I took the computer driven NCLEX it is not as easy as a cram session as the algorithm selects the next question based on your answer to prior questions and my drive one being subjected more and more questions.Now they give a Hesse test prior to enrollment in nursing school which is a predictor of success. They publish mug shots of people who try to pass them selves off as licensed in nursing journals. The most likely place to find imposters is in nursing homes and such. Further, all nurses are checked by fingerprint through the FBI through the board.

I`m not gonna trust the DOJ.

Would.

The the nature of NCLEX now, being a short test (Sometimes only 70 questions but no more than 260) with less inclusive and less comprehensive subject questioning can make passing the licensure exam more possible with a "cramming session or 2". I know this next claim is gonna sound like a "I had to walk 5 miles uphill, both ways, in knee deep snow to school and back" type statement but when I took the licensure test there was no 70 cut-off. It was a 2 day, 600 question, 3 hours each morning and 3 hours each afternoon marathon testing session. This more easily weeded out the unprepared and uncommitted crowds. I don't think many, if any, could purchase a diploma and sit for this type of licensure exam and pass it. Certainly not thousands of applicants. Not to mention whereas prospective RN's can now take their test locally at a "testing center" (can anyone say H&R Block? or Sylvan) I had to drive 4.5 hours to Austin and take the test under the watchful eye of the Texas Board of Nursing along with hundreds of other applicants.

I took the computer driven NCLEX it is not as easy as a cram session as the algorithm selects the next question based on your answer to prior questions and my drive one being subjected more and more questions.Now they give a Hesse test prior to enrollment in nursing school which is a predictor of success. They publish mug shots of people who try to pass them selves off as licensed in nursing journals. The most likely place to find imposters is in nursing homes and such. Further, all nurses are checked by fingerprint through the FBI through the board.

My NCLEX experience is no knock on your experience. Just a helluva lot harder and more stressful IMO. And I don't think a fraudulent test taker could have stood up to type testing. To tell the truth I'm pretty jealous of those that took their NCLEX later on. And for sure when I went and tested for my CCRN it was at a testing station in west Houston at an H&R Block office. I stressed then but at least I had immediate feedback on score and passing vs my NCLEX I had to wait 6 weeks for results.

I was fingerprinted later on in my career (after year 2000) but had FBI background check in nursing school 1990. Our instructors warned us about the background check too. Also when I applied for my Maine licensure I went through another FBI background check and was fingerprinted at that time (1997).

So as a nurse, I took the Pearson Vue test 7 years ago. I was not one of the lucky ones to get 75 questions. I got the full 260, and it took 4 hours and 22 minutes. Still remember it vividly to this day. I have my feelings about the test though. Technically, you have to get 51% to pass. The way it works is you start on a line. If you answer a question right, you are above the line. The more questions you answer right, the higher above the line you get, but the harder the questions get. Same goes for if you answer wrong, except the easier they get the lower you get from the starting line. If you get too far above the line, test shuts off and the deem you competent. Get too far below the line, test shuts off and you fail, deemed incompetent. Some are just so lucky to get a full test, no matter how far above or below you get because they need data on questions asked for future tests. Was I the idiot who couldn't get high enough above the line or was I the lucky one to get the full test... I will never know. Based on how terrible of a test taker I am, I am guessing I just wasn't good enough to get high enough and had to grind out the full test. Again, kind of a BS test though, since you can pass with a 51%.

The NCLEX was WAY easier than any of my tests I took in nursing school, especially my exit HESI test to graduate. That test was an absolute monster and that one had to be passed with a 77%. Like I tell all the students we mentor in and out, nursing school does not prep you on how to be a nurse though. It preps you on how to pass the NCLEX. Once you get hired and you get 8-12 weeks of orientation, that is when you really learn policies, procedures, time management and how to manage care between docs and patients. Real life work is where you learn skill sets on actual human beings vs dummies. What you learn in nursing school, barely scrapes the surface of what real life is like in a hospital.

The NCLEX was WAY easier than any of my tests I took in nursing school, especially my exit HESI test to graduate. That test was an absolute monster and that one had to be passed with a 77%. Like I tell all the students we mentor in and out, nursing school does not prep you on how to be a nurse though. It preps you on how to pass the NCLEX. Once you get hired and you get 8-12 weeks of orientation, that is when you really learn policies, procedures, time management and how to manage care between docs and patients. Real life work is where you learn skill sets on actual human beings vs dummies. What you learn in nursing school, barely scrapes the surface of what real life is like in a hospital.

Wait. Y'all can pass with a 51%? Dang! We had to have 70% to pass. They did the same stupid get it right and the next question is harder...They also state that only 21% of our test would be based on anatomy. My test had over 60 questions that were based on anatomy. SUCKED!!!!

Gotta take the good with the bad.

Now getting my BSN degree (Short for BULLSH** NURSING DEGREE) was a JOKE! Signed a contract when I was hired that I would obtain it within 5 years of hire. I waited 4 years and 6 months before going back to school. Talk about a governmental ponzi scheme! The schooling is all online. No matter where you go, it costs just under 13k. No matter where you go, private, small university, big university, all the same price. I NEVER read one word out of a text book, and I BS'd all my papers and gave it about as much effort as I do in fly fishing at this point... absolutely 0. Got through all of school during the heart of Covid and I booked myself 12 credit hours per semester because I wanted to be done so I could keep my job.

Heres my thoughts on why this all went down. Go back all the way to 2008 housing collapse, less people had children because money was tight and the market SUCKED! Those kids would be entering colleges around the time they started enforcing all nurses to get a BSN (up to a certain age). Colleges were already moaning and groaning on less attendance and lack of profit. So, a quick way to get money quick for colleges was to make nurses get a bachelors degree. And now you are getting this same funding from not only young kid college age, but populations in their 40's were also expected to obtain the degree. Created a lot of money for suffering colleges pretty darn quick.

What pissed me off more than anything in the world was I graduate, my "degree" comes in the mail. I threw it away because I wasn't even proud to have it because I graduated on the deans list with absolutely 0 effort put forward. It was laughable honestly, then 3 months later, my organization said all those contracts were void because so many were leaving as nurses during the pandemic. No longer needed and the organization would not enforce the degree any longer to keep your job. Talk about a complete waste of 13k that absolutely did nothing to help my nursing career. Still have the same position, make a measly 2 dollars more an hour, and not anymore highly regarded than I was before I went to school.

Post more often.

Now getting my BSN degree (Short for BULLSH** NURSING DEGREE) was a JOKE! Signed a contract when I was hired that I would obtain it within 5 years of hire. I waited 4 years and 6 months before going back to school. Talk about a governmental ponzi scheme! The schooling is all online. No matter where you go, it costs just under 13k. No matter where you go, private, small university, big university, all the same price. I NEVER read one word out of a text book, and I BS'd all my papers and gave it about as much effort as I do in fly fishing at this point... absolutely 0. Got through all of school during the heart of Covid and I booked myself 12 credit hours per semester because I wanted to be done so I could keep my job.

Heres my thoughts on why this all went down. Go back all the way to 2008 housing collapse, less people had children because money was tight and the market SUCKED! Those kids would be entering colleges around the time they started enforcing all nurses to get a BSN (up to a certain age). Colleges were already moaning and groaning on less attendance and lack of profit. So, a quick way to get money quick for colleges was to make nurses get a bachelors degree. And now you are getting this same funding from not only young kid college age, but populations in their 40's were also expected to obtain the degree. Created a lot of money for suffering colleges pretty darn quick.

What pissed me off more than anything in the world was I graduate, my "degree" comes in the mail. I threw it away because I wasn't even proud to have it because I graduated on the deans list with absolutely 0 effort put forward. It was laughable honestly, then 3 months later, my organization said all those contracts were void because so many were leaving as nurses during the pandemic. No longer needed and the organization would not enforce the degree any longer to keep your job. Talk about a complete waste of 13k that absolutely did nothing to help my nursing career. Still have the same position, make a measly 2 dollars more an hour, and not anymore highly regarded than I was before I went to school.