NCLEX shut off at 75- freaking out

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Hi All,

I took the NCLEX yesterday and found it to be very difficult. Over 20 SATA but no other alternate format types with the exception of one calculation. At times it would seem like an easier question would come up but then the answer choices were all worded in ways that really had me second guessing. I ended at 75 which took me over 2 hours. I've consistently had the "good" pop up for over 24 hours but I'm really losing it. I was a good student (3.9), studied hard for about a month, completed all of Kaplan, but I'm a mess. Do quick results ever show up early? I'm in NY and have a job starting on Monday (contingent on my passing) and they are telling me to call the office of professions to try and get an earlier release of my scores. So far, no luck.

Does anyone have any advice? I'm sure I just need to wait it out but I'm finding the wait excruciating....

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Specializes in NICU.

NCLEX is a computer adaptive test. It determines after question 75 to do one of three things: stop because it determines that you are minimally competent to be a nurse; stop because it determines that regardless the number of questions, you can not pass; or continue to give you questions. So, since it stopped at 75 questions and not continue to give you questions, either you did very well or you were so far below passing that you had no chance of passing. The odds of someone that has a 3.9 GPA, studied hard for a month, and got 20 SATAs would completely bomb the test? Very, very unlikely. I would guess that there is a 99% chance of passing. The 1% chance of failure would be a complete meltdown, which is unlikely because of the 20 SATAs. Even though not all SATAs are above passing questions, it very unlikely that they are basic questions that are far below passing level that you would get if you are completely failing the test.

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Haha. I definitely wasn't drunk so based on your reply I'm liking my odds.

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Specializes in NICU.

You have to look at yourself objectively. If you had 2 classmates that took NCLEX; one was a straight A student and the other passed every class by the bare minimums. If the one that barely passed nursing school passed NCLEX and the A student failed at 75 questions, what would be your reaction? Something had to go seriously wrong for the A student to fail at 75 questions (major pain meds, alcohol, mental breakdown, or arrogance to not think they need to study).

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