NLN Results....

ernurse2015 · Aug 31, 2009

On the verbal ability there is vocabulary and short stories with questions. Then math and science. There are 80 questions for verbal and 80 questions on science but they only count 60 questions the other are just random. The math 54 questions only count 40. I am just frustrated with the whole process of having to take the NLN and that being the only thing they look at to determine your acceptance into the nursing program. I am a good test taker but when it comes to remembering my math and science stuff its much harder for me.

Not sure if this helped you.

nvr2late · Aug 31, 2009

It helped but I'm still frustrated as well. The "TEAS" was also geared to see your understanding of reading and language skills. The science blew my mind because much of it was earth science. I scored 100% on the 'human science' or 'medical science' portion.... 94% on the reading comprehension and 92% on the language skills. I know my math/algebra score brought down the final score - - - I don't remember how many questions, but I know I did awful in the math and great in the rest. What I really really need to know is: is this mostly academic knowledge (math/reading/comprehension/science) OR ARE THERE NURSING QUESTIONS INVOLVED? I am already exhausted before school even starts, just up all night worrying about this test. We have many applicants and not enough slots (450/40) and so only the highest scores from NLN will get in spring. Will the core Math 1012 class help me before the NLN? Is that class going to be relevant to this test? NVR2late

ernurse2015 · Aug 31, 2009

The test is more on your academic knowledge of basic math, and reading. The science however in my opinion asks a lot of questions about physics. We have 60 slots available 40 are for the day students and 20 for the evening. They require at our school you have a CNA license before you can even take the NLN exam.

nvr2late · Aug 31, 2009

Well, I have a CNA license even though I only took the course to obtain the PCT. I never worked as either. So are you saying that there ARE 'basic nursing' questions, or strictly math and science, etc? You have been very helpful!!! I appreciate the input lots. NVR2late. :confused:

ernurse2015 · Sep 1, 2009

There are no nursing questions at all on the NLN exam. It's strictly basic academic questions as it relates to math, science and reading. The science portion covers biology, chem, some anatomy and physiology, and the rest physics.

nvr2late · Sep 8, 2009

...Or, you could go to any local bookstore chain. I bought mine at Barnes & Noble after checking it out for "2 week maximum" from the school library. BTW, has anyone heard of Rapid Learning Center (online) electronic tutoring courses for the :nurse: pre-rec basics? It's between $100-200 bucks but seems like a valuable tool; especially for those of us Mathly and Sciencely Challenged :banghead: nvr2late

ernurse2015 · Sep 9, 2009

Are there any tutors you can get to help with the NLN other than using the study guide? I reached out to my local college but they don't have any to help with this. They have more specific subjects.

Thanks for any feedback.

Johnny_B · Dec 14, 2009

Well - I guess it was knowing what to expect on the exam that would be the best help. Some people like the cream/blue book that is sold at the CLC bookstore. Someone told me the other, large Gold book they got at Amazon is much closer to the exam.

Here is what I found on the exam in 2007-2008:

Math: Mostly fractions with cross multiplication

If I recall, there may have been a couple of trig questions, but they were basic

Science: Some basic physics (energy related questions), some chemistry questions basic equasion balancing, ion questions, nursing related H, Ca, Na and K, Anatomy&physiology - mostly just about the heart and circulation system

Vocabulary - basic, A&P terminology (not nearly as tough as the ACT or SAT vocabulary). There were some basic electronic questions about series/parallel circuits and using Ohms law and/or Watts law. But I worked 3 years as an engineer and had a background in electrical engineering, so I breezed through them.

Personally I only missed a few math and science questions and I think it was about 11 vocabularly questions. Anyway, I managed to get 99%'tile when I took the test. If you want any pointers, you can ask.

Oh yeah - all of the questions in every area had a nursing slant. They were geared at the nursing part of the math, science and vocabulary.

ernurse2015 · Dec 22, 2009

Do you know what the name of that book is? The one that was found on Amazon?

Johnny_B · Dec 22, 2009

I found 2 other books listed at Amazon. The following book has the best rating at their site. The other book was not ranked as high. The one I used was the Cream/blue book and it was not very good.

http://www.amazon.com/Review-Guide-RN-Pre-Entrance-Exam/dp/0763762717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261509340&sr=8-1

I hope this helps.

luvkoi · Feb 8, 2010

I just got my NLN scores and got a 102 composite which is 56% in all is that good?? :confused: I also got a 3.8 for my final grade last semester so I hope that helps.

Johnny_B · Feb 10, 2010

I don't recall the composite scores. And you have to look at the percentile ranking not percentage correct.

What happens is the NLN people take your score in each category and your composite score and come up with a percentile ranking. That percentile ranking compares your scores with approximately 20,000 other students across the US. The end result is what they call percentile ranking.

Most schools have a minimum requirement to get into nursing. CLC's I believe is somewhere between 40th and 50th percentile, however, this is a minimum. It is not what you will need to get in, only to be considered by the school.

CLC, like other schools has a maximum ratio of students to teachers. At CLC, it is 10 students per teacher. I believe this is a state requirement. With 10 teachers a semester, that means only 60 students will be accepted each semester. Typically at CLC, 200-300 students apply to the program each semester. This means the school must eliminate 140-240 students. They use the NLN exam, (because it is a nationally recognized standard for evaluating necessary knowledge). The percentile that ends up being the cutoff for entrance ends up being the lowest possible ranking that eliminates all but 60 students at CLC and probably something different at other schools. Percentile rankings can be from 0 percentile to 99 percentile. When I got into the program, I believe the minimum percentile ranking accepted was 91 percentile. But this varies from semester to semester. I believe last semester they must have had more applicants and it was 92 percentile. It all depends on how many people they have to eliminate.

With that being mentioned, here is what I ended up doing: On the math, I did very well. I think I may have missed 6 questions at most. On science I missed about 10 questions and on vocabularly, it was maybe 11 or 12 wrong. At least that was what I recalled. In any case, the only number they used was the percentile ranking, which for me was 99 percentile. So you don't need a perfect score to rank high.

As a side note: I studied from the cream and blue colored book and I found it useless for content. The style of questions, however, were similar. Math questions were almost all fractional type math. Science included lots of basic physics questions, I think a handful of chemistry questions, a few anatomy and physiology questions, mostly about the heart and circulatory systems and a couple of basic electronics questions. I studied a 300+ page vocabularly book and only found one word from the entire book on the exam. The vocabularly words were mostly centered around healthcare. When I took the exam, I was enrolled in general biology. I looked at some information about the heart and circulatory system, thinking this would be good to study and it was. I had a background in electrical engineering, so the electronics questions came easy. I had a fairly strong background in physics as well. I was worried about vocabularly, but it was considerably easier than what was on the SAT test. My background also included lots of math, including Calculus 1, 2 and 3 and Diff EQ, as well as advanced engineering mathematics, but none of that was necessary. Basic algebra and knowledge of math with fractions was all that was necessary, and maybe a little basic triganometry.

If you truely got only a 56 percentile ranking (and check you looked at on the results sheet), you will most likely need to retest. You need to find the percentile ranking for your chances.