ATI - RN Predictor

We seniors have taken our last ATI test! This ATI exam does not affect our grades, like the tests did last year, but it does predict how we will do on the NCLEX exam.

The NCLEX exam is the test you take to get your RN license. It is a computer adaptive test, meaning that the next question given depends on how you answered the previous question. So if I get a question wrong, the next question will be easier (and probably concerning the same topic), and if I get a question right, the next question will be more difficult. There is a "passing bar", and as long as you stay above the passing bar you are considered to be "minimally competent in nursing", and you pass! Our teachers keep telling us, "You are all... minimally... competent." :)

To explain this bar, think of a ladder with a red rung smack dab in the middle. We all start at the minimally competent rung. If I get the first question right (a question that would be considered to test minimal competency), then I move up a rung into the passing zone! But the next question is harder now, and if I get it right, I move up another rung! The next question I get wrong because it's about a drug I've never heard of before, so I move down a rung, but I'm still above the red one, so I'm still passing. This keeps going; up and down and up and up (hopefully), and as long as I end up above the red rung when the test is over, I'm good.

Some NCLEX facts to scare us:

The NCLEX exam is written by nurse specialists who are experts in a cotent area of nursing.

All content is selected to allow the beginning practitioner to prove minimum competency on all areas of the test plan, and tests your judgment and discretion and ability to think critically and solve problems.

Minimum competency questions are most frequently asked at the application level, not the knowledge level.

Questions and answers are written in such a way that you will not be able to predict or recognize the correct answer.

The answer choices have been extensively tested, and the people who write the questions make the incorrect answer choices look attractive to the unwary test-taker.

So, I took the ATI exam consisting of 180 questions. I even used the Decision Tree for a few of the questions, and it helped! In order to pass the test for school, we needed to get a 70% or higher; this would put us in the high 90th percentile for passing the NCLEX exam the first time.

At the end of the test, my results showed that I got an 80%.
My predicted probability of passing NCLEX-RN on the first attempt: 98%!!!!!!

Mean Score - Nationally: 71%
Mean Score in the Program: 70.7%
My Percentile Rank - Nationally: 91
My Percentile Rank - Program: 91

The biggest thing I need to work on: Pharmacology.