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Hi LanaAd, I want to encourage you by saying that, your past does not define your future. I have experienced this first hand. As we have learned about social determinants of health, about how many different factors lead to an outcome, I believe the same applies to the outcome of the exam. The exam does not define you. The exam you took in June is independent of the exam you will take in the future. As to taking the exam in October or not, you know yourself best (most likely), so you will know the best answer to that. I will tell you what I did to study and some of my thoughts, but take it with a grain of salt because you and I are unique in our own ways. Resources I used: Mosby's Comprehensive Review for the CRNE CNA Prep Guide CNA Readiness Tests I didn't see the exam as a big deal because I didn't want to make it a big deal. I feel that sometimes things are as big as you make them to be, and thinking they are big can make things more stressful then it needs to be. I planned to study a month before the exam and did not want to spend the whole day studying, so I thought of maybe studying 5 hours a day. I planned to read Mosby's Comprehensive Review for the CRNE and do the CNA Prep Guide questions (I later decided to do readiness tests as well). I did not join any prep courses or do any group studying, I just self-studied. Before reading Mosby, I read Chapters 1-3 and the CNA competencies in the CNA Prep Guide. When it was 2-3 weeks before the exam, I probably had only read 50-100 pages, when I thought (and was clearly overestimating myself) I could just finish reading the Mosby book in a week. This is when I decided to just try the CNA prep guide questions because I was going so slow and I thought it should be useful to do practice questions (I sat there for more than 4 hours straight doing the 200 questions and when calculating my mark, I excluded the questions that I answered in overtime) . From doing the questions, I got an idea of the type of exam this was. I thought, I am not looking for the correct answer, I am looking for the best answer/how CNA would like me to answer. I had to learn to let go of what I thought was the right answer based on my own values and beliefs and just think, how would the people from CNA respond to each situation/question or why would they say it's wrong. After doing the CNA prep guide questions, I read the Mosby book for roughly 2 weeks about 12 hours each day and finished reading Mosby around a week before the exam (including the practice questions after each chapter, keeping in mind that these answers and rationales are not from the CNA. I did not have time to do the mock exams in Mosby that were near the end of the book because I thought doing the readiness tests would be more relevant). In the middle of reading Mosby, I also freaked out a bit, wondering if just studying from Mosby would be enough, but in the end I didn't have time to read anything else, so I just moved on to doing questions. I wrote notes while reading the Mosby book, but near the end I didn't write that many notes because I did not have enough time to read Mosby and write notes. I usually do not go back to my notes anyways, although I always have the intention to (I probably ended up reading my notes once afterwards). After I finished reading Mosby, I went back to the CNA prep guide questions and my answer sheet to go through every answer I picked and compared it to the right answer and rationale. I also looked at the wrong answers and the rationales as well. I made a list when dissecting the CNA prep guide questions (this took a lot out of my time, but for me it was worth it). When comparing an answer over a more correct answer, I put the main concept of the more correct answer higher up on the list than the less correct answer. I was trying to figure out the order of what the CNA thought was the most important concept when different answers (that could be backed up with important concepts) for a question were put against each other. I did this with a readiness test from the CNA as well and added to my list or "confirmed" my list using the readiness test. Finally, after going through the list and having an idea of what took precedence over what (I didn't really have to read the list over much actually, because tediously going through all those questions and making the list basically allowed me to sort out the order in my brain), I tried using this list and applying it to a second readiness test to see if it worked. For me, it worked (by "worked", I mean I got a score that I was satisfied with, it wasn't perfect). I found that there were exceptions, certain circumstances where a concept would be more important over another concept that is usually higher up on the list, in specific situations. I felt that scope of practice, safety, and assessment were important concepts (I believe you can name them whatever you want to name them, as long as you see that thing recurring). Possible questions you may also want to think about (in the perspective of someone from the CNA) include: Has the nurse already assessed the situation in the question? Is reassessing necessary? With conflict, has the nurse already tried talking to the person in the past and did talking to them work? Should the nurse do the same thing and talk to her or him again? What is the order of who a nurse should contact first when conflict occurs? How does the nurse determine if this is an emergency situation where the physician needs to be notified immediately and what are not emergency situations then? The day before the exam, I read Chapters 1-3 and the CNA competencies in the CNA Prep Guide again. To be honest, I do not think I did too well on the questions I thought were straight up knowledge questions. I did not have time to worry about what I didn't know, so I just picked an answer and moved on. I believe that it is possible to do better on the CRNE by focusing on areas that need improvement, by enhancing on areas that you are already good at, or by doing a mix of both. Something completely different may work as well! Similar to how we are taught to see every client as an individual and tailor our care to their needs, we must see that we are individuals that need things tailored for ourselves as well. Good luck!

Hi, Markham: I got my results today (July 11) and I passed. The date on the letter is July 9th and the Canada Post stamped it on July 9th as well. I touched the small white envelope and it felt thin, so I thought I more likely had passed because I have read from other topics on this website that it is usually around 1-2 pieces of paper for a pass and more papers if not (from what I remember). To be honest, when I had finished the exam, I did not even know what to think. I felt more unhappy and uncertain about myself. There was no time to think during the exam, it was just keep writing for me. I finished the exam with no time to spare. While waiting for my results, I felt 50/50 on if I had passed or not, sometimes I felt more like I had passed and other times I felt that maybe I did not. Congratulations to those who passed! Good luck to those still waiting for their results, and to those that are going to give the exam another try, study your best with the time you have and good luck!