My NCLEX Story:

(Warning: Long post ahead)

The Nursing Program at UVM spent all four years of nursing school preparing us, or better put “scaring us,” for the NCLEX. The all dreaded NCLEX.

The NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination) is the test you have to take after you’ve graduated nursing school to become licensed as a Registered Nurse. Now, this isn’t like any normal test you take throughout your time at college, I’ve even often heard it’s not like any other licensure examination either. The reason the NCLEX is so dreaded and feared is because each and every question you receive is a multiple choice scenario question, where every answer provided is at least somewhat correct, you’ve just got to pick the MOST correct. If you’ve ever taken a test where a couple of the questions provided were like that, try taking that anxiety panic struck feeling you get and multiplying it by 100000. So, because of this, UVM did a great job of trying their best to prepare us for these questions by including them on all of our nursing exams. However, that still didn’t help lessen the anxiety.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and signed up to take a Kaplan NCLEX course. It was a week long course, 8 hours a day where we learned test taking skills, tricks specifically for the NCLEX, and routinely did about 100 practice questions each and every day. The course provided by Kaplan was great, I’d recommend it to anybody before taking their NCLEX. The only downfall was that it started the day after my graduation, meaning that I still had to go to class for another week after I got my diploma. Oh well; it paid off.

I purchased multiple NCLEX practice books in early February, but hadn’t really cracked any of them open until later on in the semester. Once I finished my Kaplan course, I hit the books and spent weeks and weeks studying, doing practice questions, practice tests, studying pictures, graphs, and watching video demos- anything I could do to get myself prepared for this test.

I had signed up to take my NCLEX end of July, much later than most people in my class had, so I started to get worried when I saw everyone posting that they’d passed already; what if I’m one of the few in my class who doesn’t!?

DAY OF THE NCLEX- July 22:

I surprisingly had slept pretty decent the night before my NCLEX. I woke up early that morning and decided I’d go for quick walk by myself on the bike path to try to calm any of the nerves I may have had.

I received a wonderful gift from my family the day of my test- something as simple as a picture to make my heart happy and smile.

I ate a good breakfast, showered, and then left. I had a two hour drive to get to Oklahoma City where I’d take my test so I played all my favorite songs nice and loud the whole way.

As I got closer to the city I decided to put my ipod on shuffle, the very first song that played was one that’s near and dear to my heart. When my grandfather passed away a few years ago there was a song we decided to play at the gathering after the funeral, it was Here for a Good Time by George Strait. If you haven’t ever heard it, here’s a link:

Whenever I hear this song, it always reminds me of my grandfather. As soon as it came on as I drove into the city I knew right away that he was there, looking out for me on this very important day.

I got to my testing center, got very nervous, and then built up the strength to walk inside to go take the test, there was no turning back now.

The way the test works, is that it’s all computerized and adaptive. The minimum number of questions you could answer is 75 and the maximum is 250. The computer adjusts the types and number of questions you get as you continue to get some right and some wrong. When the computer decides if you’ve passed or not it shuts off and ends the test; worst part is that it doesn’t tell you if you’ve passed or not. The number of questions you get doesn’t depict whether you’ve passed or failed either. I felt pretty good during the test, I didn’t think the questions were too difficult, but not too easy either. The computer shut off at 85 and I freaked out for a second, but then just got my stuff together to leave and walked to my car.

On my 2 hour drive home I started thinking about questions and started to convince myself that all the questions I had were too easy so obviously I hadn’t been above the passing line and I failed the test. When I got back to the apartment I cried and cried, then cried some more all night long. I was certain I had failed.

I knew I’d be able to check the Board of Nursing website in about 36 hours to see if I had passed or not, so that next day was the longest of my life. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink anything, and couldn’t find enough ways to distract my mind and keep me busy. I knew I’d be able to check the website at 5:00am the next morning.

I had to work the next morning so I was planning on checking when I woke up (5:30am), but instead I woke up from a text message from my MOM at 4:30am saying “How does license number xxxxx sound!?!?!” My sweet dear mother had been checking the website constantly for the last 36 hours and was the one to tell me I has passed. I couldn’t have been happier.

I went into work that morning feeling as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. My manager had found out I passed before I could even tell her. Everyone was congratulating me all day. It was one of the greatest feelings in the entire world.

When I got home from work that day, Conor had a nice big bottle of wine on the table ready to be opened for us to drink and celebrate.

Notice the name of the wine?? 

A few days later I walked into work and a sign was hung up on one of the nurses stations that was signed by everyone from both ICU and Step Down. 

July 24 was one of the best days of my life so far. I had waited so many years to take that test and get those results. After hours and hours of studying, tests, hospital clinicals, stress, and tears it all came down to that day.

I’m so incredibly proud of myself- I knew deep down I could do it, I had just always had that fear in the back of my mind. I proved to myself that I’m just as smart and capable as I had always hoped I’d be once graduating college.

Thank you to my parents, brothers, Conor, family, and friends for the encouragement and continuous support through all of my nursing school years. I couldn’t have gotten through it without you all!