1. The RN Licensing exam (NCLEX) has been using computerized "Adaptive Questions" since 1995:
The "Adaptive Questions" system is actually quite good and efficient, and I have both stochastic comfort with it (being an engineer), as well as first hand experience:
2. After 20 years working as a Chemical Engineer I changed careers in my 40s an…
1. The RN Licensing exam (NCLEX) has been using computerized "Adaptive Questions" since 1995:
The "Adaptive Questions" system is actually quite good and efficient, and I have both stochastic comfort with it (being an engineer), as well as first hand experience:
2. After 20 years working as a Chemical Engineer I changed careers in my 40s and obtained a second Bachelors degree in Nursing in 1995 (BSN). That also happened to be the first year that the Nursing Licensing exam in New Jersey (NCLEX) went both digital and used "Adaptive Questions". It did NOT 'lower the bar'. To wit:
3. As I recall, back then there were a total of 255 potential questions of which a minimum of 75 had to be answered. The test would stop as soon as the algorithm was able to determine your knowledge level with 75 questions being the minimum neede to reach such a determination.
4. All of the top students in my class (myself included) received the minimum 75 questions and passed, implying high consistancy in answer quality. In fact all of the students in my class who had to answer less than 100 questions also passed. Above 100 questions and some classmates started failing, with the numbers who failed increasing almost linearly with the number of questions required, implying inconsistancy in answers (AKA 'guessing').
5. So the "Adaptive Questions" method makes it harder to get lucky by guesing the correct answer, whiich is easier to do with the 'total number of correct answers' method.
Thank you so much for your comprehensive response.
Just to let you know, a friend was college placement high school counselor for a private school. The school had kept copies of SATs going back to the early 60s. About 15 years ago he told me that several teachers had taken the 60s 70s SATs and compared them those from the 90s/early 2000s. He told me there was a huge difference in difficulty from those earlier challenging test to the newer less rigorous tests.
1. The RN Licensing exam (NCLEX) has been using computerized "Adaptive Questions" since 1995:
The "Adaptive Questions" system is actually quite good and efficient, and I have both stochastic comfort with it (being an engineer), as well as first hand experience:
2. After 20 years working as a Chemical Engineer I changed careers in my 40s and obtained a second Bachelors degree in Nursing in 1995 (BSN). That also happened to be the first year that the Nursing Licensing exam in New Jersey (NCLEX) went both digital and used "Adaptive Questions". It did NOT 'lower the bar'. To wit:
3. As I recall, back then there were a total of 255 potential questions of which a minimum of 75 had to be answered. The test would stop as soon as the algorithm was able to determine your knowledge level with 75 questions being the minimum neede to reach such a determination.
4. All of the top students in my class (myself included) received the minimum 75 questions and passed, implying high consistancy in answer quality. In fact all of the students in my class who had to answer less than 100 questions also passed. Above 100 questions and some classmates started failing, with the numbers who failed increasing almost linearly with the number of questions required, implying inconsistancy in answers (AKA 'guessing').
5. So the "Adaptive Questions" method makes it harder to get lucky by guesing the correct answer, whiich is easier to do with the 'total number of correct answers' method.
Thank you so much for your comprehensive response.
Just to let you know, a friend was college placement high school counselor for a private school. The school had kept copies of SATs going back to the early 60s. About 15 years ago he told me that several teachers had taken the 60s 70s SATs and compared them those from the 90s/early 2000s. He told me there was a huge difference in difficulty from those earlier challenging test to the newer less rigorous tests.