So how many times will you take the NCLEX? Most all of you will surely answer at least once. But for some of us-those select few who no matter how hard we try just can't excel at a nursing exam-it might be a few more.
I'm fessing up: I did not pass the NCLEX the first time. I had heard from teachers and nurses alike that the exam could potentially shut off at 75 questions, 240 questions or somewhere in between. If it shut off at 75, you either passed with flying colors or you failed miserably. If it shut off at 240, you barely passed or barely failed. Mine shut off at 75 on the dot. Two days later I found out that I failed the NCLEX exam.
The days that followed, I was disgusted, disappointed, depressed, and any other "d" verb you can think of. I seriously wondered, Am I cut out to be a nurse? Have I just spent all this time in school and still don't know or understand enough to be a nurse? I despaired.
That's when my aunt, who was a nurse, offered a story about a nurse she once knew. This particular nurse was one of the best she had ever seen as it pertained to the care of patients. An example to follow, emulate. Someone who understood the dynamics of health care and what it took to be not only a nurse, but one of the best.
Then my aunt laid the bombshell: This nurse had failed the NCLEX SIX TIMES! Here I was fretting over one bad exam, and this poor nurse had to take it SIX TIMES before she got it right.
That story was motivation enough for me to reconcile my differences with a teacher of mine in college and ask for help. I can honestly say my time spent with this teacher tutoring me made the difference. It gave me motivation to strive for a goal that obviously I wasn't able to achieve on my own. The second time around I was ready. And this time the test went to question 76. After 120 questions the test ended.
A seemingly infinite two days later I found out I passed!
The best advice I could offer anyone out there who has yet to take this exam isn't fresh; it's as old as the advice your 9th grade geometry teacher gave you: Study your hind end off! Don't listen to those who tell you how the test was that have taken it, or those who took it years ago and speculate what it might be like today. Expect your case to be unique; expect it to be tough.
So, study hard, set a goal, partner with a tutor, and always remember that nurse who failed six times. Because if she can succeed after that many failures, you can too.
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April 30th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
i wish you could tell my nursing school about this they kick you out if you fail two classes and make you quit and come back. they feel that one who fails a class or two will never pass the nclex or become a good nurse. HA!
April 30th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Krys
Passing a class and failing/passing the NCLEX are two very different things. It is clear that you do not understand that concept.
If you fail 2 classes, you deserve to have to restart. Very good long term information shows that students who do not pass nursing classes with a minimum grade of at least a C+ do poorly on the NCLEX AND do poorly clinically. Nurses need to be very smart and need to do well in classes to be safe patient care providers.
To let a failing student continue is doing nothing more than soaking the student for money.
Some of the best nurses I know failed the NCLEX once. But these were also people who had done well in school and needed a little help taking a standardized exam. My guess that is what happened to Jason (congratulations by the way!)
It is important to note that in some states, you only have 2 tries on the NCLEX before you have to take formal remediation classes and even clinical. So it is important that students have solid knowledge to begin with.
Oh- Krys, if you worked a little more on your writing (particularly grammar and sentence structure) you might be better in school…
April 30th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Hello,
I will share the secrets of being successful on the NCLEX. Do not think you are a nurse after graduation from the college, university, technical college or diplomacy program. You are not a nurse until the color of the gown and cap is toss into the drawer for memories. The true graduation and certification of becoming a nurse will be applying for a date and time to sit for the NCLEX.
The NCLEX will decide your faith of becoming a Registered Nurse in your home state and to given recognition by nurses throughout the USA.
The two –four years of preparatory educational classes were the foundation for the NCLEX and the clinical rotations, too. In the theoretical and clinical phases of learning, each person should be able to demonstrate, understand and apply critical thinking to the concepts taught by the instructors. Therefore, the NCLEX will be able to measure the learning taught within the institution one attended.
To be successful of defeating the NCLEX is the following:
A. Do not study any more notes….too late…..use them as a guide when you answer the
study question incorrectly. Overall, it’s too late to study your 50 textbooks and 50
notebooks and old exams, Sorry….well not really.
B. Average 4,000 questions per day. Yes, 4,000 questions per day and more if you can.
C. I highly recommend searching for NCLEX reviews. Yes, they are pricey, some offer
financial assistance, plead to your family and friends for donations and most of all,
its worth it.
D. Do not work unless you have too and I am very serious. If you do, work do not work
more than you have too. The employer does not have to pass this test because you
do. The employer knows three things – 1.A graduate nurse who is easily distracted
by money 2. Cheap labor as a graduate nurse if failed the NCLEX demoted to CNA
& humiliation to the graduated nurse 3. Last resort, dismissed as a future nurse and
a hurtful pride. Do not take on more than you can handle. NCLEX, First.
E. Think NCLEX and Relax. Do not go out Partying the night before and act cocky.
On any given day, any one can be defeated by a test and no one is exempt.
Remember the NCLEX does not care one is a 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0 student.
One must maintain above the average level for a period of time, 75 questions is
the minimal and 250 is the maximal (if you get the extra questions or it will be
240).
F. This is your career and you worked so hard to be at this point. Now, it is your turn to produce and make it work.
G. If you have learning or physical disabilities and need special accommodations. It is your responsibility to get the paperwork completed.
I know this works because I did the routine above and more. I passed with an 82 questions and I did it in 45 minutes. I thought the computer died and I was slapping, hitting the top of the computer and punching the key board. Can you believe I had to wait 10 days? Ten days and I lost my hair, 35 lbs, depressed and looked like death had my butt. The reason for the long wait to received the results – I took the exam on a Sunday and holiday was the week previous week. The State Board of Nursing was behind 6 days and four days and I was the only one on Sunday. I was so happy to pass and I tried to eat but I vomited. I made myself sick over the NCLEX and it is not a National examination….that sucks lol.
Good luck…..
May 1st, 2009 at 5:32 am
This is a reply to the professor. There are exceptions to every story. When I was in college my professors worked with me. At least in my hometown college. At first, I would to a 4 year nursing school and the professors where all very standoffish and did not take anyone under their wing. I failed a nursing class one time by one point and LOST A 4 YEAR SCHOLARSHIP!
Disgusted, disappointed, depressed, I came back home and got married that year and together we bought a new house as my husband made $10.00 and hour and I made $7.25.
After a year I went back to my 2 year local college and found some EOF (Equal Opportunity Fund) Money and some type of working scholarship but I also worked for HOSPICE at night and went to college during the day as a full time student.
I did wonderful in clinical and I did wonderful when I wrote a paper. I did great in teaching patients and I did great when we had to stand up and give a speach to the class but where I did terrible was taking the actual test.
I had to take math for meds two times but I did pass. Some classes I would take the test and the teachers asked me if I was joking? I said no. I was being considered to get kicked out of my Nursing II class after having trouble with my Math for Meds class.
She looked at me and asked me questions that I got wrong from my exam and I told her the answers verbally and she told me, “You know the answer, why didn’t you pick B”? Because of my college, I was able to stay in college. Never the A student. As a matter of fact all I ever got in Nursing was C’s.
I graduated, barely, perhaps out of likability for me, if that is a word, but nevertheless, I passed … Thank You Mary Anne Hoy, Director of Nursing from Cumberland County College, Vineland NJ. Yes, I graduated because of you.
I went on to get my BSN at another college who once again were standoffish and I felt like I was just a number. I graduated.
I took the NCLEX, failed. I felt like Jason. Took the NCLEX again, failed. Took the NCLEX again and passed.
The gentleman I was taking care of for Hospice passed away but before he did he wanted to know how to spell my name so that he could leave me money, knowing this was unethical I told hime to leave it to the college, and then I laughed because I thought he was just joking. He asked me what college? I said, Cumberland County College and Rowan University, which I did not go to Rowan in my own back yard, perhaps I should have but I did not. But George Boyd did leave these two colleges a 1M dollar endowment which to this day is still helping nursing students. The two critera were that they had to be from the county in which I lived, and they had to be willing to go into the nursing program!
So professor, I would suggest have a little heart. Some of your greatest students are not good students but great people.
And because of my trouble I had with the NCLEX I started a web site, Caring4you.Net
May 1st, 2009 at 5:39 am
Oh and professor, stop giving out old information in regards to the NCLEX and don’t tell them you only have to get “60 Questions Right”.
Dear Ms. Garrison:
I am writing in response to your letter concerning Computerized Adaptive Testing for NCLEX.
Perhaps I can explain how Computerized Adaptive Testing for the NCLEX works. The goal of Computerized Adaptive Testing or CAT, is to determine your competence, based on the difficulty of questions you can answer correctly, NOT how many questions you can answer correctly. This is a fundamentally different approach than is used on paper-and-pencil tests, where everyone receives the same questions. CAT examinations are individualized.
We know the exact difficulty of each of the approximately 3,000 questions in the pool, because each has been taken as a tryout question by thousands of candidates and then statistically analyzed. Picture the questions all lined up, from easiest to hardest. If we asked you the easiest questions, you’d get most of them right. If we asked you the hardest, you would probably get most wrong. As we move from easy to hard, there will come a point where you go from getting more right…to…getting more wrong. This is the point where you are answering 50% correctly. Questions harder than that, you would probably answer incorrectly (you’d get some right, but more wrong); questions easier than that, you would probably answer correctly. That point is different for everyone. Nursing experts could probably answer at least one-half of the hardest questions we could ask. Whereas, we’d have to ask beginning nursing students the very easiest ones before they could answer even one-half correctly. You probably fall somewhere between those two points. The goal of CAT is to find that point for you. Your competence level is related to the difficulty level of the questions at the point where you can answer half of the questions correctly.
First, the computer asks a relatively easy question, and if you answer it correctly, it asks a somewhat harder question. As you continue answering correctly, the questions get harder and harder. When you start missing questions, they get easier until you start answering them right again, then they get a little harder. Each time you answer one correctly, the next is harder. Each time you answer one incorrectly, the next is easier. This process continues as it zig-zags, narrowing in on the point where you answer 50% correctly, e.g., one right, then one wrong. That point represents your competence level. This is why everyone ends up correctly answering 50% of the questions they are asked.
After you have answered the minimum number of questions, the computer compares your competence level to the passing standard amd makes one of three decisions:
If you are clearly above the passing standard, you pass and the examination ends.
If you are clearly below the passing standard, then you fail and the examination ends.
If your competence level is close enought to the passing standard that it’s still not clear whether you should pass or not, then the computer continues to ask you questions.
“Clearly” passing or failing is defined as when the “gray zone” around your competence level falls entirely above or below the passing standard. The gray zone is the region within which your competence level might vary if you answer more questions. The gray zone shrinks a little after each question because your competence level is based on more information.
If you can answer the difficult questions correctly, there’s no point in wasting your time giving you a lot of easy questions. Or, if you can’t answer the easy ones correctly, then you won’t be able to answer the difficult ones. In fact, the computer often could make a decision after less than the minimum of 60 questions, but 60 is necessary to ensure coverage of the NCLEX Test Plan. It is improtant you get the opportunity to answer several questions in each of the NCLEX Test Plan content areas in case you have particular strengths or weaknesses.
After each question, your competence level and the gray zone are recomputed, adding your new response to all of your previous answers. When the gray zone in entirely on one side or the other of the passing standard, you’ve clearly passed or failed and the examination ends.
Of course, some people’s competence level is very close to the passing standard. For some of these people, all 3,000 questions in the item pool still might not be enought to make it “clear” whether they should pass or fail. These are the people who take the maximum number of questions. At this point, the computer disregards the gray zone and simply looks at whether the final competence level, based on every question answered, is above or below passing. If you are above it, you pass. If not, you do not pass.
Therefore, a candidate’s final competence estimate is not determined by the number of questions she/he can answer correctly. This is a fundamentally different approach than is used on paper-and-pencil tests, where everyone receives the same questions. CAT examinations are individualized. The examination continues until the difficulty level is found where you are answering about half of the questions correctly. This corresponds to your competence level. If the level is above the passing standard, then you pass; if not, you do not pass.
Because the examination continues until it finds the level where you are consistently answering about 50% of the questions right, in the end everyone gets 50% right. What differs is the difficulty of the questions they were able to answer correctly half of the time. The pass/fail decision is based on the competence level corresponding to that difficulty, not on a percentange correct.
Each examination is designed to meet all requirements of the NCLEX Test Plan with a certain percentage of questions in each Test Plan area. It is NOT designed to administer a rephrased questions for questions you answered incorrectly. Each question is selected randomly from the item pool and any similarity between items is a coincidence.
You are not allowed to skip questions or go back to review or change previous answers because the heart of the CAT methodology, adaptive branching through the examination, makes skipping or revising earlier answers logically invalid. Once a answer is recorded, all subsequent questions administered depend, to an extent, on that response. If that response had been different, you would have received different questions. Skipping and returning to earlier questions my be appropriate stategies for taking a conventional paper-and pencil examination; they do not make sense for a CAT examination. You are not being disavantaged by the inability to skip questions or to go back to change previous answers. If you are uncertain of an answer and make an incorrect guess, your competence level is calculated to be slightly lower than it was just before the last question was administered. The next question presented to you will be easier, making it more likely you will answer correctly. Thus, you will not “dig yourself into a hole” from which you cannot return, since computerized adaptive testing has a built-in, self-correcting mechanism.
Test anxiety is indeed a problem for many people. In fact, it was part of the motivation for going to computerized testing, where a candidate may test on the time and day of their choice, in a more private and peaceful environment than a crowded gymnasium with hundreds of other worried candidates. The sample questions give you an opportunity to “settle in” to the testing situation and to practice with the necessary keyboard strokes. If the first 10 “real” questions did not count towards your score,…{which you have suggested}…they would not be “real” anymore, and we would simply have 13 sample questions. The tutorial and sample questions provoide extensive practice with the system. Additional sample questions probably would not help.
All legal and psychometric studies, and field test of computerized adative testing (CAT) methodology indicate it is valid, reliable, fair, and defensible. As series of studies were conducted on over 11,000 candidates before the decision was made to implement CAT. The studies consistently showed that NCLEX using CAT provided comparable candidate performance to paper-and-pencil NCLEX. In addition, pass rates from the first year of CAT were practically identical to those from the last year of paper-and pencil…..
I hope this information will assist you….
Sincerely,
Ellen Julian, Ph.D. Psychometrician
This letter was posted as a free public service. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NATIONAL COUNCIL of STATE BOARDS OF NURSING, INC for their role in my personal success.
The NCLEX changes every 3 years so be sure to upgrade your same old review if you offer one at the end
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 am
Anneliese
Believe me, I do have a heart about students and I work like crazy (as does almost every nursing prof I know) to support students in passing a course and standardized exams.
An excellent clinical student with difficulty in course work needs an assessment by the learning center since that student (like me) may have a learning disability that can be easily accomodated once identified.
One of my best students clinically couldn’t write a paper that made any sense or pass a standardized exam. I sent her to be evaluated and she had multiple forms of dyslexia. Once she had the skills to compensate for the dyslexia, she excelled. She was so successful she attended a prestigious school, received a masters and is now nationally know for her expertise.
That being said, I also believe that my FIRST obligation is to patients-and that includes assuring that only well educated and competent people become nurses. I also have an obligation to students to see that they are competent to contiuny their education if they so choose.
After reading your post, I have no doubt that you are thoughtful, caring and committed. I can only imagine what it might be like for you to have a faculty member ridicule your test taking by asking if it was a joke-I would never do that to a student.
But I suggest that you also were short changed-your grammar is worrisome i.e “I did wonderful in clinical and I did wonderful when I wrote a paper” and most of the rest of your post demonstrates that someone didn’t help you learn how to write-which is a critical skill for a real professional. I would have had the heart to see that you had ALL the skills necessary for full profesional success.
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Here’s a trick for those just starting nursing school. Do whatever it takes to earn A’s on your exams in school. Do that for the whole of nursing school. You will then pass the NCLEX guaranteed first time with 75 questions. You won’t even have to “prepare” for it.
And as a double bonus, you’ll even end up a really smart nurse.
Just a thought.
Edward
http://www.LastNurseStanding.blogspot.com
September 9th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Thanks for sharing your story with us (Jason and Anneliese)! I took the NCLEX 3 months ago for the first time and did not pass it. I will be taking it again in two days and I feel much better thanks to you. God Bless.
September 21st, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Anne,
That bit about Krys grammar wasn’t very nice. It’s like you tried to give some great advice, and then you hit him/her over the head with a hammer. No one deserves that. As a nursing professor and practicing nurse, you should know better. You should be about motivating and advising students, not making cheap shots.
Kisha
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 am
I am kind of anxious waiting for my results not sure if I passes, thanks all for sharing Iam encouraged.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Six ops to pass the NCLEX is much more than we had an opportunity to take. 3 tries and it was back to the classroom. I don’t think I would have had the courage to try 6 times. And yes, spelling and grammer really do count. That was a reality check and not a cheap shot.
June 12th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Well, it’s encouraging to read this. However, this test is a strange animal. I’m going to be on my 3rd attempt. 75Q then 169Q…fail both times. I’ve 3 college degrees and many, many hundreds of tests behind me. I still don’t get this test. The suggestion of answering 4,000 questions A DAY is ridiculous. That’s almost 3 questions a minute for 24 hours straight! If that’s what it takes then it’s pointless. Of course I know that advice is not sensible. I will say that Board exams aren’t this crazy, at least there the exam stays on one concentration area for the entire exam. NCLEX is all over the place and forget about taking the time breaks…what if you have to answer 200+ questions? You might not have time if you are struggling (which is the person who is answering that many questions). I’ll keep at it but I really have doubts as to how useful this test is. I’ve taken the board exams in my field studying USMLE material and did NOT have this kind of problem before. I’ve met some of the people who passed in 75Q and I think sometimes it’s just luck on the “type” of Q’s you get. This last test I had many, many SATA Q’s (which are statistically harder to get right) and no nursing math at all and many Pharm Q’s. Very little OB/GYN. It was confusing and disapointing. Anyway, it’s their test so I’ve just got to do whatever it takes…it ain’t pretty but I’ll get it done.
July 26th, 2010 at 11:10 am
I recently took the nclex and took all 265 questions. During the exam I caught myself focusing on what number I was on and the time on the screen. I began to tire real easily and get impatient. Also, I had every piece of content you name it! Except calculations and ordered response questions. I failed the exam
So disappointed! But I must admit after a while of taking the exam..I felt close to the end I failed…Also, I worked with a temp license for one month…not a good idea…jobs will come and go..must admit too..that before the job I procrastinated..same habits I had in school…too much content would overwhelm me so I would rely on on the hands experiences and favorite content…anxiety was my enemy and so was easily distraction. A/B student in fundamentals and pharmacology..until I got to med surg…It was C’s all the way through….Clinicals were successful:) However, when I got to the actual job with my temp license, this was a real struggle for me to adapt to time management. I really want to be prudent in my skills to help patients at a competent level. My weakness is retainability and anxiety! I have accepted that I failed the exam! Now it’s time to understand the content and take the exam again! Anyone who has failed in anything will tell you at least they’re a success in something! It’s not trying to understand the strategies of the exam but what was my weakness and strengths. I am excited to retest! Yesterday is so behind me and the future is bright before me! Focused and loving it!