National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc. (NCSBN) | 2023
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2023 NCLEX-RN® Test Plan
Once the passing standard is set, it is applied uniformly to every examination according to the procedures laid
out in the Scoring the NCLEX section. To pass the NCLEX, a candidate must perform at or above the passing
standard. There is no xed percentage of candidates that pass or fail each examination.
Similar Items
Occasionally, a candidate may receive an item that seems to be very similar to an item received earlier in
the examination. This may happen for a variety of reasons. Items may contain content pertaining to similar
symptoms, diseases or disorders, yet address different phases of the nursing process. Alternatively, a pretest
(unscored) item may contain content similar to an operational (scored) item. Candidates should not assume
they received a second item similar in content to a previously administered item because the candidate
answered the rst item incorrectly. The candidate is instructed to always select the answer believed to be
correct for each item administered.
Reviewing Answers and Guessing
Examination items are presented to the candidate one at a time on a computer screen. There is no time limit
for a candidate to spend on each individual item. Once an answer to an item is selected, the candidate is able
to consider the answer and change it, if necessary. However, once the candidate conrms the answer and
proceeds to the next item by pressing the <NEXT> button, the candidate will no longer be able to return to
a previous item. Every item must be answered even if the candidate is not sure of the correct answer. If the
candidate is unsure of the correct answer, the candidate should consider all response options and provide
their best answer in order to proceed to the next item. The computer will not allow the candidate to proceed
to the next item without answering the current item on the screen. The best advice is to maintain a reasonable
pace (one item every minute or two) and carefully read and consider each item before answering.
Scoring the NCLEX®
Computerized Adaptive Testing
The NCLEX is different from a traditional xed-length examination, which administers the same items to
every candidate. Fixed-length examinations ensure that the difculty of the examination is constant for every
candidate; therefore, the percentage correct is the indicator of the candidate’s ability. This approach requires
high-ability candidates to answer all easy items on the examination and low-ability candidates to guess on
difcult items. This method provides less accurate information about the candidate’s true ability.
The NCLEX uses CAT to administer items. CAT is able to produce results that are more precise and efcient,
using fewer items by targeting items to the candidate’s ability. The computer (i.e., CAT scoring algorithm)
estimates the ability of the candidate in relation to the passing standard. Every time the candidate answers
an item, the computer re-estimates the candidate’s ability. With each additional answered item, the ability
estimate becomes more precise.
Each item that the candidate receives is selected from a large pool of items using three criteria.
1. The item is limited to the content area that will produce the best match to the test plan percentages.
CAT ensures that each candidate’s exam contains enough items from each content area to match
the required test plan percentages. Regarding clinical judgment items, three case study sets and
approximately 10% stand-alone items will be selected depending on the exam length.
2. An item is selected that the candidate is expected to nd challenging. The computer estimates the
candidate’s ability based on all previous answers and the difculty of those items and then selects an
item that the candidate should have a 50% chance of answering correctly. This ensures the next item