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First of all, CONGRATS!!!!
Second thing that I forgot to mention... CAT systems do NOT grade you like standard testing does. The concept of "A", "B", "C", and so on doesn't exist in these systems. What they want to know is how difficult a question is relative to the passing standard. Whether or not you get a given question correct or not is actually immaterial. Your answer only tells the computer to give you an "easier" or "more difficult" question than the one just submitted. Regardless of pass or fail, these systems can very rapidly reach a point where you'll be answering 50% of the questions correctly and 50% not correctly with the result of determining your knowledge/proficiency level. In short, you will usually feel like you have horribly failed the exam because you felt like you were guessing on about half of the questions. That's where your limit is.
If you feel like you knew all the answers, either the exam was asking you questions that were below passing standard because you couldn't answer questions above passing standard, OR your capability/base knowledge is so good and complete that you can answer questions well in excess of the hardest/most difficult questions on the exam. Most people aren't that knowledgeable.
When I finished the NCLEX, I felt like I wanted to hurl because the exam really was the most difficult exam I'd taken to date precisely because it's a CAT type exam. It found my limits and it might be interesting (from an academic standpoint) to see just how well I actually did. Sure, I finished at 75 questions (minimum) and passed, but the only thing I can glean from that is that my ability estimates were consistently above passing standard so I met a "pass" rule at the minimum. I just don't know how far above passing standard I really was.
Second thing that I forgot to mention... CAT systems do NOT grade you like standard testing does. The concept of "A", "B", "C", and so on doesn't exist in these systems. What they want to know is how difficult a question is relative to the passing standard. Whether or not you get a given question correct or not is actually immaterial. Your answer only tells the computer to give you an "easier" or "more difficult" question than the one just submitted. Regardless of pass or fail, these systems can very rapidly reach a point where you'll be answering 50% of the questions correctly and 50% not correctly with the result of determining your knowledge/proficiency level. In short, you will usually feel like you have horribly failed the exam because you felt like you were guessing on about half of the questions. That's where your limit is.
If you feel like you knew all the answers, either the exam was asking you questions that were below passing standard because you couldn't answer questions above passing standard, OR your capability/base knowledge is so good and complete that you can answer questions well in excess of the hardest/most difficult questions on the exam. Most people aren't that knowledgeable.
When I finished the NCLEX, I felt like I wanted to hurl because the exam really was the most difficult exam I'd taken to date precisely because it's a CAT type exam. It found my limits and it might be interesting (from an academic standpoint) to see just how well I actually did. Sure, I finished at 75 questions (minimum) and passed, but the only thing I can glean from that is that my ability estimates were consistently above passing standard so I met a "pass" rule at the minimum. I just don't know how far above passing standard I really was.
