I passed with 179 (or so) questions!

8 Posts

I am so excited. I just checked the Pearson QuickResults and there were those four letters I wanted to see, PASS. Here's my story/suggestions that may help others:

I took the exam on Thursday. I had originally scheduled it for July 1. But as July 1 rolled around I was far too anxious. I was taking the Kaplan review and I had not done question trainer 6 or 7 and had only done about 50% of the qbanks. So I rescheduled and immediately felt more relaxed. During the extra 8 days I really didn't try to learn new stuff, I just reviewed and practiced with the qbank and qtrainer. I had been studying for about 5 weeks prior to this. For the first 3 weeks however, I used Saunders Comprehensive for studying content. Then I transitioned over to using the Kaplan videos and practice tests. As many have said before, the actually exam is much like QTrainer 7.

I took my exam at 8am. About an hour and 15 minutes into the test I was on question 75. When it didn't shut off I was simultaneously disappointed and nervous. I started thinking "omg, I'm not doing well enough to stop. omg! I am going to get 265 questions. omg!.OMG!"

So I stopped took a moment to regroup. I took an unscheduled break went to the bathroom --looked myself in the mirror and told myself to calm down -- I was still in the game and to focus. I ran in place, did a few stretches and came back into the testing room. And the questions just kept coming. At question 150 I was like ok, it is clear that I am going to get all 265. But then I thought to myself, if I am still getting questions I am still in the game. By the time I got totally comfortable with trying to complete the rest of the questions the computer shut off. It shut off around 179/180 questions. I didn't get that many SATA, 2 med calculations, some meds but they were mostly meds I was familiar with, and an EKG reading.

But overall i didn't feel the test was that hard. I didn't think it was necessarily easy but the questions weren't necessarily mind blowing. On some questions I thought 'you've got to be kidding me, of course it's X' but then I thought it might be a trick question so I didn't always select the obvious answer right away. I really thought about each answer before selecting it.

I honestly felt like I had a good chance of passing after I left. But I didn't want to be over confident. I just stayed positive. For those of you who have problems staying positive I suggest reading Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking. It is a really old school book and it is heavy on spiritually, praying, and God. If that really isn't your thing watch The Secret or just something that is positive so you won't bring yourself down worrying about the best. Visualize the quickresults screen saying PASS. Tell yourself that you will be an RN. Just stay busy and stay positive.

You can do it.