Well I did it! Finally wrote the NCLEX and found out that I PASSED! You can now call me a Registered Nurse!
When I received my go ahead to schedule my NCLEX in March, I chose to write my NCLEX at the beginning of May. That would have given me a good month and a half to study. I was a week and a half away from my exam date when I received an email… It said that due to Covid-19, they had to cancel my exam in order to follow appropriate safety measures. I was devastated, I had studied hard and was prepared to write the exam. When I went to reschedule, the next available date to write was in mid June. Luckily, by keeping an eye on open exam dates, I was able to reschedule to the end of May!
I made sure to take a break the day before the exam, as others have suggested. I knew I did what I could to prepare myself as best as possible. I worked my way through UWorld and Saunders Review. On the day of the exam I tried to remain calm but the anxiety was growing. I made sure to choose an 0800 exam time because I knew I would just become more anxious the longer I waited. So I wrote my NCLEX exam at 0800 on Friday morning. I came out of the exam unsure of whether I passed or failed. As the exam is a “smart computer exam” it is hard to tell how you are doing, and the best advice I’ve seen is to not try to figure out how you’re doing during the exam but instead take it one question at a time, only focusing on the question before you! In hindsight Friday was not the greatest day to write because I did not receive my results until Monday morning.
Those two days of waiting were painful to say the least. I felt like I could not do a thing until I knew whether or not I passed. I was in a full on stress panic! And I want you to know that that is okay! We worked so hard to get to this point. After graduation, the only thing standing between you and your career is the NCLEX. This is what your whole nursing school experience has led up to. So it is okay to be stressed, panicked, exhausted, and emotional. But just remember your hard work will pay off, and you will receive that email that says ‘Congratulations you PASSED!’ You know more than you think!
Good Luck!!