MY EXPERIENCE TAKING THE NCLEX...

I took my exam at a Pearson Vue testing center in Downtown Jersey City.  Across the street from Newport Station.Very nice building. I went in.  I gave security in the lobby my passport.  They gave me a barcode swipe.  I swiped myself in and went up to the 16th floor.

I walked into the office and a woman greeted me.  She handed me a sheet with the exam rules written on it.   You can't take your cell phone into the exam.  No bracelets.  No calculators.  No wrist watches.  They have lockers with keys.  They will place your cell phone in a sealed bag.  They give it back to you and you put your sealed phone in your locker.  When the exam is done, you hand them your sealed phone.  They will cut the seal open and hand you your cell phone.  

The only thing you will end up walking in the exam with is your ID.  And even that will placed in a plastic ziplock bag.

Before you go in the room they will make you turn your pockets inside out.They will have you place both your hands on a hand scanner numerous times.  They will have you sit down  and take a picture.  They have cameras everywhere recording you.  They have microphones everywhere recording you.  They will provide you with a set of disposable earplugs prior to taking the exam.  

They will give you a 1'x2' laminated board with a marker.  You are not allowed to erase anything from the laminate.  You are not allowed to write on the laminate until after you finish the exam tutorial.  If you fill up the laminate, which you probably won't, but if you do, you will raise your hand and the proctor will walk in and replace it with a clean one.  You can take a bathroom break when you like.  You raise your hand.  The proctor comes and pauses the exam.  They will give you two opportunities to take an official break.  At 2 and I think 3 hours.   

 When you go on your break the clock is still running.  

The exam is max 6 hours long.  And that includes your break time.  Any bathroom breaks you take.  I took none of the prompted breaks.  I ran to bathroom at one point.  When I returned from the bathroom.  I had to scan my hand in again and roll up my sleeves and pull up my pant legs for the proctor.

I can understand why it cost $200 to take the exam.  It is like Fort Knox in the testing center.  But at the same time you can't really cheat anyway.  The content on the exam is only somewhat similar to what you studied in exam books.  So to try and cheat would be a total waste of time...

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Getting An Acceptance Letter

I received an e-mail recently from someone that was worried about whether or not they were going to get into Downstate's program.  They didn't hear anything, but other applicants already got their letters of acceptance.  

My only word of advice to you is to not give up hope until about a week after the program starts.  They will eventually send you a letter if you didn't get accepted.  And they will send you a letter if they have you on their wait list.  So if you are wait listed, all hope is not lost.

In my particular graduating class, one guy got in about a week into the semester.  Sometimes people enroll and decide at the last minute to withdraw from the program and a spot opens up.  So don't lose hope!!!

$$$ GETTING THAT JOB $$$

So after graduating you won't be able to sit for your boards for a good month or two.  It takes time for the school to process the paperwork and for everything to get put through.

If you are worried about passing the NCLEX.  Don't!  You will have plenty of time in the one to two month lag between graduating and when the school processes your paperwork to study.  If you are super worried.  Just shell out money and take the Kaplan course.  If you got in the program and you take the Kaplan course after you will pass with little to no problem.  I say that because in order to get in the program you have to be smart.  So a smart person doing Kaplan should pass.  I am not employed by Kaplan.  And if you take the Kaplan course and fail I will not be held responsible or liable.  But I think you get the point.

Out of my classmates many people got jobs within one to four months of passing their state boards.  

The people who had the hardest time finding a job where those with little to no real work experience.  By real work experience I mean people that never worked jobs with a lot of responsibilities.  Former school teachers got scooped up fairly quickly.  Former health care workers like PCTs etc were grabbed fairly quickly and will likely start at better pay.  

If you are a male it is much easier than if you are a female.  Males are severely underrepresented in nursing so they will get snatched up relatively easily.

If you leave New York City it will be much easier for you to find a job.

Of all the hospitals hiring, Methodist seems to be the one that absorbed the most Downstate grads.  Again if you can volunteer at Methodist I recommend doing it.  The two classmates who did their nurse externship at Methodist were hired immediately after passing their boards.  

One classmate was hired directly into the ICU at Maimonides Hospital.  He was a guy and he made this happen for himself by making connections while in the program. 

One classmate was hired directly in the Emergency Room at Woodhull Hospital.

You can also get a job working at a top notch hospital like Presbyterian by starting out working as a PCT.  That is a way you can get your foot in the door after graduating.  

Some of my classmates at this point are still looking.  We are about four and a half months out of school at the time I'm posting this.

I remembered a lot of people being so nervous about the NCLEX and so nervous about finding a job after graduating.  Don't be.  Instead of worrying, do something while you are still in the program.  Like volunteer at a hospital or try to get a job working at a hospital.  Or more importantly get an externship.  Everyone that I know of that got an externship was eventually hired after they got out of the program

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

People e-mail me questions from time to time so I'm going to post them here with answers little by little.

1. What was your g.p.a before the program?

I have no clue.  I completed my B.A. in English from Hunter College.  I minored in Japanese.  I took all my math and science courses at Brooklyn College then applied.  My grades were kind of all over the place.  Brooklyn College has separate grades for lab and lecture courses.  And has courses split over semesters. I went above and beyond their requirements for the program. Took Chem 2.  Many of my classmates took the non pre-med organic chemistry class. 

2. What was your g.p.a. from Downstate?

I have no idea.  I'm sure somewhere around a B+ range.  I'm not sure what number that corresponds to.  And let me tell you.  Nobody asked on my job interview.  And I will tell you one other thing.  I have classmate who worked as a PCT and continued to do so throughout the program.  And she told us on the last day of school she worked with two graduates of our program.  One with a 3.5 g.p.a and one with 3.1.  She said they both have been at the hospital for over a year each, and to this day, the one with the higher g.p.a. runs around like a chicken with her head cut off, while the student with the lower g.p.a. is the better nurse.  I'm not saying this will be the same for all cases.  But just keep that in mind while your obsessing over your g.p.a.

3. How many hours did you study per day?

Some days none.  Some days 3.5 hours.  My tactic for studying was as follows:

Get the reading list.  Read and outline as much as possible until the point at which I got a blueprint for the examination.  Stop.  Cover all areas I didn't cover yet on the blueprint.  Then go back over the material I already covered.

This landed me in the A- range regularly.  And then I would ignore the ATI completely.  Not study.  Take the ATI exam.  Get like a 50 or 60 which was 10% of your grade.  Take my B+ for the course and that was it.

I told this to the people I was mentoring when they were on their 2nd day of school.  And they rolled their eyes at me.  A couple of months later they understood.  Not to say they did what I did.  Some of them are doing much better.  But they at least understood where I was at.  

Some of you reading this right now also won't understand until you get there in the program.  The skills that land you in the program can kind of work against you once you get in.

MORE TO COME...

The Robert Wood Johnson Scholarship

This was a $10,000 scholarship offered to 10 students in the class who came from populations that were underrepresented in nursing.  
The scholarship was discontinued.  Too bad because they gave you $10,000.  Receiving this scholarship was the single best and worst thing that happened to me when I was in nursing school.  

I'm not going to go into anymore details than that.

VOLUNTEER

If you want to get into this program and you have no prior health care work experience then VOLUNTEERING is the single most important thing you have to do.

It's not difficult.  Just pick a hospital, go to their website, and put volunteer in the search box.

Although I do recommend that you volunteer at the best hospital possible.

Don't be lazy and just choose whatever hospital is closest to your home.  

It's important to be able to sell yourself.  And being able to name drop counts.  Even if only on a subconscious level.  If you say you volunteered at a first rate hospital they will equate you mentally with that hospital.  

For my particular class they chose 60 students out of 700+ applicants.  You need to do whatever you can to stand out.

When I decided to volunteer I put: 10 best hospitals in New York City into Google's search engine.  

If you have to start working your way up from the bottom.  Start from the bottom of the top.  Be at the bottom of the best place that you possibly can.

It's also a great opportunity to see what your future is likely to be like.  People see the dollar signs, but often times don't realize the amount of hard work and dedication required to work as an RN.  Not to mention all the shenanigans.  And people trying to throw you under a bus.  

If you are smart and get good grades, that's great!  But can you work 12 hours straight or more.  And how are you with people?  And do you enjoy the work environment?  Getting in the hospital helps you to figure all that out so you don't end up devoting a lot of time and energy to something that you hate doing in the end and wind up quitting.  

My godmother worked 26 years as an RN.  She retired from North Shore LIJ, Lenox Hill.  When she retired she was making 136,000/year.  And this is what she said to me, she said, "I worked a lot of years and I was getting good pay when I retired.  But you better believe me that they made me work my butt off for every penny of every dollar I earned."