I’ve noticed a lot of discussion lately about how much time nurse educators should allow for their classroom exams. I’d like to weigh in on this topic.

The time required to finish an exam depends entirely on how clearly the questions are written and how much time is available to give the test. Of course, there has to be some time restriction. One important consideration is the time schedule allowed for exams in your program. Be careful, design the test so that the students can finish in the time allotted.

The rule-of-thumb has been to allow 1 minute per question with 10 minutes to review. This evolved because most programs allow 1 hour for unit exams (50 items) and 2 hours for final exams (100 items). The important issue here is to design the test so the questions can be answered in one minute. If you want to give more time, make sure to design the questions so they can be answered in the allowed time.

Classroom test should be “power” tests, not “speeded” tests.  The only time a speeded test is warranted is when you want to determine how fast someone can complete a task, such as how many words per minute someone can type. You want to make sure the students have enough time to demonstrate their knowledge on a classroom exam.

I have evidence that you can write challenging items that can be answered in one minute.  If the questions are clear and concise, you can challenge students with questions that can be solved in one minute. The questions students have difficulty with are the ones they cannot figure out. When this happens the students spend more time trying to figure out what the question is asking, not trying to solve the problem presented in the question.

If you are having the problem that many students are unable to finish the exams in the time allotted, you have to take a close look at your items. Are they too long? Do they have a lot of extraneous information? Are they very difficult? Are they confusing?

Here is an interesting solution: Use three options instead of four. I can imagine everyone cringing at this suggestion, but it is well documented that three options are as effective as four in a classroom test. The truth is, in the thousands of classroom exams I have reviewed, the fourth option is too often a “throw away,” because no one chose it. Three options will cut down on the reading time, and save your toner!

Everyone is too worried about mimicking the NCLEX format. Nursing students are not equivalent to Pavlov’s dogs. We need to help them to think, not react. If you write questions that require your students to think from the day they enter your nursing program, they will PASS NCLEX.

My advice is to write items that require the students to think and give them plenty of time to demonstrate their “power” on the test.