More people not passing NCLEX

It seems as though the more I read and talk to people just graduating from Nursing school...more and more people are having to repeat this exam over and over...I am in my last semester of my LPN/RN program and have already started studying for this dreaded exam...just wondering why so many people are having to repeat it so many times!

[JustBeachyNurse, RN]

The statistics are that US educated nurses pass the NCLEX at a rate of 88-92% on first attempt. If you are using the posts on this forum, many are IENs. The pass rate for IENs is about 35%. More people come here seeking assistance to pass on first or second chance. Not everyone posts a pass.

Last data I saw that after an initial dip post NCLEX revision the pass rate is higher than it was.

I'm seeing a lot of people post passing , at 75 also

The statistics are that US educated nurses pass the NCLEX at a rate of 88-92% on first attempt. If you are using the posts on this forum, many are IENs. The pass rate for IENs is about 35%. More people come here seeking assistance to pass on first or second chance. Not everyone posts a pass.

Last data I saw that after an initial dip post NCLEX revision the pass rate is higher than it was.

True about not everyone posting a pass. I finished yesterday with 75 and got the good pop up immediately after and after 24 hours. This is the first mention I've made of it.

I passed NCLEX last month with 75 questions. When I walked out, I just knew I failed. It was down right dreadful. A lot of my classmates were intimidated by the removal of drug brand names. The SATA questions caused me all kinds of anxiety. There were a lot. The exam questions got really difficult and required a lot of critical thinking. I did ATI practice questions for over a year... I had the ATI Nurse Mentor app. Maybe people aren't using test taking strategies. Those helped...we learned those throughout nursing school.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

A contributing factor is the competitiveness of getting into nursing schools causing many to go to for-profit schools with poor NCLEX pass rates. Many of the posters that are seeking help with passing NCLEX after multiple failures are probably graduates of those programs.

[JmeinRN]

I graduated with around 45 people in my class and every one of us passed on the first try. I read more stories of people passing then failing. And I have to second that a great program will prepare you for boards.

Edited Feb 6, 2015 by JmeinRN

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

We must also be mindful that human nature guides us toward a negative bias. In other words, bad news remains seared in our consciousness. In addition, a person might tell a handful of others about a positive occurrence, but will tell everyone they know about a negative occurrence.

What does this all mean? People who repeatedly fail NCLEX are going to be more vocal about it than those who pass on the first attempt. Therefore, our tendency to focus on bad news might lead us to believe that many people are failing NCLEX when the hard facts say otherwise (read: the vast majority of people pass on the first attempt).

Make sure you have a NCLEX review book and read the breakdown of testing questions. The new format has more preventative interventions and mental health content (I'm pretty sure that I'm remembering that correctly!). The national first-pass rate has dropped, but this is probably due to the change in the testing content structure/percentages/focus and some programs may not have adapted their curriculum to accomodate these changes. Be proactive and check the testing content so you are prepared