Passed the CEN today

Congrats man!!!

Congradualtions !!!!!

Thank you for your congratulations, really. As we all may at sometime, I doubted my ability to pass this exam for reasons I myself am unsure of. The purpose of posting, I hope, is to encourage all to take the plunge and take this exam It has a stigma that is undeserved. Empower yourselves as you do your pts. Please. Thank you once more for your replies.

Don

Thank you, DON!!! What review book did you use??? Did you pay for and take a review course? If so, which one? I plan to take my exam next year (by the fall).

Thanks! I'm studying now, just took the ENA online review course, but want to get a book to review at my leisure. As asked by MBARN08, any recommendations on books?

Congratulations on passing!

I also passed mine today (12/11/09)....it wasn't my first time - this was my renewal.

I know you can renew by CEUs, but as my "side business" is travelling and teaching CEN review courses and publishing CEN review books - I wanted to take it (AGAIN), to see what's on the test these days.

I feel it benefits my students that I make sure we cover said material during our review courses or that I include it in my book I wrote.

I'm not embarassed to say I aced with 143/150 questions!

Like the other poster said, some were simple and some were WAYYYYY simple, but there was about 1/4-1/5 that you had to stop and think on!

I hope everybody who is eligible to take it, strongly considers it in their career.

The amount of pride and self-confidence boost is AWESOME!

If I can be of any help to anyone, drop me a note., I love to help/mentor folks!

-Boswell

Lippincott is great as well as Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio. Dont buy more than 2 books and review courses are not needed. You are your review course. STUDY. Just use those 2 books. Study about 30-45 min x 5d q wk for 2m and you'll be fine. Everytime you learn something new, write it on an index card and review those. The test is very clinically based, meaning not rich on nursing theory. If you've worked in an ER 1+ years and study as I stated above, you'll be fine. As I stated earlier, don't predict this exam to be a monster like I did, repeat after me: its very manageable, Its very passable, its not so bad. You passed your NCLEX this is just a test like that one.

I studied off and on but almost all of my answers came from my experience not a review book or class...It's a great way to make yourself more marketable and show that you are knowledgeable in your profession...the NCLEX does not prove you are an ED nurse :-)

Congrats on passing!!! :yeah:Thanks for encouraging the rest of us thinking about taking this exam down the road...I hope to take it in 2010.

Great! I found once I set the date (3 months down the road) it really motivated me to study, don't forget to join the ENA first. It will not only lower your cost of the exam but also affiliate you with a professional organization.

I don't know why people are still on the Vonfrolio bandwagon?

I've bought and reviewed her material as a professional reviewer and heres' what I've found....

1) Outdated material

2) Barely covers but 40-50% of the core CEN material

3) She goes waaaay down the ICU/Critical care pathway on certain topics ---things that aren't even on the CEN exam

4) She takes too many "sidebars"....she likes to go off on a tanget and give her own opinionated takes/diatribes on topics. A favorite of hers is to talk about how nurses are so "beaten down" and "abused"...

5) Her snide remarks, jokes and anecdotes - while funny and laughable, they serve nothing to prepare you for an exam. They may leave a happy feeling in your heart and make you feel like you had an enjoyable time; but as far as covering core content; it is time (too much time) spent off-topic... I'm all for breaks and small jokes during my classes, but out of a 16 hour class, AT MOST we're only blowing 20-30 minutes on this kind of stuf. LGP's goes WAAAY out there, often on a 10-12 minute story by itself.

These are just a few points I have with her material.

While I applaud the speaker personally and professionaly; I cannot laud her as a exam prep presenter and when you're dropping $200-300 bucks for a class, I figure you want most of your time to be spent on exam prep/review.

I would challenge anyone who has her material to go back through it now, and read/listen/watch the entire thing with a stopwatch and track the time spent "off topic"...as well I would challenge anyone to read/listen/watch her program, write down all the topics/talking points she mentions and then compare with the CEN exam blueprint. This is what I objectively did when reviewing it and that's why I gave the editorial I did.