Finished Nclex at 75 Questions

Castiela · Oct 23, 2017

I got my results in 5 days because I wrote my exam just before a long weekend. I think the stats are 90 ish percent of people whose test ends after 75 questions have passed. I haven't met anyone who felt confident that they've passed after writing the nclex. After I wrote, I called my mom and told her I was pretty sure that I had failed. Turns out I had passed

My test also shut off after 75 questions, and this was 40 minutes after starting the test. Take today off. Go to a spa, watch a movie, or do something to spoil yourself. You've done all you can do and you'll know your results soon.

Guest219794 · Oct 23, 2017

Despite huge amounts of preparations, most people don't understand the test design.

You feel terrible because you got a huge amount of questions wrong. Around half. Of the half you got right, some were lucky wild guesses, some were the result of ruling out one or two answers and using good test taking strategy. So, the percentage of questions you were able to confidently answer correctly is pretty small.

An excerpt from this discussion.

Quote
Jul 24, '07 by rn/writer
Everyone will finish with approximately 50% of their answers correct and 50% of their answers incorrect. What determines whether you passed or not was the level of difficulty at which you reached that 50% rate.
If question levels were rated 1-10 (just hypothetical here), you might start with a level 5 question. Pass it, and you'll get a level 6 question. Pass that one, and you get a level 7. Oops, now you missed. Back to level 6. And so on.
If you start with a 5 and miss, you'd go to level 4. Miss that, and now you're down to level 3. Miss that one, and you slip to level 2.
Up and down you go until the program determines the level at which you consistently find yourself. You can miss 50% of higher level questions and still qualify. But let's say that you keep missing easy questions. At some point, the program is going to determine that you are not well-equpped enough to handle the basics and it will shut off.
It isn't the number of questions you get right--as I said, that will be somewhere around 50% for everyone--it's the level of difficulty of the questions that you get right. If you don't do well on the foundational kinds of questions, the program deduces that you are not ready to be licensed.
Everyone walks out of testing feeling somewhat beat up. How can you feel otherwise when, by the very design of the test, you missed 50% of the questions. The determining factor, then, is how high did your proficiency level go before you reached that 50% failure rate.
It's like giving people pages of math problems. Some will get half right at a seventh grade math level. Others will get half right at the level of a junior in high school. Everyone is getting 50%, but the difficulty of the problems decides who are the more adept students.
Hope that makes sense.

NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN · Oct 23, 2017

The test is based on a knowledge tree so as you get the questions correct, they get harder. Most of my test was SATA (what I hate). But these questions are considered harder, so if you get a lot of them your doing well. I remember taking the test and coming across one thinking, this is a total crapshoot answer, and of course it was followed by a really easy multiple choice question...and then right back to SATA hell. I texted my former instructor after I tested (she used to work for ATI-one of the NCLEX prep companies). She said in you go a lot of SATA (or alternate format in general), you passed because they are the harder questions. The fact that it shut you down at 75, I wouldn't get too worked up because you probably passed. I know it's easier said than done but try not to worry until you have the results.

klone, MSN, RN · Oct 23, 2017

Quote
Everyone will finish with approximately 50% of their answers correct and 50% of their answers incorrect. What determines whether you passed or not was the level of difficulty at which you reached that 50% rate.

I don't think that's true for those for whom the test shuts off at 75 questions. For those people - they either did really really well (over 50% of questions correctly), or really really poorly (less than 50% of questions correctly).

gmdlc · Nov 1, 2017

Shirad96 said:
Hi everyone, so I had my Nclex today and it finished at 75 questions. It was really hard and terrible I felt like I didn't know anything. I cried during the exam and the proctor saw me and brought me tissue lool. The SATA questions were truly a nightmare. I just feel as if I failed. There were a few questions that were so strange I was like did they make this virus and medication up before my test orrrrr like there were things that I had never even heard of in my life.I wanted it to go past 75 questions because I felt like I wasn't doing good enough and I was gonna fail if it stopped at 75. I'm also not sure how long it takes to get results in Canada or in general. All I can say is I am SHOOK.

Did you got results already?

Mtac32 · Nov 2, 2017

I thought the same thing about the SATA and it's all so confusing because I was told the last question if you made it to 265, which I did, is a higher level question, whether you got it right or wrong, you passed. Well I got a SATA on my last question and I failed. I reached out to Kaplan and they said some SATA questions are both above and below the passing standard. The NCLEX is like a huge mystery to me. So many rumors and tricks, don't know what to believe.

Shirad96 · Nov 2, 2017

I found out I passed! I got an email the next day saying I passed from the licensing board. Im officially and RN !!!!!!

gmdlc · Nov 2, 2017

Shirad96 said:
I found out I passed! I got an email the next day saying I passed from the licensing board. Im officially and RN !!!!!!

Congrats RN!!! :up:

For what state?

Finished Nclex at 75 Questions

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