omg everybody passed got alot SATA (my weakness)

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so i was going through all recent posts from people who passed nclex and everybody is telling that they got so many SATA questions . i am so afraid now. they are my biggest weakness. i am practicing them alot but still not confident . i do them like true and false but then too am not good at them. oh lord please save me . my test is within 5 days so getting more nervous .

My nclex is on Tuesday . Still I feel I know nothing . I finished all sata from Saunders now doing from nclex4000 more then half are completed but honestly only few were right :-(

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Specializes in Nephrology, Oncology.

Lippincott's publishes a book that contains just alternate format questions. Working my way through it, SATAs seem to dominate in this book...but I still think it's great to practice with all the other forms; I'm more comfortable now than I was three weeks ago with these demons for questions. If you're interested in taking a look at it, the book's title is "Lippincott's NCLEX-RN Alternate-Format Questions."

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Specializes in Mental Health/Substance Abuse.

I agree. I wouldn't recommend randomly selecting answers. I'm glad you passed though.

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Guessing on SATA questions is merely one kind of strategy, just like trying your best to answer all questions correctly is a strategy. Wasting time on questions that you have very little chance of getting correct is poor strategy in my opinion. In taking the NCLEX, there are many factors to consider such as time of the exam, time alloted to each question, fatigue, frustration, etc.

Think about it, if you gave one group of people a test with ten mulitiple choice questions, and another group 10 SATA questions, the group with SATA questions would never stand a chance. You have a 25% chance of guessing a multiple choice question correctly, and about a 1% chance of guessing a SATA question correctly. That's because each SATA is actually 5 True/False questions, miss one and you miss all. But that is exactly what NCLEX does. Some people get very few SATA, others get tons of them, the pass rate however, doesn't plummet into the fail zone for the people that have a lot of SATA questions. You can't argue with mathematics. The only way to explain this is by the conclusion that SATA questions are either weighted extremely low, or they have no negative impact on determining pass/fail. That is the only logical conclusion!

Anyone who wants to waste valuable resources struggling with SATA questions may certainly do so, but it will only serve to increase your chances of failing NCLEX. That may seem counter intuitive, but mathematically, it's a fact!

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Specializes in Peds.

Is there an alternate book for PN for SATA?

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I just got my quick results today. I had 75 questions, about 30 of them were SATA. I didn't even read the SATA questions. Just clicked 2 random boxes for each one and moved on. Didn't want to waste any time on them because I knew the chances of getting SATA questions correct are extremely small. Out of all those SATA questions, I may have gotten only 1 or 2 right. But the way I think the test works is if you get a lot of SATA, that's a good thing. It means that you are correctly answering questions in the the highest level of difficulty. As long as you continue to do well on the multiple choice, and don't sweat the SATA, you will pass. Some people might disagree with me, but that's only way I can explain my passing. Certainly, we can all agree that SATA is the most difficult kind of question simply due to the fact that one SATA is actually composed of 5 true/false questions, and if you miss any part, you miss all. When I left the PV building after my test, I felt cheated because almost half my test was SATA! I was absolutely certain that I had failed that exam. I came home did the PV trick and got the good pop up. Just now I got quick results. PASS!!! Hope that helps anyone worried about select all that apply questions. I would question anyone that says NCLEX is easy, simply because everyone technically gets a score of only 50%. Its the level of difficulty that you are able to maintain the 50% score which determines pass / fail. Anyone who says the exam was easy, was probably missing a lot more of the questions than they realize.

LOL! I thought I was the only one who answered the SATA that way! haha! I would just look at my SATA patterns and make sure they looked "cool". I really didn't care either... I stopped at 75 questions so I might have made lucky guesses

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Guessing on SATA questions is merely one kind of strategy, just like trying your best to answer all questions correctly is a strategy. Wasting time on questions that you have very little chance of getting correct is poor strategy in my opinion. In taking the NCLEX, there are many factors to consider such as time of the exam, time alloted to each question, fatigue, frustration, etc.

Think about it, if you gave one group of people a test with ten mulitiple choice questions, and another group 10 SATA questions, the group with SATA questions would never stand a chance. You have a 25% chance of guessing a multiple choice question correctly, and about a 1% chance of guessing a SATA question correctly. That's because each SATA is actually 5 True/False questions, miss one and you miss all. But that is exactly what NCLEX does. Some people get very few SATA, others get tons of them, the pass rate however, doesn't plummet into the fail zone for the people that have a lot of SATA questions. You can't argue with mathematics. The only way to explain this is by the conclusion that SATA questions are either weighted extremely low, or they have no negative impact on determining pass/fail. That is the only logical conclusion!

Anyone who wants to waste valuable resources struggling with SATA questions may certainly do so, but it will only serve to increase your chances of failing NCLEX. That may seem counter intuitive, but mathematically, it's a fact!

You seriously think that randomly guessing 2 choices on a SATA is a good strategy? I mean, this is the NCLEX, you could at least TRY to reason out the answer. What are you going to lose by attempting to answer the question correctly? I would suggest not wasting time practicing SATA questions in preparation for NCLEX, but I would not recommend your strategy (or lack thereof). You're lucky it worked for you.

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You seriously think that randomly guessing 2 choices on a SATA is a good strategy? I mean, this is the NCLEX, you could at least TRY to reason out the answer. What are you going to lose by attempting to answer the question correctly? I would suggest not wasting time practicing SATA questions in preparation for NCLEX, but I would not recommend your strategy (or lack thereof). You're lucky it worked for you.

I'm not lucky. You are simply unwilling to accept the mathematical facts. Try reading my post again and think about it purely from the scientific perspective. And to answer your question, you lose a lot by trying to answer those SATA questions. Humans are subject to fatigue and feelings of discouragement on every question that they feel like they have answered incorrectly. Acknowledging that SATA questions are irrelevant before beginning the examination is a huge advantage. It may be a strategy that you can't accept or understand; however, my point is still proven with simple math.

Occam's razor - the principle urging one to select from among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect."other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one."

Ergo: The idea that people with an unusually high number of SATA questions usually pass purely due to luck is extremely unlikely. If your premise were correct, the reverse would be true. According to the post in online forums, other's I have personally asked, and my own experience, those with many SATA questions, even though their test may have been only about 75 questions, almost always, if not all, pass the NCLEX.

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I honestly did not get alot of SATA! I got around 7-10 and about 5-6 drag and drop. My test stopped at 75 but I am so scared that i did not pass since ppl are saying they got over 20 SATA questions..

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Getting a lot of SATA questions is not common. I would say 7 -10 is more than most, and the fact that your test stopped at 75 indicates that you have a very high percent chance of passing. Few people do so badly that the test will flunk them at only 75 questions. If you are in doubt, do the PV trick. Try to re-register for NCLEX. If it takes you all the way to the credit card screen, then you probably didn't pass.

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