Failing NCLEX

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Hey everyone,

I just failed my NCLEX and having a really hard time with it. I don't want to retake it because I don't ever want to have to go through this again. Do you know if there is anything else I can do with just my BSN or do I have to go for a whole new career?

My quick and dirty secret about the NCLEX is this: You must answer the questions within less than a minute. The quicker you move forward the better. It doesn't matter if you get questions wrong in the process. What matters is that your scores remain about 50 - 60% correct and you maintain this average going as fast as possible. The test will reward you with a right question you answered in 15 seconds but it will take points from you if you got the same question right but took 3 minutes to answer. Believe me...the NCLEX is like a nursing video game. What the NCLEX is trying to test you is: how fast can you decide on a important situation you have little or no information, and how many of these you got right. (which is what you be doing in nursing one day)Don't over think. Make a decision and move one. Get a rhythm going. Formula for success without going crazy: Do 60 questions a day in 60 minutes. Check your scores. Above 60% correct YOU GOOD TO GO!GOOD LUCK.
Not true. I passed with 85 questions and took about 2-2.5 hours. I wanted to make sure I was reading everything correctly and not skipping any important words just because I was rushing.
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Not true. I passed with 85 questions and took about 2-2.5 hours. I wanted to make sure I was reading everything correctly and not skipping any important words just because I was rushing.

i agree with you, my best friend just called me not too long ago, she passed her exam RN with 75 questions,...i asked her 3 times how long she took, shr repeatly told me about 5/12 hrs. so there we go its better to understand the question than rush and fail

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You should'nt give up just like that.Think about your sacrifices,efforts,time and money you spent in the nursing school!Failure is not a good reason to give up.Follow the PYRAMID TO SUCCESS,(1) You should have a strong positive attitude, (2) Have a structured study plan and lastly (3) Control on yourself =REGISTERED NURSE...Good luck to us future nurses!:up:

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Honestly, if you're going to abandon your BSN degree and career choice over ONE speed-bump, maybe you should look for a different career. Nursing is not for the weak.

However, hopefully you're just feeling a little momentary depression and you just need to take a deep breath, step back, and readjust your attitude before brushing yourself off and getting back on that NCLEX horse.

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I took the Nclex yesterday and I did the PVT trick and I failed. Does anyone have any suggestion on a good review

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I took the Nclex yesterday and I did the PVT trick and I failed. Does anyone have any suggestion on a good review
Do 20 nclex questions every night before bed. Don't read too much into them. If you don't know the answer or guess wrong, read the correct rational and move on. Also, I have an app on my iPhone, iPod, and iPad (the free one on all the devices) so I can practice questions wherever I am. It's called ATI NCLEX or something similar. In the app store (it is available for android and blackberry phones too) search ati nclex and you should find it. I'm cheap and only ever practiced with the free version but if you want the paid version it's $20.
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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.
My quick and dirty secret about the NCLEX is this: You must answer the questions within less than a minute. The quicker you move forward the better. It doesn't matter if you get questions wrong in the process. What matters is that your scores remain about 50 - 60% correct and you maintain this average going as fast as possible. The test will reward you with a right question you answered in 15 seconds but it will take points from you if you got the same question right but took 3 minutes to answer. Believe me...the NCLEX is like a nursing video game.

What the NCLEX is trying to test you is: how fast can you decide on a important situation you have little or no information, and how many of these you got right. (which is what you be doing in nursing one day)

Don't over think. Make a decision and move one. Get a rhythm going.

Formula for success without going crazy: Do 60 questions a day in 60 minutes. Check your scores. Above 60% correct YOU GOOD TO GO!

GOOD LUCK.

Where are you getting this information? I've done a lot of research on NCLEX scoring and taken a thorough review from someone who has worked with Pearson VUE for years. Nothing about answering the questions quickly has ever come up. Please explain, and cite a source if possible, about where you have learned this.

There is no numerical score on the NCLEX, so it doesn't make sense that the computer would "take points away for a slow response" because the test isn't graded like that. It's assessed Computerized Adaptive Testing. The test begins with a question of a certain difficulty. If that question is answered correctly, you receive a question with a higher difficulty. If you answer incorrectly you receive a question of a lower difficulty. This continues until the computer has established that you can consistently answer questions that are above the minimum passing standard in all categories of the test.

It's much better to take the time to think critically about a question and carefully choose the right answer, rather than rush through and choose an answer because you think you're taking too much time. A right answer is always better than an incorrect answer, no matter how long it takes you to answer it.

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

The following link contains information about the NCLEX exam, the format and how it is scored:

NCLEX | Prep With Our Free NCLEX Questions And NCLEX Review

This quote appears about halfway down the page under the NCLEX Format section:

"The NCLEX does not time each question presented in the CAT format. You are allowed to answer each question without time constraints. However, the NCLEX does have a test taking time of 5 hours."

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The following link contains information about the NCLEX exam, the format and how it is scored:

NCLEX | Prep With Our Free NCLEX Questions And NCLEX Review

This quote appears about halfway down the page under the NCLEX Format section:

"The NCLEX does not time each question presented in the CAT format. You are allowed to answer each question without time constraints. However, the NCLEX does have a test taking time of 5 hours."

actually 6 hrs. thanks for sharing this

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