Anyone remember the slow results? ;)

[Emergent, RN]

I was just reading about the Pearson Vue trick, the good pop up, and the quick results. Just taking a trip down memory lane here. I graduated in 1993, that was one of the last years before computer testing started. It was the days of the 'slow results'.

Back in those ancient times, we didn't have cell phones, internet, or anything like that. No one took a laptop to class. It was still a pen and paper era.

I lived about 2 hours from the testing center that was in a big city in Calif, where I went to school. I remember, a lot of my classmates booked hotel rooms, but to save money, I stayed with my cousin and his boyfriend at the time. But I hung out at the hotel with the girls from school a bit, it was a giddy atmosphere of camaraderie.

The testing was over a two day period of time. I believe it was a fill in the bubble with a #2 pencil type of test. There was a enormous room, full of wooden tables and stern looking proctors, who were there to maintain order and prevent cheating. The tables looked like they hailed back from the 1930s.

I remember there was a bit of time to chat before the test. The woman on my right was from Peru. She wasn't as chatty. She was trying to get her Calif license, having immigrated there. The woman on my left was from Iran. At the time there had been a lot of people coming to the U.S. from there. She was super friendly, but kept tapping my shoulder as she talked, apparently customary in her culture, but a bit out of my comfort zone. She was really nice though, and VERY happy to not be in Iran anymore.

I do remember that it took a good 4 or 6 weeks, or maybe more, to get my results. By then I had moved to Washington State and had then had to transfer my new license. I took my NCLEX in June and got my first job in December.

Those were the days of the slow results.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Yes, every new nurse in the province came to one university during the summer for two days of paper and pencil testing when I graduated. Everyone was stressed and stuck together, but it was a very supportive environment. Very few people crammed, we mostly quizzed each other orally back and forth. Then it was a couple months before we heard the results. I snicker a bit at newbies now worried after two days. I think a cooling off period is actually good emotionally, your whole life can't be wrapped around that one test for two whole months. And anyone who did poorly can work out some options, and get their story straight before the letter comes.

[vanilla bean]

Back in the day when I took my entry-level RT exam (I became an RT before becoming an RN), it was still scantron sheets and number 2 pencils. Everyone sitting for the exam took it on the same day nationwide at big testing centers in major cities with lots of those "stern looking proctors." Instead of checking the Pearson VUE and BON websites several times a day (like I did after NCLEX, lol), I just had to anxiously meet my mail carrier at the mailbox once a day for about 6 weeks

As an aside, by the time I took my RRT exam, testing was computerized but I got my results at the testing center as soon as I finished the exam.

[JBudd, MSN]

I remember that. You got to keep working as a grad nurse until the day the results came out, my head nurse was waiting for me on the floor that morning. If you passed, you worked, if not you went home until 6 months later for the retest.

I was grinning so hard, there was no need to ask!

Had to show my diploma at the door the first day to get it, despite all the registration etc. ahead of time, that certificate in hand was required. On the second day, my friend got knocked off her bicycle by a hit and run, into a lot of mud. She got up, pushed her bike the rest of the way, came in late and managed to get that portion of the test done. At lunch, we threw her bike into my dad's truck, rushed her home to shower, gulped a sandwich, hauled back to that last exam, and then we went to the ER.

[anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP]

SO GLAD I HAD COMPUTERIZED TESTING.

I understand the "decompression" time one of y'all mentioned but I'd be so tired of studying I'm not sure what I'd do after the exam for the 2 months before my results came! That'd be 2 wasted months if I didn't study and failed or 2 wasted months if I studied and passed lol.

I commend all of you for surviving the dark times

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

The stone age must have been rough

[Farawyn]

No computer shut off during the test meaning that you failed miserably or passed spectacularly, you had to take THE ENTIRE TEST.

Good God, how did we survive?

[pendragonqueen]

My teachers told me about that! How they'd have one part of the test on one day and the second part the next day. Goodness! I had terrible anxiety with a computerized test that shuts off at 85, I can't imagine going through something like that.

The wait for results in CA is 3 weeks though. I wish they'd hurry that up!