Since the beginning of its development, the NCLEX has served as a fair, reliable tool to measure the minimum competency required to deliver safe, effective entry-level nursing. The exam is developed to ensure that no candidate is afforded an unfair advantage when testing. The language and terminology selected for exam items must be universal and support the assessment of one construct—entry-level nursing knowledge while eliminating the inadvertent assessment of other factors.
The exam uses consistent language for every examinee. In order to achieve accurate, stable measurement, terminology used in exam items can have only one meaning. All NCLEX items undergo a rigorous review process to ensure items represent the client population and remain free from unintentional bias. Only items that meet statistical and differential item functioning (DIF) criteria become operational.