NLN Nursing Acceleration challenge exam did not go as planned

[I can't digest milk]

Well...

First and foremost I write this out of frustration and partly out of disappointment and definitely embarrassment. I've been a member, (a lurker), on this site for years contemplating my every move to become a nurse. So, here I am trying to bridge my LPN to BSN and I have another obstacle to overcome: the NLN Challenge Exam(s).

I bought NCLEX-RN books and the NLN study guides. I studied for about 90 days leading up to the exams even utilizing elseviere and kaplan. None of it helped. I, and approximately more than half of the test takers, failed each exam by about 1 point. ONE POINT. How can this be? What a coincidence!

Of course I cried. The door to my first steps towards my next goal were shattered. I graduated first of my class and flew through my NCLEX-PN. I'm a nurse leader at work and mentor student nurses. How did I fail? Got to love that ego...

Well of course my first thought was that I studied the wrong things. Or, I studied too much. The exams were pretty specific in the sense that if they mentioned (this is for instance and not revealing what was on the exam) right sided HF*, then you would find about 15 questions related to RSHF. The same for other pathos, medications and nursing responses. What is most frustrating to me is the study guide they provided was incredibly misleading and useless. I say that because not a single patho that was on their study guide showed up on my exam. So if you came across a patho you weren't too sure about, you can bet you would struggle and your end grade would reflect it.

Also, my proctor was unsure about the math portion. It asked for whole numbers. Did that include units as well? The proctor stated that while in reality it would behoove me to always notate my units of measure (duh) she could not say if I would be docked points for leaving them out or docked points for adding them to the answer. She honestly did not know. She requested counsel on the issue and the lot of instructors were all scratching their heads. They never see the exams, they merely proctor them, so they had no answer for me. So, could I have passed if I had added my units? Or, after many exams, did I lose points because I added in the units for good measure? Who knows? Certainly, not the school I wish to invest my money in come August. That was at least 20 points over all the exams IF I got them wrong due to the confusion.

If you can't tell, I think I'm already going through all the stages of grief, and thank you for letting me vent. Ultimately, it is my fault. Obviously I have more to learn and more to prepare for in the future. Is this a nail in my BSN coffin? No. I have 1 more attempt at all the exams. The proctor explained that they fully expect you to fail the first time. The second time around most students get 80s and above. Why, you might ask. Because, according to this proctor, it's always the same test. I just spent close to $1200 with travel to see what is on my tests that I will have to retake come fall. So, yes, I have a great opportunity to 'knock it out of the park' next time I write these exams, but the whole experience feels like a complete racket. $$$$

How on earth do I walk out of an exam and a dozen of us all look at each other baffled that we got the same score? How do so many people fail by one? If this is an indication of what's to come perhaps I should reconsider this school altogether.