Confused!! When to apply for NCLEX test???

[sagemm]

Hey everyone,

I am in my last semester! yay! of a 4 year RN program. I live in New York and I am planning on moving to California when I graduate in May.

Does anyone understand how to apply for the NCLEX before graduation? On the forms it says to apply months before you want to take it but on the TRANSCRIPT SECTION it says you can not have this form filled out till all nursing requirments are completed. And you can not apply till the application is complete.

So... I cant apply to take the test till after graduation? a bit confused... can you help??

Thanks,

Melissa

[suzanne4, RN]

If you are going to write the exam for CA, then you cannot do one thing until you have a completed set of transcripts. This applies to all that have not trained actually in CA. You will not be able to submit anything until you have completed your program. When you are applying in the state where you have trained, you can usually submit everything early and then just wait for the school to send in the completed transcripts. But when it is for another state, they will not even look at anything without the completed set of transcripts.

You actually do not apply for the NCLEX exam, you have to apply for licensure first to the state and be approved by them to sit for the NCLEX exam. You may wish to consider applying for NY and then endorsing to CA, it will be quicker for you that way in most cases.

I also suggest that you have a good read on the CA forum, not sure which area that you are planning to move to, but would highly recommend that you have a job lined up before you move. There are quite a few new grads that trained in CA that are unable to find jobs; and several hospitals that were even starting their new grad programs next week have had to cancel them.

Which part of CA were you considering?