Yukinara

I have interviewed at 3 different places and none of them asked me how many times I took the NCLEX or how long I have been out of school. Managers only care if you could do the job safely or not. Once you get that license, you're qualified to work just like anyone who graduated last year. So just apply anyway, because if you don't, all those years you spent in school will become a big waste.

Sorry I can't give you the answer on that one because every state is different. You need to look at the state board of nursing website. My suggestion is that you apply to hospitals within your states first, because it would be very very tiring to apply all across the nation (there are hundred hospitals and thousand nursing home in Texas alone). Just try some hospitals near rural area and see if they want new grad, then you can try other states. Usually when a hospital calls you, they want you to have the license ready to work immediately and not wasting time to go through the endorsement process.

Usually the cost to rent a room in Huntsville is about $400-$500, so I could manage that. But if I got a job in Houston, then I won't have to spend that extra money because I need to save money for school and every single penny counts. And yeah, I heard the same thing when I was at Channelview because they don't let LVN give meds now. Not sure if it's the new state law or just them. But at least it's good news because there are more jobs for RNs. So, I'll wait and see how it goes.

yeah, when I went to the interview, 2 out of 3 managers asked me about my future plan for education. I think the reason is that they want to see if you plan to advance your career or not. For me, I always answer that I will get to Master degree in the next few years after I've obtained BSN and some experience. Even if you don't have any plan, it doesn't hurt to say so. Who cares where you are in the next 5 years?

I live in Katy, and so far 3 places have interviewed me 1- University if Texas Medical Branch in Huntsville for Nurse Clinician position: nearly 2 hours away 2- Scott & White for Hemodialysis: 2 hours 3- Kindred LTAC Channelview: 1 hour Today UTMB offered me a job in Huntsville but Kindred promised to call me this week, so I will wait a few days to hear back from Kindred to see. I don't mind moving, I just don't want to waste money to rent a room in Huntsville because my situation is very unique Meanwhile, my classmates are all waiting for some big hospitals like Memorial Hermann or Texas Children, and no one is getting call. The reason is that they have limited positions and too many want to get in. Beside Texas, I also applied for some hospitals in Maryland and Cleveland Hospital in Ohio. Cleveland did contact me for an interview but since it takes time to get an endorsement, I decide to let it go. Long story short: there are jobs if you look hard enough. Also, I'm not particularly picky. Most of my friends want to get med-surg positions, but for me, it doesn't matter. Just get me a job and I will do it. I think every single experience will count toward my future, not necessarily med-surg. One of my clinical instructors has been working as critical nurse all her life and never spent a single day in med-surg.

This is something that has bugged me for a while. From the perspective of a single guy with no baggage, it is simple, just pack my stuffs and off I go. It seems to be not the case with most of my classmates, even for some single guys I know. Yes, I understand that once you have a house, family, and especially children, it's hard to move, but why not give it a chance? My aunt used to work in a hospital 2 hours away when she graduated and visited home during weekends or days she didn't have shifts. After 2 years when she had got enough experience, she moved back home. In my class, very few people people get good positions at hospitals of their choices. The rest are still waiting, yet they refuse to open their searches. For me, at first I narrowed my search around the city (Houston), then after 1 month without any good result, I widen my search. Last week I have 2 interview and today I got another one, all with very big hospital systems, just not in Houston. 2 managers ask if I could relocate, and I said I'm totally fine with it. Of course it would be more comfy to work somewhere close to home, butI think sometimes in life you've got to make sacrifice to get what you truly want. So, are you willing to go out of your city to find jobs?

I think you have to devise your own study plan, because everyone study differently. My study plan: review content for 4 hours, then spent another 4 hours to do questions and review rationales, all that straight 6 weeks before the test. Can you do that?

yes, I know a girl in my class failed the test at 75 questions. Also, I know another person passed at 256 questions. So the number of questions is not a good indicator for passing or failing. No one knows how the system determine that the candidate is competent. We only know that the test will stop when it could determine the clear difference between pass and fail. and yeah, if the test stop at 75, the candidate is either very good or very bad. Usually, the more questions you get, the more likely you're going to pass

I just got my license on Texas BON this morning too. I confirm that the trick work 100% for me and everyone in my class.

Basic rules The exam has around 75 to 265 questions. You have 6 hours to complete it. There is nothing such thing as passing percentage or grade. The system will determine by the way you answer your questions on how safe you work. When the system could determine that you are or aren't safe to work, it will stop asking you questions. The minimum amount of question is 75 and maximum is 265. After the test, you won't get the result at the testing center. Instead you go home and check online or wait for the mail. A few extra things to know 1- The number of questions you answer doesn't determine if you pass or fail. 2- Your grade in school doesn't determine that either. You can get straight A in school and still fail that test. 3- No prep course can accurately predict if you pass or not. (including ATI, Hurst, Kaplan, etc) 4- You can study the exact same material as your friends, have the same knowledge, and you can still fail while the other pass (or the opposite) 5- No textbook or prep course can guarantee that you pass. Long story short: don't worry about it now. I think your main concern is graduating nursing program first. That test will come later.

So today I think I'm done with NCLEX. I have studied nonstop since graduation. While some of my friends are like: "relax, man, you got to play around a little bit. It's Christmas and New Year." and I was like "nah, sorry, I need to get my butt back to studying." Luckily, Texas allows plenty of chances to retake the test, but my mind is set on taking it ONE time only. I don't want to waste time and money to do it all over again. So, for almost 6 weeks straight, my mind is constantly tense. As if to add more insult to the injury, my ATT is delayed. Due to a stupid mistake while my school sent the application over to the BON (they typed my birthday wrong), the BON couldn't process my application and issue an ATT. For 4 weeks, I have to call back and forth to Texas BON to know what's going on, and each time they promised that I would get the ATT next week. Finally, when a girl in my class announced that she passed the test, I called them again. I told them that it is ridiculous, someone in my class already passed the test and I'm still sitting here waiting for the ATT, that I have been studying my butt off and I don't even know if I had a chance to do the test at all. That morning the ATT arrived in my email. I immediately scheduled for 2PM on the 29th (there are no other spot left in Jan, and I hate to wait until Feb). I guess that's a good thing. I was scheduled at 2 PM, but when I arrived at 12:15, the lady at the desk allowed me to go in because there are plenty of empty spots inside. I took a deep breath and go in. Guess what? I even sat next to a girl from nursing class. She secretly tossed me a smile. That didn't keep my heart from beating fast. In fact I think I need some Xanax Anyway, the test is a mixture of stupid and weird and totally nonsensical questions. I knew that I would probably get a lot of SATA but I didn't expect nearly HALF of my test to be just SATA. I got 2 meds calculation, quite a few pharms question, some OB, some Pedi, some Psy. There are so many SATA questions that almost every other question is SATA. I'm not kidding when I say that after I clicked the "Next" button, I expect to see another SATA, and voila. Sometimes I get 2-3 SATA in a row. I have heard that the more you get SATA, the better you are doing. At that time, I was so exhausted. Now I understand how Luke felt when he fought Darth Vader. Near the end, I started to see priority and less SATA. Yes, they are tough, but I'm not really afraid of them, because I finished the LaCharity book, and I think that book is awesome at preparing me for the test. Forget about Kaplan decision tree. When you do enough questions, you no longer have to rely on that. When I look at the answer, the 1st one my eye stopped at usually is the correct choice, I check the other 3 just to make sure I didn't miss anything. And personally, I think Kaplan decision tree is useless. I only used the ABC in ONE question. No, airway is NOT always the right choice. That's one thing I don't like about the Decision tree. They want you to follow a certain rule, while in fact, you have to use your own judgement based on your knowledge. Anyway, I have heard someone said that they got more priority questions at the end. So when the number reach 75 and shut off, I was not very surprised. I didn't think I did very good, but I didn't think I was THAT bad either. When I got home, I immediately tried the PVT and the pop up saying something like I have to contact the BON and I can't schedule another test right now. Based on my experience while lurking around this forum, I know that I passed. The material I used NCSBN 5 weeks: I think this is the most useful, because the practice test is VERY tough, much tougher than Saunder and even Hurst. The content is sooooo dry that I thought I should monitor it for severe dehydration. LaCharity: without this book, I would never get over the killer priority questions at the end Hurst video: good for content and easy to remember. Saunder and Wikipedia (I'm serious) for content. And my own notes. Every time I found an interesting question with good rationale, I wrote it down in my own terms. I guess that's why I passed I'm an average student in school. If I can do this, you can too. It takes a lot of time and effort but in the end you will see how much it pays back when you take the test. Don't be discouraged if you failed 1-2 times or when you're too tired to study. Take a short break and think that everything you do will pull you a little closer to that "PASS" letter. Good luck, my friends, may the Force be with you. btw, please don't email/message me asking for my notes. The reason is that I used TONS of abbreviation and it was created for me, based on what I don't understand or need to memorize. If you create your own notes by jogging down rationales, you will have the same thing (or even better) than any notes offering online. And no, none of the stuffs I wrote down really help in the test, lol. I think 70% of the test has nothing to do with anything I've ever studied.

just to follow up on my response: today I got 75 questions and went home and got the pop up. It said something like, please contact the BON, can't register for another appointment. Is this the right one?

based on what I learned from NCSBN and LaCharity: morphine first, because morphine decrease pain and anxiety, also dilate blood vessel. All of those decrease O2 consumption, thus decreasing the heart workload. But honestly, that's what I believe, and when you review more than 1 book, sometimes you will see conflicting things like this. So, trust your instinct. But for me, if I were to come across that kind of question, I'll pick morphine 1st, just for MI. For other heart condition, I'll pick O2 first.

good luck. I'm taking the exam tomorrow too. We'll pass

thanks for sharing. I'm not exactly scared of the test, just curious. I don't understand why it's just a nerve wracking experience to some people while some I know just went it, took it and passed like nothing. I've studied non stop for the past 6 weeks since graduation (yes, including Christmas and new year). I can say the most time consuming is reading ALL the rationales (both right and wrong answers) and write down stuffs I need to remember. I hope that I'm going on the right track. I'll take the test this Wednesday in Houston.