4417

Throughout the semester, I’ve been commenting on my progress doing NCLEX questions. The NCLEX is the cloud that has overshadowed every class, test, and project of the whole semester. Really, my entire 2 years of nursing school boiled down to this one test.

I’m happy to say that 4,417 test questions was the magic number, and I passed my NCLEX last Friday!!!

I would have blogged about freaking out about the test, but I was, well, too freaked out to even put it into (hopefully) funny words.

Actually, I was surprisingly calm until I got to question 68 of the test. (75 is the minimum number you can take and pass.) For some reason when I looked up and saw question 68 I started to psych myself out. “What if I’m doing terribly, and fail in 75 questions?” Followed closely by, “What if I have to do all 265 questions?!?”

This of course led to having to read the final 7 questions about 12 times each because I couldn’t concentrate…and then me continually telling myself to concentrate, followed by less concentration. People, it was a vicious circle. Thank goodness it only lasted for 7 questions.

Here are a few other random thoughts that went through my head while testing:

• “Wait, what does that word mean?”
• “You can critically think. Stop messing around.”
• “Did I even know that was a medical problem?”
• “This is so easy. Wait, is this computer trying to trick me?”
• “How come none of these answers make sense? What was the question again?”
• “It is airway, breathing, circulation, right?”

If you’re wondering how in the world I passed this test with thoughts like that, you’re not alone. I am too! Apparently, 4,417 test questions paid off.