Nclex should be harder

[chrisbauerwrat]

Personally I think the NCLEX should be harder. Took it Friday, passed with 75 q. Graduated 3 weeks ago, studied some over that time maybe an hour a day.

The biggest thing I remember from taking the NCLEX and most nursing exams actually is the feeling that really, you really want me to know THIS stuff. Seems like the questions are just way too vague, and basic.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I also passed at 75 questions and left thinking that it was less difficult than I had imagined to be, but I guarantee that I could have had a series of similar level questions that I didn't know the answers to, start panicing at 90-100 questions and could have been a different result. The test is lot of luck of the draw on the questions. Get questions on areas that you know very well (Med'Surg) and you pass at 75. Get a lot of drug side effect and mental health questions and pass at 200.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I used to think the test should be harder ... but my thinking has changed over the years as I have worked in Nursing Professional Development.

No matter how hard we make the test, there will still be some people pass it that have no business being nurses. In the end, it is up to the employer to weed those people out -- if the instructors at their school didn't do their job of weeding them out before graduation. The NCLEX is only 1 of 3 "check-points" in the evaluation process -- school, NCLEX, employer evals. We shouldn't be leaving it all up to the test. The other 2 check-points often fail to do their jobs and I think that is where we should tighten our processes.