I woke up today and went to the Pearson Web site, only this time instead of “No exam results are available at this time” it said “Click here to pay for your results.” I clicked with remarkable speed, supplied the necessary info, and—with no hooplah or even capitalization—the Web page said “pass.” I feel it should present animations with trumpets, ribbons, and bursting champagne corks! Inexplicably this news caused me to shake uncontrollably and feel vomitose. I had to have Mr. NNR text my friend K who had just directed me to check my results because I was shaking too badly to text. I think I was in denial about how nervous I was so I felt it all at once after the fact. Gah.
Now that I’ve passed, I can blog about my NCLEX story! As the readership knows, I studied every day since June (maybe early July). I did at least 50 practice questions per day and sometimes more. I used the Saunders book and the ATI tests (my post on ATI is generating a LOT of traffic; the ATI folks caught wind of it and seek feedback on how they can change/improve…props to them). I don’t think it helped very much, but maybe it did. My friend K didn’t study at ALL and passed, but then again she’s a freakish prodigy.
Anyway, I passed my ATI predictor test, and my school has a “test before transcript” program, so that’s why I’ve taken boards before graduation. I scheduled it literally on the earliest possible day I could get my butt in a chair at a testing center. My expectations were that I would not feel sure about any of my answers, that I would leave feeling convinced that I failed, and that the test would be wickedly awful. All were fulfilled except I did feel sure about my answers to two of the questions. I got to the center early, and they let me go ahead and start, so I was done with the whole thing by 8:30 AM and went out for breakfast! It felt as if the whole test went by before I noticed what hit me.
I knew the boards would be awful, but no one warned me about the waiting-for-results part. It’s one of the worst 48 hours I can remember in my whole life. No matter what logic or reason you or anyone else applies, you boomerang back and forth from “obviously I’ve failed.” I began contingency planning for retaking the test and rehearsed how to tell my new employer that I’d failed and so on. There’s no way around it. You need a total brain shutoff to prevent it, and I’m not even sure that works, on the basis of hearing my classmates’ alcohol intake during this period. I’m just grateful to the Pearson gods that they post results on weekends because I’m fairly sure I’d have heart failure by Monday morning.
So! Despite my intrinsic doom-and-gloom nature, even I can predict very few barriers at this point. Pinning is a week from today. I’ve never gone to any of my graduations before, but this one is a big deal. Even I can see that. There is only one thing in my life I worked harder for than this degree/license, and dude, I’m gonna bask in the completion of it.
SN Moxie said
Congrats NNR, BSN, RN! I’m so happy for you – that’s awesome your school lets you take them before you graduate. Thanks for posting up your study plan too…I think it’s helpful to others trying to find the study groove.
Congrats again though, that is awesome
Caroline said
CONGRATS!!
But what the hell, I thought you didn’t graduate until the 15th? So, did you already graduate? I think your state must be a lot faster than my state when it comes to all this stuff. I will probably have to wait about 6 weeks…
Anyway. That’s neither here nor there. YOU DID IT!!! Like anyone had any doubts….
Strong One said
Great job!
I remember the wait. It was THE WORSE.
And if you ask the seasoned nurses of 10+ years, some had to wait up to a month for their results.
Can you imagine?
notratched said
My state abolished the GN status: we can’t work until we have an actual license. So my school allows us to take boards before we graduate if we pass an exit exam (which we took at the end of October). It IS a little weird: when I graduate next week, a handful of us will already be RNs!
wardbunny said
Congratulations!
Freedom at last!
geena said
Congratulations!!! I am one of those nurses who had to wait over a month for my results. It was total hell.
Then again, there are other nurse bloggers who could tell you about having to take boards in hand written format over several days. THAT would have supremely sucked!!!
Great for you. I bet you are so relieved it’s over! Now on to some posts about nursing! (I hope?)
Stephen, FNP said
Congratulations! You had a wonderful study plan and there was no way you were going to fail. Welcome to the ranks!
Stephen
shrtstormtrooper said
Hell yes! You passed! Congrats are most obviously in order
And I must say, I’m a little envious of your test before graduation deal…I graduate in 2 weeks and will have to wait until mid january before I can take the NCLEX.
Wanderer said
Strong work! Welcome to the ranks. And you’re so right, the wait is the worst part. Although I was one of those that walked out figuring I’d failed and taking out new ways of asking folks if, “do you want fries with that?” it all worked out!
Passing the NCLEX » PixelRN said
[...] finally, congratulations to Not Nurse Ratched, RN(!!!), who passed the NCLEX early and inspired me to write this [...]
Drofen said
Wow! Great job!!!
PM, RN said
Congrats!
I remember my NLEX very well. It was only 6 months ago! What surprised me more than anything else was how nervous everyone was. Some students were even trying to sneak studying materials into the waiting room.
It was fun being video monitored, I did a little dance for the observer when I finished.