anybody fail in 75 questions?

Nursing Students NCLEX

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I know all the factual stuff about how you can't tell if you've passed or failed the NCLEX by the number of questions, but I'm just curious if anybody knows anyone who's failed with 75 questions. I took boards on Saturday, and I'm going to be a nervous wreck until I can call on Wednesday to find out if I passed or not. So far, everyone I've talked to who has taken 75 questions has passed. What do you all think?

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

Jude

Thank you!

I will try to stay calm. I am going to FREAK out if a big yellow envelope comes to my house...

Melissa,

I took my boards on 7/12/02. My test stopped at 75 questions as well. When i got home i looked up everything in my nursing books and found that i made a ton of mistakes. I left feeling i had failed. Today i recieved my RN license. I think it is very likely that you passed with flying colors. Just think, passing with 75 questions shows that your knowledge is way above the minimum requirements!!!!!!!

Good luck. Let us know how you did. Christel

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

You must have posted while I was posting!!

So you guessed on a lot of questions? I did too. I looked some up and found that on at least 6, I think I guessed correctly, even though it was a complete guess.

Does anyone know how many you can get wrong and pass with 75???? I heard you can get a lot wrong because it is not a certain percentage to pass...

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

I took a review course and the instructor told us that the pattern of the test is set within the first 10 questions. She didnt reference to any percentiles to pass most likely because each test is supposed to be different. They just made a big deal about doing the best you can on the first 10 questions, and also from what i am hearing there were 15 questions or so that arent even figured into the outcome of the test. They were trial questions for future tests. That is just what i have heard, who knows how much truth there is to it.

Oh, I forgot about the 15 "practice" questions, too. After I got done with the test, I went home and re-read my NCLEX candidate info booklet trying to scrutinize whether I passed or failed. In the book it said that there are 15 questions in everybody's test that are try-out questions and don't even count toward your score.

I also tried to figure out how many I could get wrong and still pass. What I figured out is that you pass if you answer 50% of the most difficult questions correctly and you fail if you answer only 50% of the easy questions correctly. But who's to say what's a hard question and what's easy?

Hang in there! I'm sure you did great!

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

So technically I could have gotten 50% wrong and passed..yeah I know I read that in the NCLEX pamphlet too.

My questions seemed pretty darn hard, so I guess that is a good sign, because if I was failing terribly I would have only gotten easy questions to the end, right?

Edited to add more: I hope the majority of the ones I got wrong were practice ones so they don't count!!!! I can't wait till I know this is practically killing me!

Thanks everybody!! Such a relief to know now.

MelissaCT, the nature of this kind of testing is really bizarre, and I am actually thinking about writing a letter to the board of nursing just to let them know my opinion about it. See, it's not about the number of questions you can get right. Everybody who takes the test generally ends up getting approximately 50% of the questions right because what they are looking for is the level of difficulty at which you can answer questions right about 50% of the time. That's why the test is set up to give you questions based on your previous answers. If you answer a question correctly, your next question will be a more difficult one, and if you answer incorrectly, your next question will be an easier one. When they find the level at which you can answer about 50% of the questions right, that level is compared to the acceptable passing level. I found this information from a link on the Missouri Board of Nursing web site. If I can locate the site again, I'll send you the URL.

It's a strange way of doing things, I think, and although I understand why they do it that way, I think it is very disheartening to test-takers to know that they are having to guess at so many questions. It really undermines a person's confidence I think.

Hope you hear good news soon, Melissa.

Louise, RN (hehe.....that does look cool huh. . . )

Specializes in L&D, Ambulatory Care.

I just wish I knew which ones were the hard ones!

I got a lot of prioritizing (which pt do you see first).

And I thought a lot of hard content questions that were way out of left field.

Melissa - I took my boards on 7/25 and it stopped at 75 also - I came home and looked up a bunch of questions - I know of AT LEAST 10 that I got wrong so I'm convinced I failed - but I COULDN'T have failed, RIGHT??!! Wouldn't they have given me more of a chance to answer more questions? Or did I bomb so badly that they just said, "forget this chick... she's clueless"... this is the stuff that's going thru my head ... I don't get why the machine doesn't just tell you if you pass or fail ... after all, it knows, right? WHY WHY WHY?? thanks for letting me vent...

p.s. Is it true that the prioritizing questions are the hard ones and the math ones are the easy ones?

Oh- I feel so anxious for you! I know exactly how you feel waiting for your results. I was so nervous because I got 75 questions and no one else I knew had gotten only 75. And I went home and looked up the answers to some of the questions I remembered being unsure of and I got a good number of them wrong! I cried and cried. I was even going to tell my boss the next day that I failed, before I even knew my results. But I ended up passing, and I've talked to other nurses on my floor and found that every single one of them who got 75 also passed. So good luck to you... I'm sure you did wonderful! Plain and simple, it's just a really hard test and it's hard not to freak out, but try your best to stay calm while you await your good news!

rn2binmay. . .I was praying for some math questions. . .lol. But alas, I didn't have a single one. The vast majority of my questions were on prioritizing care of several clients and appropriate room assignments and discharges of all things.

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