Multiple attempts on a nursing admissions examination: effects on the total score

Colleges and universities throughout the United States use a wide variety of admissions criteria, including admissions examinations, when deciding who to admit into their program. This research used a nationally administered nursing school entrance examination, the TEAS(®), to investigate the effects of multiple attempts, test version, and the number of days between repeated attempts on an examinee's total score. Overall, the results indicated that scores earned on repeated attempts at the TEAS were significantly greater than those on the previous attempts regardless of whether the same or parallel version of the examination was completed. In addition, the study found that the number of days between attempts did not greatly influence the score earned on the repeated attempt.