NCLEX: expectation to pass

NewOncNurseRN, BSN, RN · Aug 28, 2019

I went in expecting to pass, but during and after the exam was less convinced. I had been told by professors that the NCLEX used machine learning and gave you more difficult questions with each correct answer. I felt like I only had 2 challenging questions in my whole 75, and therefore thought I was doing poorly and wasn’t going to pass. (Spoiler- I did pass!) I think it all depends on what you were told to expect. When talking to other classmates, they all felt the same way- that the exam was too easy and that they didn’t think their 75 questions contained enough challenging questions.

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Aug 28, 2019

I tested at the same time as a classmate. Both of us finished at 75 questions in 1 hour. She was worried about not passing. I told her that we studied our butts off for NCLEX, got good grades in school, and went through a program with a near 100% first time pass rate. It is very unlikely that we would bomb NCLEX so badly that it wouldn't give us any more questions. I left the testing room thinking "This is it? This is what I was stressing over for the last 6 weeks?"

ICUMurse97, BSN, RN · Sep 4, 2019

I had a similar experience. When I hit the submit button on question 75 and saw that the test was over, I instantly felt a sigh of relief (as cliche as that sounds). I performed well in nursing school and reasoned in my head that it was not possible for me to do so poorly that the test would shut off after only 75 questions. I did think the questions were very broad and sporadic in the material they tested on, and I am also curious to see how the new format of testing goes once it is rolled out.

Snatchedwig, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Sep 4, 2019

43 minutes ago, ICUMurse97 said:
I had a similar experience. When I hit the submit button on question 75 and saw that the test was over, I instantly felt a sigh of relief (as cliche as that sounds). I performed well in nursing school and reasoned in my head that it was not possible for me to do so poorly that the test would shut off after only 75 questions. I did think the questions were very broad and sporadic in the material they tested on, and I am also curious to see how the new format of testing goes once it is rolled out.

I saw a few test questions of the new format. That stuff is harrrrrrrrrrrrrd

tnursegirl · Sep 11, 2019

On 8/28/2019 at 6:43 AM, NewOncNurseRN said:
I went in expecting to pass, but during and after the exam was less convinced. I had been told by professors that the NCLEX used machine learning and gave you more difficult questions with each correct answer. I felt like I only had 2 challenging questions in my whole 75, and therefore thought I was doing poorly and wasn’t going to pass. (Spoiler- I did pass!) I think it all depends on what you were told to expect. When talking to other classmates, they all felt the same way- that the exam was too easy and that they didn’t think their 75 questions contained enough challenging questions.

Hi I just wrote my exam last week.. I finished in about 1hour 30 mins., and the computer shut off at 75 questions,, I felt the exam was too easy .., not bragging but I was confident I was going to pass when I walked out the exam centre

Nurse_Mike, ADN, RN · Sep 19, 2019

I could legitimately envision the exam being easy for most if expected work was put into nursing school and the exam was taken relatively soon after graduating and especially if a prep course was integrated into the academic experience as well. ?‍??

NadoNurseToo, ADN, RN · Sep 20, 2019

Off topic, but when does the new format 'roll out'???

ThatChickOmi, ADN, RN · Sep 23, 2019

I honestly wasn't really worried about failing the test. I was very well prepared. I finished the test in probably just about an hour, 75 questions. Walking out, I felt like it was easier than I anticipated. Nursing school exam questions were definitely much more challenging...lol

Despite all that I still had that TINY little fleck of "Hmmm....what if I didn't pass..." but I think everyone has it.

rnhopeful82, ASN, RN · Sep 24, 2019

21 hours ago, ThatChickOmi said:
I honestly wasn't really worried about failing the test. I was very well prepared. I finished the test in probably just about an hour, 75 questions. Walking out, I felt like it was easier than I anticipated. Nursing school exam questions were definitely much more challenging...lol

Despite all that I still had that TINY little fleck of "Hmmm....what if I didn't pass..." but I think everyone has it.

hahaha same! Except I was very unprepared feeling (600 out of 2100 uworld done in the qbank and the 2 assessments) but the start date for my new job and the sporadic testing dates they gave me left me with no option but to take it right then.

I was like well was it so easy because I kept getting them wrong? I had 0 math, ekg, drag and drop, audio or hot spots. Strictly multiple choice and SATAs and I didn't know what that meant either. But I figured if I finished in 75 and did well in school and the pass rate is like 87% nationally, I MIGHT be ok. (I passed) WOOT!!

Nurse_Mike, ADN, RN · Sep 30, 2019

Hope this is still on topic, but my first go round I had 13 dosage calc questions, and I was not ready for them as I never brushed up on math prior to the test, prob got all of them wrong. I usually forget 99 percent of the math that I learn about 2 weeks or so after a course is over. My fault for not studying math before 1st NCLEX. Having 10+ answers go south on you instead of north is a helluva hit to take. So on next write, I figured ok, cool I will brush up on math and was having some fun with dimensional analysis. So then comes the test...NOT A SINGLE MATH QUESTION on the second challenge of the NCLEX. I could have cried as I was salivating for some of those easy gimmie questions that never came.

I think Regina with remar says that because NCLEX remembers what questions you were already asked on the last attempt, there seems to be a trend of not seeing much or any of the previous weaknesses on the next test, possibly theorizing that NCLEX thinks you will focus much effort on those areas, and so will lay different information on you.

Had 50+ sata on the first test, had above 55 satas on the last test. I actually kept a tally count of satas on the little marker board they give you. the three day kaplan refresher pulled my confidence level out of the pits of hell and brought it to at or above ground level. My anxiety was consistently manageable this time around too. The anxiety I had on the first test became out of control due to lack of test content and probably equally, lack of knowledge of the strategy of how the nclex is setup. I would be willing to guess that many that do not pass nclex have not taken a recent refresher course.

I write to you guys in hopes that it will help some. When you are learning new things, some old knowledge will escape too, and so the process of increasing scores and test knowledge will be slow going, assuming you are not answering questions that you got before and memorized the answers to. It is a slow process, but if you take your time with the rationals, SLOWLY you will have upward progress, and eventually when you are ready, you will pass. This is what worked for me as my content was weak, and unknown to me, I lacked strategy knowledge although I did not know it.

NCLEX speaks a certain language, it will take a concerted effort to ingrain a fluency of this language into your brain housing group. Learning the NCLEX language is not innate intelligence, it takes some effort/work, unless you are content strong, and were not a hardcore procrastinator in nursing school and challenged the boards right away.

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Sep 30, 2019

5 hours ago, Nurse_Mike said:
NCLEX remembers what questions you were already asked on the last attempt, there seems to be a trend of not seeing much or any of the previous weaknesses on the next test, possibly theorizing that NCLEX thinks you will focus much effort on those areas, and so will lay different information on you.

Each NCLEX test is random. The computer does not know if this is your first attempt or 10th attempt. It start out with a random question above the pass line and depending on your answer, gives you a random question that is more difficult or less difficult than the last question. It does not eliminate math or pharmacology from your available questions because you missed them on a previous test and it assumes that you studied those topics. If that was true, the people that have taken NCLEX 5 times would run out of available questions since they probably missed questions on all the topics over the 5 tests.