Why does NCLEX make you feel like a failure then lets you know you passed?

mtngrl, ASN, RN · Jul 8, 2006

Haha. I felt the same way. I got lots of questions of stuff I had never even heard of! My test stopped at 75 and I thought I must have done really bad. I cried and even told everyone that I'd have to try again. But I passed. I had to guess at so much though. So yeah it doesn't really gage how much you know. But I guess I knew enough.

RN and Mommy · Jul 8, 2006

Yep, I walked out thinking I had failed too. 75 questions and I thought I had only answered like 5 of them right. The questions that I did remember (which was like 3) I looked up when I got home and I missed all three of them. I just don't know! I was never so unsure about a test in my whole life!

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jul 8, 2006

The test can make people feel really dreadful, especially since it's set up where both passers and failers tend to score around 50%. If you're doing well at a certain difficulty level, it keeps getting harder (and making you feel worse and worse).

Nurselee774 · Jul 8, 2006

Wow, its good to know that I am not the only one that thinks this way, I just talked to one of my classmates and she said that she and everyone else that took the NCLEX that was in my class felt the same way. Only one person we know of failed (and she failed at 75 questions!). I am really glad that the Arizona Board of Nursing posts the next day if we passed or failed. I wonder how long it takes other states.

KnarfKS · Jul 8, 2006

I must have had the easiest test ever. I honestly walked out and knew I passed. I went in with the attitude of whatever happens happens, I took it and came out very confident at 75. I was out of town and didn't find out until a week later when my license came in the mail.

I thought it was hard, but at least the test wasn't complicated moronic questions of liquistcal gymnastics like kaplan questions. BTW took kaplan prep course, didn't bother showing up to the last 2 days, complete waste of time.(thankfully the state of kansas paid for it, and not me)

I'm a very pessimistic person, but I do think a positive attitude and at least some self confidence going into it helps out.

AmyD_RN · Jul 8, 2006

I came out not knowing either way for sure. I felt totally in the middle. But I do think that we study content and that the test is alot of critical thinking skills. Can you guide yourself throught the questions thinking like a nurse sorta test. I believe that doing alot of study questions is the key, yes you have to know alot of the content and it helps, it is just all of it wrapped up in one. But our "college" minds are thinking content. that is how we are programed from school. that is why you have to "study" for the nclex! After so many years of college. Then you get to your job and realize you don't know what you thought you did........LOL Funny when you think about it.

AmyD

DaretoDreamRN · Jul 9, 2006

thats the same way i felt. I took mine on thursday the 6th. I walked out of there shaking. i parked my car and started crying by the road side. I called my sister and told her that it was the hardest exam in the world and i tink i failed. I looked up the questions i could remember and i failed some of them.I locked myself in the room and didnt eat or speak to anyone. I just checked my result 30mins ago and saw i paaseed. the 7.95 dollars was worth it cos im so freakn happy. Its unreal.

youngatheart · Jul 9, 2006

I felt the same way. Walked out like I didn't know a single answer. Passed with only 75 questions. Had a lot of select all that apply and priority, who would you see first. I know we should know all our ABC's to decipher the answers but as a new nurse, I would not be a charge nurse having to choose who gets what patient. It will take me (a new nurse) a little while to get my own bearings. Plus alot of the medication questions, I would still look up. Eventually working on the same floor you get to know the meds pretty fast. Oh well Congratulations to all of us.

madkat143 · Jul 11, 2006

I've been milling around this website for the past few weeks, trying to get a feel for what to expect regarding the NCLEX. Finally posting after using a box of tissues, as I returned from the Pearson Testing Center this morning and feel like 99.9% of the others that have taken this dreaded exam! Have been reviewing solidly for the past few weeks, answered thousands of questions in both books and on the computer, was drug away from the keyboard last night after completing my THIRD set of 265 questions in one day (Billings Review scored 78, 79, 85), slept horribly, but felt confident going in and was KNOCKED off my horse when the screen went blank at 75! Felt like I didn't know one answer and guessed at them all! NO math, 2 pharmacology and what felt like an eternity of delgation and prioritizing questions! Have my mind set that I have to retake this! 48 hours might as well be 48 weeks!

Nurselee774 · Jul 15, 2006

When I look back at taking the test, I think that the only thing that really helps to study is doing test questions like Lippencott, sauders etc. I think that we were taught enough of the basics in the last 4 semesters that will help us to answer the questions. The test questions don't seem to be based on memorization but on how to think through each problem. I feel that if you paid attention is class and read the books that you won't have any problem in passing. I just wonder if they purposely make you feel like you failed when you leave the test. I really liked the way the HESI exam gave you a score as soon as you finished the test and broke it down into what you lacked and what you exceeded in.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 15, 2006

Congratulations. It does seem to be a universal feeling when one leaves NCLEX that a person has failed. So many posts on this forum is testimony to that. There's the "I know I failed, I vomited, I cried......" post followed by "I PASSED!!!". (Next comes the "I'm a new nurse and overwhelmed" posts. Careful what you wish for. :)

I don't think it's NCLEX that has the power to make you feel like a failure. That comes from with inside your own head.

Congrats on passing.