How many ??????? on NCLEX now?

Sally_ICURN · Jan 8, 2003

A few years ago is was about 250, I think. Not sure but the time it takes to complete the test is very individual. The test could stop after 90 or you could go all the way to the end. The computer automatically stops when it has determined that you have either failed or passed the test...and you have no way of knowing which one it is!!!!!!!! I freaked when my test stopped at 118, but everything turned out just fine.

~Sally :cool:

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Jan 8, 2003

As of June when i took it there were a possible 75 to 250 /or any number in between. Time to take the test and number of questions are solely based on individual test. How many you get is supposedly determined by how many you get right/wrong.

parklandtrauma · Jan 8, 2003

it is 75-265

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 8, 2003

Originally posted by parklandtrauma
it is 75-265

yep you never know for sure til you test. the computer starts and stops testing at will. good luck. ( i had 76 and was shocked to be done testing in just 30 minutes.)

flowerchild · Jan 9, 2003

SmilingBluEyes,

Please forgive my ignorance. But, 30 minutes!?!? Only 30 minutes to test competancy to be an RN? Here's where I'm coming from: It took 2 days when I took the NCLEX. All morning and all afternoon for two whole days. Each segment was a couple of hundred questions or more, I don't remember exactly. Stress affects memory, sorry. I do remember that it was over 1000 questions total though. And every one of them as ambigious as the first. Even in nursing school, I never took a test that didn't last at least 1 hour or more. During the NCLEX, we sat so long, we worried about pressure ulcers. LOL.

I'm having a really hard time believing that a 30 minute test is enough to test ones knowledge of nursing. Anyone?

beepers40 · Jan 9, 2003

I can see how someone could assume that the length of a test gives a more valid result, but in this case I don't believe it's true. This is a case where the computer is our friend. NCLEX questions are rigorously tested out before being used in the part of the exam that "counts" (although the tester never knows whether the question is a "real" or an "experiemental" question. The computer has an enormous database of questions to draw on, with a required minimum number in each of the clinical areas (med/surg, pediatrics, psych, maternal health, and so on) and areas of clinical skill: assessment, intervention, evaluation, etc. The questions each have an assigned degree of difficulty, and mastery at a certain level of difficulty is required in order to pass the NCLEX. The computer starts you out with an "easy" question; if you get that one right you get a harder one. If you get that one right you get a harder one still; if you miss it your question difficulty reverts back to the previous level of difficulty. The computer continues testing until the tester demonstrates a consistent level of mastery, and then moves on to another area for testing. This way, a candidate can quickly demonstrate mastery, by answering correctly the questions at the highest level of difficulty, without having to waste time answering a bunch of easy questions that most likely will be answered correctly. This method of testing is called Computer Adaptive Testing and is used for many standardized tests such as the GRE, as well as licensure exams.

Does it work? Well, my experience was that out of my nursing school class, only three classmates didn't pass the NCLEX--and they were exactly the three who had no business possessing a license until they gained either more clinical expertise, more life knowlege, or more plain common sense. I would say the NCLEX computer test did a bang-up job.

BTW I took my NCLEX at 8:30 am on Sept. 11 (Yes, that Sept. 11) and there was a power failure during the exam in which all the lights went out, the computers all shut down in the middle of the exam, and we had to stand outside on the sidewalk for half an hour while they figured out whether we were under attack, someone was a little trigger happy, or just what. I passed with 75 questions. Just a little pressure;)