Taking the NLN PAX RN on Friday...

This is my 2nd career too (I'll be 37 in 2 weeks). I hadn't been to school in 18 years when I returned to college. Here's my advice:

verbal- you know what you know. It's difficult to "study" for this part.
math- know your ratios, parctice basic algebra, some minor geometry and decimals (easy)
science- heavy physics, a good mix of A&P, earth science, chem

It's competitive pretty much everywhere. Relax, and do your best. Don't allow anything to destract you. I was honestly shocked to see my score. Apply to several programs if they are available to you.

The computer version has 60 verbal/80 math/60 science. 20 of each will not count, but you won't know which ones. There were 25 physics questions in the science section. I know NOTHING about physics, and still did well in that area, so I'm assuming many of them don't count. Don't quote me on that. I may have made lucky guesses.

You will be able to go back and review any question you want (in that section) until your time is up. You can "mark" questions along the way that you want to go back to.

You have 1 hour for each section, and you will get a 5 minute break between each.

You will get your results immediately after the entire test is completed. That's the worst part! There's a window which reads "downloading file" that takes a minute to open...my heart was pounding!

Best of luck to you all.

MD

I just took mine today, the computer version. At the end I was afraid to look at my scores because I was afraid I'd totally bombed the science part. I've been out of school for over 20 years, and though I'm taking A&P1 now, I've forgotten almost everything I knew about earth science and physics and such. I actually did bomb the science part- my raw score was only 47 out of 60- but surprisingly it was still in the 97th percentile. I was totally thrilled with my composite of 156. I had the MacDonald study guide, but barely used it because I thought I wouldn't have to take the test for another month and I didn't have time to study it.

The math was pretty easy, I only missed one, but I've always been pretty good at math. There were a few exponent questions (glad I did a quick brush up on that!) , a few "solve for X" type problems, and several fraction problems. If you can't quickly "solve for x", plug the answer choices into the equation to find the correct one. "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" is a good thing to remember. Watch for decimal places, especially if the question has a % in it. I was surprised that I almost ran out of time for math- I used every bit of 60 minutes. Skip the ones you can't figure out quickly and go back to those at the end.

I missed 3 on the English portion- which I guess isn't too bad since I don't read as much as I should. For the vocabulary, if you don't know the meaning of the word or the answers, look at the roots to try to figure it out.

Good Luck!

KL2010,

I took the test on 2/28 for Farmingdale and was accepted. I basically read the Macdonald book front to back and highlighted a lot of the science part. I took all the practice tests. I am not the greatest math student so I thought that would be my weak point but I ended up doing the worst on the science portion. I scored an 89 (or 129 composite) Well I ended up having trouble with the math and ran out of time and had to guess a few.

I am not trying to say all this to scare you because I went in with terrible expectations I did not think I was going to do well at all but it ended up being easier than I thought. The fact that it is on the computer is very convenient just have a lot of scrap paper. All in all make sure you study and do the best that you can do!

Good luck hope this helped!!

Hey everyone,

Sorry for popping in late on your thread, but I had a question. The online version of the NLN PAX, can it be taken any day any time, or is it certain days & times like the ones scheduled at colleges?

Also, how does the scoring work? All the schools I'm applying to require scores of 50 or above on all sections to even be considered... how do they figure out that score? Is it the # you got right?

Thanks!