NCLEX passing rates

Morganalefey · Jul 22, 2012

There is no nursing shortage. It is taking months or longer for new grads to find a job. It took me 5 months and there are many on this site who have taken MUCH longer. So I don't think it has anything to do w/filling nursing positions. Schools are turning out tons of new grads.

The NCLEX was HARD.

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

Schools are turning out tons of new grads.
The NCLEX was HARD.

I am not doubting for one second the hardness (mentally and physically) of the test. My hat is off to anyone who has taken it! :bow:

I agree that the nursing shortage is way blown out of proportion. With a 90% pass rate, do you think the test should be harder to that the people who do pass the test have an easier time finding employment?

Morganalefey · Jul 22, 2012

I can't speak for all the schools, but my school basically taught me to pass NCLEX. My nursing skills have predominantly been taught on the job. So I don't think making the test harder will change anything. The schools will just teach their students to take the test, know what I mean?

I hear people on here say that the schools shouldn't accept so many people....the semester I was accepted there were 30 RN students and 30 LPN student (I have no idea how many transitional LPN to RN students there were). My first day of fundamentals class, there was 19 of us. 4 of us graduated on the date we were supposed to. Several dropped out, MANY failed classes and graduated a year later. A couple failed out of the program completely.

I guess if all nursing schools were like mine we would have less nurses, lol.

I don't know the solution to the problem, but I don't think making NCLEX harder will significantly impact it.

Good luck on your journey to nursing :)

adnrnstudent, ASN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

You start off with choice 4 and then do 5.

You take qualified students with the aptitude then teach them.

You use a modified grading scale making the cut off for B at 84% and the cutoff for C at 78%. Below that is not passing and failing out of program.

The students that survive that deserve to sit for the NCLEX and that is why good pass rate.

Ben.RN · Jul 22, 2012

In my area, there is no nursing shortage. We have multiple schools in the area cranking out students. One school was even shut down for cranking out such poor quality nurses. I went to a community college thinking it was going to be a piece of cake. Honestly, they tried to kill us. A "C" was an 80%. And they were unflinchingly rigid. Lots of people failed classes or the program completely. The test questions from day 1 are formulated like the NCLEX. Our school has the highest first time pass rate in the area and are generally considered one of the best in the state. We had to take the HESI which wasn't fun (but i was able to pull off an 1156). I'm hoping its a good indicator that I'll pass boards on the first shot. Even with all the program's accolades, everyone worries about being that guy who biffed it on boards. My only complaint aside from nearly getting a divorce over the amount of time school required with busy work is that its been 6 weeks and no one has an ATT yet...

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

I hear people on here say that the schools shouldn't accept so many people....the semester I was accepted there were 30 RN students and 30 LPN student

The town where I live only has 100,000 people, two hospitals (one major hospital and "the ond building" that they use for peds, OB/Gyn and Ortho. My school is a state run college with 250 students applying for 32 spots (RN). The school as a 99% graduation rate for this program. The school has stated that they don't offer more positions because they don't want to flood the market with new graduates (and a smaller program is not financially viable). I guess this kind of prudence would help the overall situation, but with "for profit" schools popping up everywhere, it might be a moot point

State of California controls the number of new Lawyers by making their State Bar incredibly hard. Their pass rate is around 45%, but can you imagine the number of lawyers in an already saturated market, if the test was easier? If nursing schools keeps churning out potential nurses like they are, will there still be jobs in 5-10 years??

I can definitely see both sides of the argument on this one. I definitely don't want them to make the test harder (cause I will be taking it in 18 months :) )

MiahMSN, MSN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

according to the ncsbn website, first time, us educated students have a 91.23% pass rate on the nclex. the pass rate drops when you factor in international students and repeat takers, but overall the pass rate is still 80.94%.
https://www.ncsbn.org/1237.htm
i am just starting my nursing school journey, and i do not presume to even understand what it takes to sit for this exam, but these results make me question a few things.
(1) with a 90% pass rate, is the test too easy - should a licensing exam weed out more people or is the test just facilitating getting nurses licensed to fill the nursing shortage?
(2) not every person who passed paid the thousands of dollars for fancy review courses - are these books and courses even necessary?
(3) is the cat (computer adaptive test) not as smart as everyone says and should a more standardized test be used.
(4) are nursing school just that good at selecting solid candidates that the most successful students are selected therefore guaranteeing nclex success?
i have no opinion on these items one way or another, i am just opening up a dialogue.

first off, nclex isn't designed to "weed" out people....that is the job of a good nursing school. so the people who take nclex deserve to take it. secondly, nclex is not like the exams you have in nursing school.....so even if you do well in your program (i graduated with a 3.75 gpa from a 2yr direct-entry accelerated msn program) this does not mean that you will automatically pass nclex. fortunately, i just took mine on july 18th and got 75 questions then the blue screen and the pvt "good pop up", but that was one difficult test if you ask me...and while i passed with the minimum, i walked out of there feeling like i knew nothing!

it's a lil presumptuous to assume that this test isn't hard enough because of the pass rate. you will see posts from people whom have taken it 2, 3, 4, 5+ times....some were top students. the people who pass nclex are the ones who you want in nursing....because they have demonstrated that they are able to critically think and apply what they know to a complex and sometimes the most obscure medical situations. this is what nclex tests....not content, but the application of content.

DisneyNurseGal, BSN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

It's a lil presumptuous to assume that this test isn't hard enough because of the pass rate. You will see posts from people whom have taken it 2, 3, 4, 5+ times....some were top students. .

If you read, I say several times that I have no opinion on the matter, nor am I am expert (let alone even qualified to speak) on this subject as I haven't even started nursing school. I just thought it was odd that the test had over a 90% pass rate - I have not been able to find another licensing test with that kind of pass rate.

I just wanted to get people's opinion. I know there are those who are horrible test takers (and great students) who have to take this test multiple times.

Congratulations on your passing score - you earned it

MiahMSN, MSN, RN · Jul 22, 2012

If you read, I say several times that I have no opinion on the matter, nor am I am expert (let alone even qualified to speak) on this subject as I haven't even started nursing school. I just thought it was odd that the test had over a 90% pass rate - I have not been able to find another licensing test with that kind of pass rate.
I just wanted to get people's opinion. I know there are those who are horrible test takers (and great students) who have to take this test multiple times.
Congratulations on your passing score - you earned it

I know and that is why I made the blanketed statement "it's a lil presumptuous to assume" and this is of anyone making such an assumption, as opposed to directing it to you and saying "it's a little presumptuous of you to assume."

Thanks for the congrats. And good luck when you start nursing school and when you finally do take NCLEX.

steffuturelpn · Jul 22, 2012

What you have to realize is that nursing school is hard and it weeds out weak students, they fail out so the people who make it through to graduation are already strong because they made it through nursing school, what u must consider is the drop out rate at nursing schools which is usually high, out of 30 students in my class 13 failed out, so those 17 of us who made it were fully prepared for the nclex

chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jul 23, 2012

I would second what steffuturelpn says about the weeding-out process occurring prior to the NCLEX. In addition, quite a number of nursing schools do not let their students sit for the exam unless they also achieve acceptable schools on exit exams, such as the HESI. Some of these schools have NCLEX pass rates that approach 100% because not only have they weeded out weaker students, they also only allow those who are prepped and likely to pass to sit for the exam.

Consider the somewhat analogous licensing situation for MD's who must sit for the US Medical Licensing Exam. This is a much more comprehensive test than the NCLEX but there are more similarities than differences. As you can see, passing rates for physicians, who face a similar weeding out process (though more so during the med school application phase than for medical school itself) are not dissimilar to those of NCLEX test takers:

Overall pass rates for first time USMLE Step 1 test takers are: 94% for U.S. M.D. medical school graduates, 89% for U.S. D.O. osteopathic medical school graduates, and 73% for international medical school graduates. First-time USMLE Step 2 CK test taker pass rates are: 97% for U.S. M.D. medical school graduates and 93% for U.S. D.O. medical school graduates. First-time USMLE Step 2 CS test taker pass rates are: 98% for U.S. M.D. medical school graduates and 88% for U.S. D.O. medical school graduates. Overall pass rates for first time USMLE Step 3 test takers are: 97% for U.S. M.D. medical school graduates, 94% for U.S. D.O. medical school graduates, and 78% for international medical school graduates. (In these statistics, "U.S. M.D. medical school graduates" includes graduates of Canadian M.D. programs.)[

I doubt that these high passing rates cause many to think that the USMLE is easy. High passing rates do not necessarily correlate with the difficulty of the exam either for doctors or nurses.

NCLEX passing rates

Reason for High NCLEX Pass Rate