Trucking Along

So far my progress has been slow but steady. My goals are to review my areas of weakness and do as many practice problems as I can. Right now I've been taking this as a learning experience and trying not to get hung up on the percent I get right but on learning the material and practicing. That being said, I would like to get more than 70% of the questions I answer correct. I'm not quite there yet, which is surprising given that I did well on tests at school. I read a book on test taking strategy but find myself answering questions quickly and not thinking through as much as I should. When I took tests in school, I was consistently one of the last people to turn in her test. I would mull over the questions and double check, sometimes triple check my answers if it involved math. While taking practice questions, if I don't know the answer right away, I tend to answer quickly and move on to the next one instead of thinking through the problem. I'm working off of a Mosby CD where there are over 300 questions per section (so far I've done the pedi and OB sections) and I take several breaks. On the NCLEX there could conceivably be this many questions that I may have to answer and at this point I should focus on stamina in taking as many questions that I can in one sitting while using good test taking strategies.

Back on the Horse

I had a wonderful Christmas and spent some long overdue time with my family. I shared my hopes and fears about the NCLEX with them and they helped me regain my confidence and determination to keep studying and pass "with flying colors"!! My sister even offered to take me on a vacation the day after I take the NCLEX (I still need to sign up but have the approximate date in mind) and before I start the nurse practitioner program. There is a very short window of time between these two events and on one level I'd like to take the NCLEX days after my Anderson review course is finished. On the other hand, I am still feeling intimidated and unprepared and want to take it the day before my classes begin to give me more time to study. All in all, the consensus is that I will study hard over the next three weeks, take the NCLEX and go on vacation! I remember when my sister, my family and I went on vacation after my sister took the bar. I remember how much she studied and how happy she was when she found out that she had passed! Her advice to me is all the more significant because she had been there and never wanted to be there again (studying for a major test). The NCLEX for me is really a stepping stone because I know this is not the last major test I'll take - there are the NP boards, more than 1 if I become certified in women's health, and I may go to business school in my lifetime.

I took a practice test before I went out of town and identified areas of weakness. Many of them had to do with medications I was not familiar with, pediatrics and minutiae that I had forgotten and basic test taking skills (I narrowed down to two answer choices and chose the wrong one). I am concentrating on pediatrics now and then will move down the list of areas of weakness (about a page) and keep taking practice tests.

Before the practice test, I read a book about strategies and will post some of my notes from that. My first impression from the practice test was that it was easier than tests I had taken during nursing school. That being said, I did much worse on the practice test than I did during nursing school. It is clear to me that I will need to study hard in order to pass. I honestly have not studied for about 5 days and it is time to really get in gear and pass this thing.

One Last Thing

I've created this blog to help me stay motivated to study for the NCLEX, which is about 1 month away! The idea of my limited time is daunting yet exciting! I recently attended my pinning ceremony, a long tradition for nurses since the start of nursing programs way back when. I am extremely excited and proud of myself for having completed one of the most difficult and rewarding goals in my life so far! My timeline is to finish nursing school (almost done minus one more thing left to do!), study for the NCLEX on my own, go to a review course in early Jan, and pass the NCLEX. Then I will be a bona fide nurse and ready to proudly brandish the title of nurse to my patients!

I am quasi-finished with school and have a written final to submit for my research class and then I will be ready to start studying for the NCLEX. On some levels I have been dragging my feet in completing the task that stands between myself as a nursing student and myself as a new grad studying for my nursing boards.

I have heard about studying for the boards and asked many nurses about their experiences with studying for and taking the NCLEX since before I was a nursing student. I equate it with a much more important version of the GRE. Both are taken on computers in a small sort-of cubicle and so much is at stake during the testing time. I remember how nervous I was when I took the GRE. It was on Sept 1, a Friday the afternoon before I would leave for Germany for a trip with my parents. I had some errands for that morning (depositing at the bank, getting traveler's checks, etc). It seemed like the majority of Boston was in a frenzy being that it was one of the busiest moving days in the city when all the college students would be moving into their apartments in preparation for the fall semester. I met one such person who collided into my bike with her car while I was on my way to the bank. We were both not entirely present in that moment- she had spent all morning moving and I was preoccupied with my test that afternoon and trip the following morning. I was extremely shaken up but unharmed and my bike was still rideable. A friendly passer-by helped me straighten my badly dented handlebars who also happened to know the father of the girl who hit me and assured me that I would get some compensation for the damages. Since I needed to get to the bank I fearfully rode my wobbly bike a couple of blocks to the bank and then back home. Still shaken up, I rode the T to my test site in Coolidge Corner and went through the testing formalities. I requested ear plugs which turned out to be more helpful than I thought, although I could still hear the squeal of the T on the tracks meters from the building where I was sealing helping seal my future as a graduate nursing student. The GRE went well and I was so relieved when my score popped up at the end of the test.

I expect that the NCLEX will be a similar experience as the testing environment as the GRE, although it could potentially be much longer. So, on to how I plan on actually doing some studying and passing. I have a research final that I have due tomorrow and then I will be ready to move on from nursing school. I have a plethora of prep books and CDs in a pile waiting for me to go through them. I will probably start with taking a long test and seeing where I stand. I'll go through areas of weakness and review topics that I have not looked at in a while (gravida, Erikson's developmental stages, what is an atypical antipsychotic?) and go from there. I feel like I know what to do, but not quite how to stay focused enough to accomplish my goal of passing the NCLEX with flying colors!