U.S. Nursing Body Nullifies Some Korean Test Results

Home Health Columnist / Guide · May 9, 2007

The US is taking a hard stance against NCLEX exam question piracy....including shutting down nursing bb that permit direct exam questions to be posted.

suzanne4, RN · May 9, 2007

And if you have noticed, there still has never been anything mentioned further on the Pearson-Vue website about the center opening in Manila.

I am so glad that you posted this, and maybe some will start listening to what we have been saying. Cheating on the NCLEX exam does not help anyone, and what has been going on with some of the review centers in Manila is well known to officials for the CGFNS exam, as well as the NCLEX exams.

Wonder what is next?

pinoy_guy · May 9, 2007

wow.

this shows how serious ncsbn is.

in 2005 some 1,234 korean applicants passed the exam for a passing rate of 71.5 percent. that's far higher than the 40 to 50 percent passing rates in other countries such as japan and australia.
due to language problems, however, the actual number of korean applicants who were employed in the u.s. was 215 in 2005 and 66 in 2006.

some questions:

1. how did they keep this under the radar? 71.5%.

2. how far back will ncsbn nullify licenses?

3. what will ichp do? will they enforce page 14?

4. will uscis take back green cards (if they trace back a few years)?

lawrence01 · May 9, 2007

Probably something like this will happen if nclex will be open in the Philippines.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705040022.html

It will... but posting actual NCLEX questions in websites has already proliferated and some are even asking money for it. It is a violation of US copyright laws besides cheating of course and this just shows that they do punish people that do this. Doesn't matter as well if one hasn't taken it yet. One might get barred or black listed even before he takes the NCLEX if one is caught doing something like this or similar to it. If one posted actual NCLEX questions, whether for free or for a fee and whether they have actually taken it or not wouldn't matter. If they can identify you via IP address, posted your e-mail add., contact #s, etc.. then they can easily identify you and hold you responsible just like what happened in Korea.

suzanne4, RN · May 9, 2007

The internet is not as anonymous as anyone thinks. Anyone can be found.

And I still think that this is going to affect the supposed center for Manila.

precious33 · May 10, 2007

It is really bad to post questions after the NCLEX exam since one would have agree not to engage in any form of post exam questions discussions.Others guilty of doing so will learn while others who are innocent will suffer the consequences.

It is really cheating and dishonesty. on several occasions prior and after the exam we were reminded not to disclose any information regarding the exam.What is hard in keeping a simple promise?

what is the purpose of the exam if you allow yourself to be fed with all the correct answers while others justly study soo hard?

I believe once you get a body of nursing knowledge anyone can pass the NCLEX RN.

I remember studying so hard night and day for this exam because of all the rumors I heard about it,s difficult to pass,when I did my exam it was more knowledge base and common sense, passed at first sitting.

There is nothing to scared about.Nurses MUST BE HONEST PEOPLE .We are dealing with peoples life.

suzanne4, RN · May 10, 2007

Unfortunately, this is not the first case of questions taken directly from NCLEX exams being used in review centers. Much has been written on it already, but now we are seeing that they are keeping their promise to go after those that do that.

And I am very glad of it.

And my two cents added to this: If the nurse is willing to cheat to get thru that exam, what would they be willing to do when they are at work? And when taking care of us, or our family members or other loved ones? Sorry, but they deserve not to be ever able to work in the US. That simple. And hope that others that were thinking about doing this, will have second thoughts.

And this is not particular to this country. We have been hearing stories for sometime about this happening in other places. I am glad that they are finally doing something about it and that others will be aware that it can happen to them.

sinagbayan · Jun 3, 2007

i agree with you precy, in as much as i hate to admit it, i doubt an nclex testing center will really rise in Manila. look at how the june 2006 exams were handled, the authorities already knew that an anomaly happened (questions were leaked no less) yet they did not nullify the test results. i was a teacher before becoming a nurse and all sensible teachers know that when once exam (a teacher made exam) is compromised in any way by any means, the entire exam (that means all) is cancelled, all results considered null and void and the responsible parties punished. needless to say, all who took it will re-take a new set of exams. not only a part. besides, there were more than 40,000 takers, are we really sure only two sections were ever released? mmmm

with how the june 2006 NLE was dealt, i really really don't think pearson will actually install a testing center here. i know that when they said (pearson) that Manila was chosen as a site for an NCLEX Test Center, it was more out of politeness and civility.

mcse · Jun 3, 2007

it will... but posting actual nclex questions in websites has already proliferated and some are even asking money for it. it is a violation of us copyright laws besides cheating of course and this just shows that they do punish people that do this. doesn't matter as well if one hasn't taken it yet. one might get barred or black listed even before he takes the nclex if one is caught doing something like this or similar to it. if one posted actual nclex questions, whether for free or for a fee and whether they have actually taken it or not wouldn't matter. if they can identify you via ip address, posted your e-mail add., contact #s, etc.. then they can easily identify you and hold you responsible just like what happened in korea.

base on experience :

1) usually those criminals they don't directly access to the blog , they use unconventional proxy servers from some isp usually located in russia, china via some sort of vpn tunnel .and some small island country permit you to have account without name/ id (scary , isn't it ? ) . they never co-operate with investigation , never configured to save server access logs and on top of that hard disk drive are encrypted using strong encryption. it makes virtually impossible to trace.

2) alternatively criminals maybe using zombie machine to post questions. ( remember the ddos attack launched using zombie machine on yahoo.com and other major website 7 yrs ago and until now authorities are unable to locate the attacker because there isn't any evidence ).

conclusion:

- under the supervision of us authority , this type of mission-crital exam should only conduct off-line in secure location ;-).

p.s

sory for my bad english.

blabber, RN · Jun 3, 2007

It is really bad to post questions after the NCLEX exam since one would have agree not to engage in any form of post exam questions discussions.Others guilty of doing so will learn while others who are innocent will suffer the consequences.
It is really cheating and dishonesty. on several occasions prior and after the exam we were reminded not to disclose any information regarding the exam.What is hard in keeping a simple promise?
what is the purpose of the exam if you allow yourself to be fed with all the correct answers while others justly study soo hard?
I believe once you get a body of nursing knowledge anyone can pass the NCLEX RN.
I remember studying so hard night and day for this exam because of all the rumors I heard about it,s difficult to pass,when I did my exam it was more knowledge base and common sense, passed at first sitting.
There is nothing to scared about.Nurses MUST BE HONEST PEOPLE .We are dealing with peoples life.

It's so unfair for those who have studied their butts off just to pass the exams (may it be the local board, CGFNS or NCLEX) while other pass through cheating especially using those review centers who give out leakage:madface: . I passed all my exams through self-study and although it was hard, I know in my heart that I passed because I deserve to be and not because the answers were given to me:nono: .

suzanne4, RN · Jun 4, 2007

base on experience :
1) usually those criminals they don't directly access to the blog , they use unconventional proxy servers from some isp usually located in russia, china via some sort of vpn tunnel .and some small island country permit you to have account without name/ id (scary , isn't it ? ) . they never co-operate with investigation , never configured to save server access logs and on top of that hard disk drive are encrypted using strong encryption. it makes virtually impossible to trace.
2) alternatively criminals maybe using zombie machine to post questions. ( remember the ddos attack launched using zombie machine on yahoo.com and other major website 7 yrs ago and until now authorities are unable to locate the attacker because there isn't any evidence ).
conclusion:
- under the supervision of us authority , this type of mission-crital exam should only conduct off-line in secure location ;-).
p.s
sory for my bad english.

sorry, but the ones that we are aware of, we can track the person almost immediately, they are not going thru proxy servers, or anything else. they just think that they can do as they please. but they are getting caught, the internet is not as anonymous as they think that it is. their ip address is listed with their posts on most of the forums where we have seen the questions posted. and this happens frequently on blogs from the philippines, and the authors are usually even boasting about them.

and most of them were not criminals to start, they were nurses, plain and simple. but now that they have broken the law, they are being watched very closely.