And here you thought you knew everything there was to know about the NCLEX! Not so much. Bet you didn't know you could take your exam on some remote islands east of the Phillipines or that the NCSBN is considering fill-in-the-blank and short answer-style questions. Read on, my friends.
1. You, too, can write NCLEX questions that thousands of graduate nurses will face.
But they're not gonna pay you for it. And you can't write questions if you plan to take your NCLEX in the next two years. If you choose to become an Item Writer Volunteer, you can contribute to the development of the beast itself! If you are a nurse already, you can earn CE credits for your contribution. Not bad since many nurses end up paying a company or service to get those.
If you have a Master's in Nursing and some experience teaching, you can apply to be an 'RN Item Writer" and work as a consultant for the NCSBN and, I assume, actually get paid. I kind of find that comforting. There is no lab of crazy scientists dreaming up the most difficult questions they can muster. It's just a part-time nursing instructor who is dreaming up these things during commercials between America's Got Talent acts.
2. The NCLEX may continue to give you questions after your official NCLEX has already finished.
In July 2017, the NCSBN announced the Next Generation NCLEX Project. This project was born out of the discovery that, duhhhh, new grads are facing new challenges like never before. The NCSBN created the Special Research Section (their name, not mine) which appears after a candidate's actual NCLEX is over. It is still numbered as part of the candidate's exam (eg, if they ended on question 140, the special questions start with 141) but do not count toward the final result.
Only NCLEX-RN candidates will be presented with the questions, and there are other factors as well, such as how much time they have remaining on their clock, etc.
I would imagine that they will not show you any Special Research questions if you are approaching the end of the six hour test period.
3. The NCLEX is creating new types of questions that will measure clinical judgment.
This is a tiny, hidden area of the web site that delves deep into what exactly Special Research questions entail. Per the NCSBN, it is researching "several item types, including: extended multiple response items, extended drag and drop items, CLOZE items, enhanced hot-spot items, dynamic exhibit items, and constructed response items."
A CLOZE item is basically a fill-in-the-blank question. Constructed response items are ones where they give you a prompt to which you write a short answer. Frankly, any of the above sound scarier than the status quo.
The NCSBN has already revised how its Select-All-That-Apply questions operate. Which of the above do you think will introduced next?
4. The NCLEX is only translated into one additional language: French.
Canadian NCLEX-RN candidates may take the exam in French. There is a whole process to ensure it is fairly translated and that they understand nursing terms in both languages. It's a little over-the-top. If you want your test in a language other than English or French, tough luck.
5. Despite only being available in English and French, you can choose to take your NCLEX internationally.
Located in Paris, France the week you want to test? No problem. Osaka, Japan? You got it. You can even take your test in the Northern Mariana Islands in case you were interested. There is an international fee of $150 plus tax, but the option is yours!
6. The NCSBN has researched how ESL (English as a Second Language) candidates perform on their NCLEX.
Their conclusions were that, yes, ESL candidates do perform worse than native English speakers and that this is actually a good measure of how well they understand the language. If they perform poorly on the test due to language/vocabulary issues, they would make poor nurses, at least in the realm of not being able to communicate. Even if you're a great nurse, you can't be good at teaching patients or speaking with local doctors when you don't have language comprehension.
7. The NCLEX is changing the definition of "entry-level nurse" in 2019.
Currently, an NCLEX entry-level nurse is defined as having 6 month of experience or less. The NCSBN Board recently voted to revise this definition to be a nurse having no more than 12 months of experience. It's already changed this consideration for LPNs, but RNs will have this change occur in April of 2019.
Why change it? It would seem to imply that nursing covers a much more broad area of subject matters and comprehension than ever before, and therefore a nurse remains "entry-level" for a longer period of time while he or she adjusts.
8. We all know that they don't give you your score when you finish. But did you know that the NCLEX scores your test as you go and, of course, knows whether or not you passed when it shuts off.
Makes sense. Remember that it is an adaptive test. How could it know to adapt if it didn't know how well or poorly you were doing? Despite this, the results are unavailable even to the testing center staff. Nobody knows how you did except the guy running the results database at the NCSBN, apparently.
9. You no longer need to bring your ATT (Authorization to Test) paper on test day.
I remember bringing it to mine back in 2012! Apparently, all you need is a photo ID with your name and date of birth and they do the rest. They will require you to also submit to biometrics in the form of a signature, photograph, and palm vein scan. Welcome to the future.
10. The NCLEX-RN pass-rate for first attempts this year (2018) is the highest it's been in six years.
It's currently at 89.25%. Within the past few years, it's dipped as low as 81.78% (2014 was a rough year) or gone as high as 90.34% like in 2012. That's quite a bit of variation year to year and tends to correlate with when the test plans change, which they do on a cycle of every 3 years. The current test plan was implemented in 2016 and the one before that was 2013 and so on.
If you have already failed your NCLEX, the statistics on the likelihood of you passing your next time around are pretty scary: anywhere from 50-70% of repeat test-takers pass. Need some help from the experts on re-taking the NCLEX?
I hope you enjoyed reading a little more in-depth on this test that dominates the lives of graduate nurses. Have any more fun facts about the NCLEX? Share below.