The NCLEX the New Generation Exam

In order to lawfully practice nursing in the United States, Canada, and Australia, nurse graduates must pass the NCLEX exam, also known as the National Council Licensure Examination. Graduates in practical (or vocational) nursing must pass the NCLEX-PN test, whereas graduates in registered nursing must pass the NCLEX-RN exam. There are significant changes to the NCLEX exam that you should be aware of if you're a nursing student who plans to graduate in the spring of 2023 or later.

The NCLEX of the future (NGN)

The Next Generation NCLEX, or NGN for short, is a new version of the NCLEX that will be made available by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).

When will the new NCLEX start taking place?

On April 1, 2023, the NCSBN intends to release the updated Next Generation NCLEX format. Therefore, those of you graduating in the spring of 2023 or later will probably receive the new format unless the release date changes.

What is the NCLEX for the Next Generation? What is altering?

Before the actual release date, all exam information is subject to change. However, one of the significant changes you'll notice on the Next Generation NCLEX is a move toward case studies (also known as scenarios) to gauge test takers' capacity for critical thought.

Describe a case study. The test measures a candidate's aptitude for managing a specific nursing problem through the use of a constructed scenario that could occur in the real world of nursing. A patient's diagnosis, present assessment results, current medications, lab results, and a presenting issue are all provided to the test-taker.

The testing applicant will be questioned on how the nurse would react to or handle the issue based on this information. This type of inquiry gauges a candidate's ability to provide competent, high-quality patient care and calls for significantly more critical thinking and nursing expertise.

In addition to various sorts of questions, there will be roughly three case studies with six questions each for a total of 18 items.

The Next Generation NCLEX will also have five additional item kinds, including the following:

• Extended Multiple Response - Although there are multiple response questions on the current NCLEX, such as SATA questions, "Extended Multiple Response" will increase the number of answer choices for each question.
• Extended Drag and Drop - In these question types, you must drag a response into one of the empty answer fields. Test takers must now choose whether to use all of the available alternatives or just some of them.
• Cloze (Drop-Down) - There may now be many drop-down boxes in a Cloze question type. - these are the drop-down alternatives that allow you to select a proper solution.
• Enhanced HotSpot- This is an improved item type that enables you to choose (or highlight) the key terms from a sample medical record that relate to the inquiry.

The candidate must choose an option from each row and column of the matrix or grid item type.

Changes to Next Generation NCLEX Scoring

The Next Generation NCLEX is also switching to a polytomous scoring methodology, which means that you can now receive partial credit on some questions with several inputs. If any of that NCLEX news has you feeling anxious, I have some good news. This is distinct from the standard NCLEX paradigm, which only indicated whether a question received "full credit" or "no credit."

And yes, this does include the dreaded SATA questions (select all that apply)!

Depending on the type of question, the Next Generation NCLEX will employ one of three different scoring models:

• 0/1 scoring system - choosing the right option results in one point, while choosing the wrong one results in none.
• +/- scoring - you can gain points for choosing the right answer while losing points for choosing the wrong one.
• Rationale scoring - you can only receive credit for choosing a response that accurately reflects your comprehension of the question's underlying assumptions.

How many questions are on the NCLEX for the newest generation?

The Next Generation NCLEX will have a minimum of 70 questions and a maximum of 135 questions. The NCLEX uses Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT), which keeps presenting questions of various difficulty levels based on the test taker's prior responses. As a result, the precise number of questions a test taker will get fluctuates.

The computer won't stop asking the test-taker questions until it can say with 95% certainty whether they passed or failed the exam. The test will also end after the allotted time has passed or the candidate has answered all the questions (135).

Conclusion

Don't waste time worrying about the modifications that will be made to the Next Generation NCLEX; instead, stick with it, invest the time necessary in studying, and you'll perform fantastically. Go into the exam with confidence since you have the chance to retake it even if you do fail the first time.