CAM281

Are you talking about the review program offered by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)? If so, I purchased 8 weeks of the program and started on it three weeks before graduation. Also, I went to a Kaplan review program the week after I graduated. The NCSBN review was much better than Kaplan. I found the questions on the NCSBN website much closer to what I experienced on the NCLEX I took Wednesday. The Kaplan questions were way over the top in degree of difficulty. I had to laugh a few times at the Kaplan instructors when they said they didn't know why the answer was correct on many quesitons. Also that whole story about the "decision-tree" taught by Kaplan was totally worthless on the NCLEX. Yes, I guess if you never learned the content during the nursing progrm, the decision-tree tool could be a life preserver for you. The $90 I spent for the NCSBN program was well worth it.

I just got home from taking the exam, after a long lunch and a frozen margarita (make that 2). I got to 75 questions and the exam ended. Yes, I have read all about how you can't tell you failed/passed depending on the number of questions, but my concern is the following. For two years I have been bombarded with faculty, staff nurses, every RN within 50 miles telling me how absolutely horrible the test was. I listened to the stories of how complex the stem of the question was and how it would be difficulty to sort out the important info. The Kaplan course scared the daylights out of me telling us that the exam was going to be the most difficult test every. I am beginning to think this is some kind of "rite of passage" for graduate nurses to go through; something akin to a fraternity/sorority initiation - where the build-up is nothing like the reality of the event. I'm not saying the test was easy, there were a lot of questions that I flipped a coin but used the best problem-solving skills that I had. The stems of the questions that I got were fairly short, concise and to the point. My mix of questions was pretty much like several of the posters listed above. All of my classmates were told how the exam would start with a moderately difficult question and if you got that right, then it would increase the level of difficulty until you missed and then ask you an easier one until you got a satisifactory score in that area. either I did very, very poorly, or else the stories are just that, stories, since I didn't notice an increasing/decreasing difficulty level. I'm not trying to jinx myself, and I'm surely not going to say that it was easy thereby putting me into the failing category. I'm saying my 2nd med-surg test during my senior year was way more difficult. And the Kaplan pre-course diagnostic test was way more difficult. Also the NCSBN study course questions were more difficult but closer to what was on today's exam. Perhaps this goes back to most nursing students have never had to take a national credentialling exam before. I had the dubious pleasure of taking the advanced practitioner written exam and simulation exams to become a registered respiratory therapist 20 years ago. And yes the exam was diffuclt and I did not know how I scored for 6 weeks. So I had a taste of testing "unknown" and maybe that decreased the anxiety that I read in many of these posts. What I am thinking is that the nursing program, Kaplan, NCSBN course intentionally "overteaches" so that we the candidates will be able to pass. Our school of nursing has a 98% pass rate - maybe I see the logic of the faculty now. So I have now become one of the "waiters" that I have read about so much on this forum. 48 hours from now I will know. Thanks for letting me vent.

I'm in the home stretch in my nursing program with only six weeks left to graduation. We've been told that we will have to complete an evaluation for the whole nursing program before we graduate. I want to put something down about how the questions for our nursing course exams don't even come close to matching the style and degree of difficulty of the NCLEX practice questions I am using nor do they resemble most of the HESI test questions I have taken. Frankly, I don't think they are preparing me for the NCLEX at all. Cannot nursing instructors sit for the NCLEX occasionally and see what the exam looks like so they will be able to write better questions? Or is it just up to the poor nursing student to suck it up and figure it out on their own? I'm getting ready to shift gears and get into the panic mode for preparing for the NCLEX and need some feedback. I just feel that because of these type exams I am not prepared for the "big" exam after graduation.

I will be graduating in May from an AAS program in TN. I then plan on moving to Cincinnati, OH so I can be closer to my parents who are in ill health. I want to find a hospice position since I know this is something I want to do. I have been a registered respiratory therapist for over 20 years and have many years experience in a state-funded facility for severally disabled and chronically ill clients. I also have worked as a therpist in skilled nurings facilities. I love working with these type patients. On top of that I have a lot of critical care, med-surg experience as an RRT. But everyone is telling me that hospices don't hire new grads or they require many years of med-surg experience. I'm stressed out. Any suggestions for landing the position I want?