Priority Questions Level of Difficulty is the Passing Mark?

Everyone who took NCLEX, passed or not, has in some point of their exams encountered many priority questions. I am thinking that priority questions' level of difficulty is the passing mark.

If you were able to get priority questions, then you are near the passing mark. If you were given TRIAGE or more difficult questions towards the end of the exam, then you might have surpassed the passing level.

If you were given basic nursing assessment, planning, implementation towards the end of the exam, then you might have failed it.

If you answered more priority questions correctly towards the end of the exam, you might have passed or the other way around.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Actually, I am not trying to second guess the exam and I am not convincing everyone here to do that during the actual exam. The important thing here is that we should be able to understand how the machine works and at what level of difficulty a priority question might be.

Knowing this would help us prepare for the exam. For example if we know that priority questions are at difficulty level near the passing mark, then during our review, we must be able to achieve atleast 65% correct on all practice priority questions before we sit for NCLEX. That way, we know if we are ready or not and not just putting our $200 down the drain.

I understand your desire to know this, really I do. The reasons you gave make perfect sense. HOWEVER, what we have been trying to tell you is that there is no "type" of question that really gives you a great indication of whether you are failing, near passing, slightly above passing, way above passing. You CANNOT tell. The overall thinking (and mine, too, up until recently) was that priority, delegation, infection control were higher level questions.

Reality kicked in. People reported that they had LOTS and LOTS of those questions--and yet failed. Obviously, the harder ones they got wrong, the easier ones (right or wrongly answered) were below the level of passing.

Triage questions, as you keep asking, are priority questions (what is your priority in this situation). Don't get hung up on symantics. Priority questions can be rather easy and will NOT PASS YOU no matter how many "below standard" ones you get.

I see you have many threads and questions on this subject; my best suggestion would be to read through them, read the facts from the Board itself, and then you'll know where your thinking is correct and where it's faulty.

Best of luck to you.

[FutureUSRN]

You are not getting my point. Understanding how the system works is not to determine the results of the exam but to help us prepare for the exam. Two different things. You might be thinking that we will be using this to predict the results of the exam after taking it. No! I want to understand this to help me better prepare for the exam.

As so many here have told, they got many priority questions so it means we need to get prepared for these priority questions. I know that TRIAGE is a priority question; but what level of priority question? easy? difficult? or maybe both?

Why we were not given a lot of pharma questions rather then priority questions? Is there a reason?

I am not trying to convince everyone here. If somebody here can say that he got a lot of pharma questions than priority questions; then I will rest my case.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

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I know that TRIAGE is a priority question; but what level of priority question? easy? difficult? or maybe both?

As I have said a number of times now (with support of others), it is NOT that you can determine how difficult a question is by the TYPE. For instance, you can have a triage question that taxes your brain, has alot of components, and people with very similar severity, such that you have to really work at the correct answer. A difficult question. Or, you can have a triage question that places two of the four people in no danger at all, one person has a UTI, and the last person is bleeding out from a cut artery. Get it? Easy.

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Why we were not given a lot of pharma questions rather then priority questions? Is there a reason?

Everyone has a different mix. I've seen people get one or two med questions in 75 questions, others get 12. Both passed. I've seen people get not many in the whole 265, and others get alot. Both failed. Do you see where I'm going here? A pharm question is just that: a question. Could be easy to answer or hard.

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I am not trying to convince everyone here.

*I* got alot of pharm questions, some that I found ridiculously hard. Meds I hadn't been familiar with used in unusual (to me) ways. Were they scored? Were they pilots? NO ONE knows, but I still passed pretty easily

If you still wish to chip away at this, you certainly may, but I hope by now you see the point you SHOULD be getting is that you need to be able to apply the knowledge you learned in school. That's IT. The test determines your judgment in nursing situations. It does so to a minimum standard, not a maximum. Everyone passes a minimum standard; about 85% the first time, anyway.

[RGN1]

Whichever way you look, whatever way you study, bottom line is that you need to know your content & you need to know how to prioritise safely & effectively.

Go thorough as many questions as you can then try out the Mosby CAT test on-line & see what it predicts. I would personally recommend Kaplan - preferably the live course - because that is where you can learn those all important prioritising skills. That way when you do your exam you can make sure you're answering questions at a level high enough for you to pass.

[RGN1]

I got LOADS of priority questions from about the 5th one onwards. The vast majority of them were "which patient would you call first" & there were always 2 who were really hard to choose from & there were ones where airway was probably the red herring.

I got 2 delegation types, 2 what was being done right/wrong by lower grade staff, about 5 infection control, several teaching & 7-10 "tick all that apply" which were mostly drug related. I passed at 75.

This was my exam & it won't be yours but now you know.

[RNKay31]

I had lots of priority questions, who do you see first and delegation questions, but guess what I am an A student and I did not fail because I did not know the enemy, but because I was very nervous and when I saw question 76, I frozed and evey question after that was a blind out of focus choice I had chosen, so now I fully know that no matter how many questions, you get, it means nothing, it's just a number. I think all of my questions were prioritizing to me, a few med-surg, but LOL, I guess the computer throwed those at me, when I was not doing too well, but take no offense, do not scrutinize an A student, just remember even someone who had never done nursing courses, if given the NCLEX exam might pass, some people are very good guessers per say, it is all about knowing your content and test taking strategies along with critical thinking, that's how it is in NCLEX hospital, all your supplies are there, no need to say what if, cause there is no what if, all the best, I know I will pass the next time around.

[JenNJFLCA]

The bottom line is practice, practice, practice, and practice some more.

Kaplan had tons of priority/triage/delegation questions that helped prepare many of us for the NCLEX.

[JenNJFLCA]

No, there must be someway to rationalize NCLEX because NCLEX CAT is based on logic and reasons.

We don't need to rationalize it, let the computer do it. Take the test to the best of your ability. It is what it is.

[JenNJFLCA]

NCSBN is evil! They make us take a test that does not give you a set amount of questions. You have no clue how many you will have. That's just wrong!

[sunny2006]

I got all A-B's, and I knew my content walking into my first NCLEX. What failed me (and what the enemy is, in my opinion) is the level of critical thinking. This test is nothing like nursing school tests, in my opinion, which is all based on content. Don't go in thinking if you know the content, you will be OK.

With the NCLEX, you have to break down piece by piece (and sometimes 5 or 6 pieces!) of information they give you in the question to get to the answer.

Another poster on here wrote regarding priority questions, that they come in different kinds of difficulty levels. I also saw that on my NCLEX a few months ago some priority ?'s that were on the easier level (these are just examples, guys)... like would you see first?--a pt who couldn't breath vs the other pt's w/ stabilized fractures)....or harder priority questions (just an example again!)--like which pt would you discharge first (all pt's were on their death beds in critical care with very similar problems)

Now those are the ones that threw me off!

So yes, like the other poster said, there are definitely different levels of priority and triage questions.

[lcbradley]

Don't spend too much time trying to figure the test out. Now if that's going to be your total focus, then that's one thing. But, if your main goal is to become that LPN or RN, then focus more on taking the content you learned from nursing school and critically thinking.

What I have figured out is the more questions I do, the more I begin to see how the test is actually designed. You can actually have no idea what a medication is and have a high chance of getting it correctly based on what the answer choices are (process of elimination, whether it's asking for a s/s or an adverse effect).

My nursing school also works to prepare us for NCLEX by giving us NCLEX-type exams for tests. The exams are taken on the computer and there is no going back and forth.

I did not understand this at first because I was so good with "content" tests. Now I fully understand the importance as my critical thinking skills have improved tremendously.

[FutureUSRN]

I must agree with you! Critical thinking is needed to answer priority questions correctly!