How Does The Nclex-rn Exam Work?

The NCLEX-RN is the national licensing examination that a nursing candidate must present to become an R.N. The exam is written by the NCSBN, which is the National Council of the State Boards of Nursing. This is an organization where all of the state boards of nursing are members and they decide on issues of policy, education and professional standards. The actual exam is based on a CAT system which means a Computer Adaptive Test. What does this mean? It means that no two people will ever see the same exam and if a candidate retests that candidate will never see the same exam within any 365 day period. The exam adapts based on the candidates level and it will present in a way that the candidate will consider the exam challenging. The first question the candidate will see is considered a medium complexity question and based on whether the candidate answered correctly or not the next question will either be a question considered to be more complex or less however the candidate will still consider it challenging. The exam will continue to adjust the questions all along the exam until the candidate reaches 75 questions at which point the candidate is compared to the performance of other candidates who have tested over the last six months. If the computer is not certain of whether the candidate is above or below the passing standard then the computer will continue to ask questions of the candidate until It is certain the candidate is above the standard and the computer stops and the candidate passes, below the standard and the computer will stop because the candidate failed the exam. If the computer is never certain of either of these two possibilities it may continue to ask questions until it is certain and that means that a candidate can pass or fail at any point.
For this reason, coupled with the fact that the data bank of questions is basically revamped every 6 months meaning some questions are added, others eliminated, it is virtually impossible to pass by simply practicing questions. It is not meant to say that questions are not important however without knowledge and critical thinking skills passing the NCLEX-RN is a nightmare! No matter how many questions a candidate practices he or she will rarely see the exact same questions on the actual exam and questions are continuously being added or subtracted from the exam. This also becomes a big challenge in finding prep classes ..They are usually limited to a crash course that assumes that the candidate knows all the material and knows how the test works. The http://www.hnsclasses.com system is different in that it does not assume that the candidate knows the material but the exact opposite. The prep classes are in the format of nursing seminars carried out on live webinar format and build the candidate reviewing all material and teaching the student how to apply that knowledge to the NCLEX-RN.