bender73

thank you ...and thanks to dgilbert as well :) yea, i go to a ton of forums from car forums to stock forums and this place "in general" has the most uptight people on the net!!! sure, i might be a little abrasive at times but its all meant to spark some good debate. i am a nurse practitioner and my wife is now a nurse as well so its not like i am anti-nurse!!! i got blasted in my discussion about RNs striking and left this place for awhile cause it gave me a headache. its good to see that there are still some cool level-headed nurses out there that don't take things so damn serious!!! as an NP i walk the gray area in the real world between RN and MD and the only RNs that seem to have issues are the ones that complain about everything. they then whine about it on forums and fail to realize that they brought a lot (not all) of it on themselves. i might get flamed here again cause i speak my mind but i take comfort in the fact that the only people that will flame me are the ones that i am talking about so i don't really care. i know a ton of awesome RNs of all ages and we respect each other for our views. we might not always agree but through firey debate comes self-reflection and sometimes resolution. ...and to those that choose to flame me, well, that's cool cause i am not afraid to admit when i am wrong anyway, i got off track that's my theory of the NCLEX and i wish everyone the best of luck that takes this nutty exam and i hope you all pass!!! we need more young energetic nurses in today's healthcare environment and i can't think of a better profession to go into right now. you get paid very well to do a job that is highly respected.

first off - i put a SMILE after the text to convey innocent "happy" debating!!! the "i bet you can't" was not said in anger or anything!!! i don't post here much because the last time i did was because i had strong feelings towards an issue that others might not have agreed with. there is a lack of intelligence imo by "some" people on this website and that is fine. oh, and we're all not going to agree. i clearly stated that this was a THEORY i had and that neither of us know the secret formula. again, if you do know the secret formula to the NCLEX then i will concede that my theory is totally wrong - which is fine!!! its just a fun thread and not to be taken too serious. and regarding the comment about me not being a nurse - you're wrong. i am a family nurse practitioner in the dept. of medicine at a large teaching hospital.

i'm quite sure you know all the secrets i tell ya what, post EXACTLY how it works - including all the geeky math stuff. my bet, no offense, is that you can't or your reply will be some blanket statement about how you can't cause its too "involved" or something. unless you provide facts then your posts are no more accurate then mine. the difference is, i admit to only having a theory where you say you know the facts. if that is true then prove it by posting the secret formula and i will concede that i am wrong. i bet you can't :)

nobody (except those that designed the program) knows the truth - including you and i. we have our theories. personally, i think my theory is correct. :)

thanks!!! ...somebody noticed :) my other theory on the secret of the nclex (i love conspiracy theories) is that you get credit for a wrong answer (as long as its still correct, but not the "best" answer). you follow? this is my theory only. the nclex is based on making sure you will be a safe nurse. now, as we all know, there are always 2 answers that can indeed be correct but one is more correct. my theory is that as long as you rule out the 2 obvious blatent wrong (unsafe) answers then you get some or full credit for the question per the secret nclex formula. the test is far too hard to have such a high passing rate for me to think any different. i like the nclex because its a very cool program. my np boards were horrible in comparison because you only had x number of questions and you had to get x number correct or you failed. if you get a hard test then you are in trouble!!

yes, but you're missing the point at the critical question #76 that tells you that you are close to the "passing" standard. if your test ends at #75 then you definitely know you either really passed or really failed. at #76 you can be assured that you didn't REALLY pass yet but are close to passing. that leads me to think that if you're really close to the passing standard and the computer only gives you ~12-20 questions then you likely passed because you would have to go to the far end of the failing point in less than 20 questions when you already knew at #76 that you were close to the passing standard. FYI - my wife found out today that she passed at ~89 questions!!!

well, my theory (and this is only interesting discussion) is that if you are "so close" to the passing standard at 75 then it would be hard to fail at 80. that would mean a dramatic shift from one end of the curve to the other in the CAT's program within 5 questions. again, the key is that at question 76 you are more close to passing than failing. if you did very bad then at 75 it would shut off. if you go to 265 then the gray area becomes less of a factor in the CAT's program. see what i mean?

what do you think of this logic? wouldn't the chances of passing (if you felt you bombed) be higher if the test shut off at 80-90 questions? i think this only because from what i read there are 3 options at question 75... - you passed - you failed - you are close enough to the passing standard but not quite there (this is the key statement that i read somewhere) so, if you feel like you bombed and it shut off at 75 then you might have indeed failed. however, if you feel you have bombed and it shut off at 80-90 then that would mean that you definitley were not doing as poorly as you thought during those first 75 questions and you were "close enough to the passing standard" at question 76. so, if you're close enough to the passing standard at 75 and you only get 12-14 more questions then i would think that its a pass, no? if you went on to 250+ questions then you zig-zagged all over the curve and it could go either way at that point. i just don't see how one can be so "close to the passing standard" at 75 and then get failed with only a dozen more questions. thoughts? (this is just my theory)

thanks!!! its not really helping her feel better (obviously i'd assume), but i know she will appreciate your kind words. i went out and got her all her favorite stuff and now its just the wait. she already has a job lined up so i think that's what is really making this hard on her. moreover, i should confess that i am an NP and my NCLEX shut off at 75 - so that is prolly making her feel bad as well. oh, and i thought i failed both the NCLEX and NP boards (passed the NP boards by like 2 questions - whew). i think the NP boards are better cause they're pretty much straight-forward with a certain % you have to get correct. i hated the NCLEX cause you really couldn't estimate how well you did. everyone in my program seemed fixated on 75 = pass. i tried to tell her that i personally think a lot on 1 particular subject is not really bad cause it means you did well on the other topics. i had a ton of maternity questions on the NCLEX and i prolly bombed all of them!!! ...my own personal opinion (totally my own view) on the NCLEX is that a lot of questions really have 2 correct answers (but they don't tell you that). i think they are just making sure you will be a safe nurse and as long as you pick an answer that demonstrates that you will be safe (even if its not the real correct answer) then you still get credit for that. that's just my little personal conspiracy theory. :)

my wife took the NCLEX today and it shut off at 89 questions she is in a state of panic because she totally thinks she failed!!! she seemed to have a lot of "priority" questions and less questions from other topics. she stated that after question 75 she seemed to do better and thinks that because of that they were giving her easier questions and then failed her at question 89. can someone provide some insight? something i can say that might help? i think she is under the assumption that shutting off at 75 means pass and anything else means fail!!! my take on this is that its a board exam and regardless of how many questions one has you always think you failed!!! so, the bottom line is... is 89 questions a gray area? does the fact that she had easier (easier to her) questions towards the end of the test mean anything? thanks!!! -cb