My feeling after taking boards...a lesson for all

Specialties CRNA

Published

I prepared myself for months for the boards. I've read the sweatbook a total of 5 times! The memory master for a total of 2! I felt ready and prepared to take the exam and I did take it yesterday. Did I have anxiety? Sure. Some, but not a whole lot. That right there told me deep inside that I was ready. But I wasn't prepared for the HARD questions that hit me during the course of the exam.

The first couple of questions were OK. I obviously missed a simple question that I should've known the answer to (it was a calculation question). A brief moment of brain fart I thought to myself. But, I was OK with it and moved on.

The questions got tougher and thougher I thought. The fact that, I was trying to answer some of them through process of elimination (you know, like well A and B are totally wrong, so its between C and D...).

Then, as the test progressed....just like the energizer bunny...it kept going and going and.....

Past question 93 and I was still at it. My heart sank and my confidence got knocked out of me. I started to panic a bit. "How much time have I lost...do I have enough time to finish?". I stopped and took a deep breath. I told myself to GET A GRIP and FOCUS.

The questions..."Where in the world did these questions come from?" From what I recall through the exam...most of the questions I was asked involved plenty of anatomy & physiology. Sure, I did get an easy question here and there, like the simple flow volume loop diagram. But, as soon as I breezed through a question or two like it, the hard questions came. And there were a lot of em! Now, I tried to rationalize...telling myself that, "Well, if most of the questions were hard....then I must've been doing OK. At least the computer was "adapting" to my capacity to answer these HARD questions. And if I was doing really badly, then my questions would've been easier and easier...OR it could've easily stopped at 90 something. CAN IT STOP AT ANY NUMBER ABOVE 90? Does anyone know?

So, I answered ALL 160 questions and tried my very best yesterday. I was emotionally run down and drained of all emotions. I was a zombie, trying to drive back to my house which was an hour away. Thoughts of failure came to my mind. People that were counting on me to pass...HUMILITY that may come after I get my results.

But, after waking up this morning from a BAD HANGOVER, I realised that nothing can really prepare you for an exam such as this one that is so unpredictable. Sure, the sweatbook helped. But in my opinion, the memory master didn't. I would advise those who will be taking this exam in the future to supplement your readings outside of the sweatbook and memory master. Sure, I tried supplementing my studies by reading M&M, but not thoroughly. That is my own fault. I take full responsibility for my successes and failures. And if I fail this one, then IT IS JUST A SETBACK. If I get knocked off this horse, then I'll just get up and get on it again. That's why they call it "School of Hard Knocks".

It's out of my hands now. The waiting begins. Between now and the day the fed ex man comes, I will hit the books and start reading once again. This time, I'll start with Morgan & Mikhail.

Goodluck to all who have and will take the board exam.

Specializes in Nurse Practitioner/CRNA Pain Mgmt.
Hey Vinny,

You have the right attitude. You can't change it now. You may well have passed and in a couple of weeks will have a hang-over in celebration. If not, you know what you need to do and will do it. You may have also been given a lot of the "tester" questions that do not even count towards your score. I wish you the best of luck and hope you will report back with good news soon.

By the way, I take my boards on Thursday. I am a little more nervous now that I read you post since I have only read the "sweat book" twice and MM twice. I have one more day to review and then we will have to see what happens. I think a lot depends on the test you get on a particular day. I hope I have one of the "easy" ones. I have a big red "EASY" button to hit before I go into the test center...I hope it works!

Hey TraumaNurse,

You'll be fine! If you feel ready inside to take the test, then you are! A BIG GOODLUCK!

Specializes in Nurse Practitioner/CRNA Pain Mgmt.
:bowingpur :yeah: i congratulate you for your convictions:if you stumble and fall,pick up yourself and continue the battle.it may be hard in the beginning but you will ultimately win the war.KEEP IT UP GIRL!

Thanks so much for the encouragement! Oh, I appreciate the "KEEP IT UP GIRL!" cheer, eventhough I'm a DUDE. Hehehehehehe!

Vinny.

I'M DONE!!!!! Pass or Fail I took the certification exam today! Wooohooo!

It shut down at 90 questions which I really wasn't expecting. I can honestly say I knew about 50% for sure. About another 25% I could easily narrow down to 2 answers and then had to make an educated guess. The rest was a crap shoot. I had to laugh at some questions because I had absolutely no clue as to where to start with the answer. My only hope is that some of those were the "tester" questions.

Now the waiting begins! In 2-4 weeks, I will be either working as a CRNA or I will be studying to retake the exam. As for now, I can concentrate on doing some housework, landscaping, playing guitar, fishing, reading a book that does not include anesthesia in the title, working out, riding my bike and endless number of things that I have had little time to do.

For anyone else about to take your boards, GOOD LUCK!!!

WOW! I am really exited for you and wish that FedEx will bring you good news soon!

I am waiting for my interview right now and hope to get in next year.

Congratulations on taking THE EXAM again and wish you all the best in your careers as CRNAs!!!

Dude, im a gamblin chick, and Im betting you passed, dont sweat it!

Specializes in Nurse Practitioner/CRNA Pain Mgmt.
Dude, im a gamblin chick, and Im betting you passed, dont sweat it!

Thanks for the bet. I too, am hoping for the best because I promised all my friends there in L.A. that I would visit as soon as I know I passed. Its been over 2 years since I moved here back East from sunny Long Beach!

Vinny, Dude, I'm sure you did great. With as much as you prepared and as scared as you are, I wish you all the luck in the world. I take it in three months, but I'm terrified because I barely knew any of the questions on the second SEE exam I took. I feel better now that I'm in my final semester and we're doing weekly exams for our review course but I only get in the 80's after studying the material intensively. I don't know how I'm gonna remember everything. I think you should take a break though, instead of studying M&M, take a break from studying for the last two plus years of your life and tell yourself you did fine, and that if you failed you will then pick up the books and study. I know everyone would want to retake the test ASAP after failing, but I think a two week break is necessary enough to gain sanity. Good luck, preooccupy yourself in the meantime, and smile.

Vinny:

I am sure you did fine. Many of you out there who still have to take the exam should learn from this. I personally do not believe that valley is enough by itself. I supplemented each section of valley with M&M. Down to the day of taking the exam, not that I am advocating doing this, I woke up early and decided to read the renal chapter in M&M. Low and behold I had four questions which were literally taken from that chapter. If I had not thoroughly gone through M&M twice as well as valley, I probably would have gone past 90 questions and who knows what the outcome could have been. It is hard to say.

Specializes in geriatrics.

Hi, I recently took the boards and while some of my fellow students stopped at 75 questions, (and passed) when I hit 100 I started to panic, and by 150 I was hyperventilating. At 200, I thought for sure I would have to raise my hand and get an ambulance for me. Seriously. But, I kept plugging on, and finally at 251 I stopped. The relief that I was finally done was overwhelming. I absolutely felt like a failure. I had to grab something to eat as my stomach was in turmoil. (I only had cereal) I waited two days and was able to go on the comp and get my results. I waited for my family to be out of the house, I could not face them with failure. As I went on the site, and did that infamous click and saw "PASS" I cried again. I still could not believe I passed. Joy overflowed in me, and than I could celebrate. I think you are right when you say it is so very hard to prepare for the test. I read books and did questions over and over, test taking skills books, and all. If I had to do it over again, I would eat a better breakfast. One of my fellow students who was very smart in class went all the way to 260 questions, and he passed. He was very scared. That is my take on the boards. And than, there is the real world. God bless.

We are talking about the certifying exam for Nurse Anesthetists, not RN boards.

Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency.
Went on the AANA website and emailed the credentialling secretary to ask at what point in time could a candidate re-take the exam. She emailed me back quickly and stated that eventhough the AANA permits a candidate who unfortunately fails the exam a total of 4 tries a year, there is no minimum waiting time between exams. That is, if a candidate receives his/her failing results, then an application can be sent that very day. So, one can literaly retake the exam if needed within a month of receiving the results. I seriously thought that there was a 3 month waiting period. I guess there isn't. So, this was a little bit of good news I thought. This cheered me up a bit.

hey vinny,

just wondering, do you know what happens if someone does fail the exam 4 times? i am hoping i will not get to that point, nor anyone for that matter. aside from the answer to that question, i think i will be sleeping with M&M from here on in, and i'm only in my first semester.

thanks-

The way a comupter adaptive test is graded is somewhat confusing to me, but I remember talking with someone about it and they said something interesting. Since the test has a cutoff point above which you pass and below which you fail, and you quit after the test determines you have either reached that cutoff point or have no chance with the remaining amount of questions to reach that point, then if you have the maximum amount of questions given to you, whether you pass or fail can be determined by whether you got the last question right or wrong (sorry for the run-on sentence). Because the program only presents another question if it knows you still have a chance to pass, the last question becomes important. So the question is, did you get your last question right?

If that is totally wrong let me know, it makes sense to me though. I suppose that if they do throw in sample questions for future tests, that could screw with the theory.

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