higher/lower end questions

4tnerzwife · Jul 9, 2007

sounds like you had the same test I did and I passes. I have heard on this site that priority and check all that apply ?s are higher level so I bet you passed

coles2 · Jul 10, 2007

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knows what are considered "higher end" and "lower end" questions. I just took the NCLEX today and I seriously left feeling like 80% of my exam was either a medication or priority questions, but then I would randomly get a infection control question.... so it's hard for me tell how I might have done. My exam shut off at 75 questions...any thoughts?? Thanks.

Thank you for your confidence in me. Waiting for your results is a killer on your self confidence. The more time that goes by the worse Ihtink I did. I really need to keep myself busy today...

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 10, 2007

Higher-level questions are the questions that were more often missed when they were pretested (given as unscored questions to many students). Lower-level questions are the ones that more students got right. Prioritization questions and "select all that apply" questions tend to be easier to miss, but we can't really know the difficulty level of any individual question since we don't know the results of its pretesting period.

It's a hard exam, designed so that both passers and failers get ~50% right and 50% wrong. Try not to stress out too much as you wait! Let us know what you find out.

Justme123 · Jul 10, 2007

I'm a bit confused on the 50% right and 50% wrong theory. Am I to expect to miss half the exam walking in?

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 10, 2007

Yes, generally. The pass/fail decision depends on how hard they have to make the questions to keep you at ~50. Make sure you read the candidate bulletin linked below. It contains a ton of info related to the administration and scoring of the NCLEX. The answer to your question is on page 15.

https://www.ncsbn.org/2007_NCLEX_Candidate_Bulletin.pdf