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The NCLEX: How To Prepare

Featured Author:

Hollis Forster, RNC-NP

Nursing Career and Education Expert

Hollis Forster, RNC-NP received her RN in 1980 and her nurse practitioner license in 1982 from the University of California at Los Angeles. She’s worked in intensive care units and ambulatory care centers, delivering hands-on women’s health care services to countless women. During many of these years, she also worked as the risk and quality manager of ten women’s health centers, assuring compliance with local and federal law and managing the details of protocol development and implementation.

From 2003-2005, she served as the Executive Director of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, drawing on her knowledge of cervical cancer from her twenty years as a provider of cervical cancer services. This experience enriched her knowledge of the administrative needs of health care services.

In 2006, Holly joined Affiliates Risk Management Services, a risk management organization that serves a national health care association. She is currently Director of Risk and Quality Management for over 860 health care sites. She also continues her hands-on work to stay connected with the most important part of this job- the patient.

Ms. Forster has also served on the board of medical management for the Family Planning Funding organization in California and has been a visiting faculty member for the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, delivering medical education to reproductive health care professionals across the U.S.

More articles from this author:

• Advancing Your LPN License
• Expanding Acceptance of Nursing Students
• 5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Clinical Rotations

You have just completed years of nursing school, you have requested licensure from your state and you have registered to take “the exam.” What do you do now? How can you be sure you will pass the test that will allow you to practice? How do you stop feeling so anxious about the test and your future?

The NCLEX is an exam used by the State Boards of Nursing to evaluate nurses as they enter the work force, their competency for licensure and for functioning as a nurse. It is used for both RN and LPN candidates and is a computerized adaptive test. You have probably heard a lot about it as you progressed through your classes, but now it is time to face it.

I, of course, took this exam with a number two pencil and paper, and this current method of testing is fascinating to me. In the tutorial they offer, you will learn:

1. The “adaptive” nature of the test. You only have to take as many questions as will prove that you have the knowledge to “pass.”

2. The logistics of the test. It may be disconcerting to find out on the day of the exam that you will be video-taped and audio-taped while taking the test. The tutorial reviews that kind of information.

3. The computerized nature of the questions and how to answer them using the mouse and keyboard (pretty cool, really!)

4. The look and feel of the test.

It seems to me that this tutorial has the capacity to significantly reduce anxiety about the test, just by familiarizing you with what you will see in front of you when you sit for the exam.

There are many different ways to prepare for this important exam. It would be unwise to enter this test without any preparation, but this prep can take many different forms. Some students take extensive and expensive review courses, some count on review with friends or fellow students, and some merely hope for the best. Whatever path you choose, aim to do that which reduces your anxiety and mentally prepares you to pass this test with flying colors. Good luck to you…you can do it.