since you just started another thread complaining about old nurses.

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Apparently you aren't done since you just started another thread complaining about old nurses.

I know, I saw that! What kind of person does something like that?

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I agree, after the third time that should be enough, maybe even after the second. It's a little scary to know that you have an incompetent nurse caring for your loved ones because they got lucky on the exam, smh

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Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.

I passed my RN boards first try, 75 questions.

By the time I got to my NP boards, I was such a wreck, it took 3 tries for my ACNP and 2 for my FNP. I repeatedly had to leave the room to throw up. Each time I failed, it was by no more than 15 points, maybe 2-3 questions. I knew the material, but it took heavy-dose beta blockers before I could get myself calm enough to sit the test successfully.

I'm glad no one judged me on that. I was beating myself up enough for all of them.

But I agree, there should be a cutoff.

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I completely agree there should be a maximum number of tries allowed. A gal I graduated with just failed for the third time... she graduated by the skin of her teeth, too. My feeling is the same as one other nurse from an earlier response... if someone has that much anxiety when facing decision making on a test, how will they function during a real crisis at the bedside? You dont have time to sit and think about it then, and you sure don't get as many tries as you need.

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With the old test you could answer all the 'hard' questions correctly but still fail if you got the answers wrong on the basics. Thats the biggest problem I have with adaptive testing, if you do well on progressively more complex questions it doesn't even check that the testee actually grasps basic concepts.

I don't understand what you mean by this.

In order to get to those higher level questions, you must first pass basic level questions. If you kept getting basic level questions wrong, then you would ultimately fail. Getting a higher level question wrong, takes you back to a basic level question, and vice versa.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Not at all. I can't imagine why anyone would need 5 tries. Maybe 2. Just maybe you're having a bad day, dog died, car died, got stuck in traffic, fight with the spouse, etc, and can't concentrate. There should be a limit. No more than two tries or you're done. Sorry, but it wasn't THAT hard that it takes so many tries.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Ruby your comment is rude and you have bad grammer.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

I passed the NCLEX with 75 questions...and it only took me 25 minutes. Really, the whole test felt like an exercise in how to cram as much miscellaneous knowledge into your head as possible. Obviously, I am very good at cramming random knowledge into my brain. :p

The knowledge that I've retained from nursing school seems to be this odd mixture of bits and pieces. I feel like I've done most of the real book learning after I passed in the NCLEX and was working as a RN. Random pharm or patho tidbits become much more pertinent when I was really giving the meds in question or seeing the patho processes in my patients. I feel like I read and study and am always looking things up more NOW then I ever did while in nursing school or even when practicing for the NCLEX exam.

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