Next-Generation NCLEX Success Stories

Hi, everyone, welcome to Connetics USA AMN internationals NCLEX success heroes for next generation NCLEX. We're glad you're here today. Thanks for joining us. We're going to have some awesome guests sharing some experiences and stories with you today. And so we will be introducing them in just a moment. In the meantime, if you want to add in the comments of our chat, where you're joining and watching from today, that will be very much appreciated by our team so we kind of have an idea where everybody is from and we have today with us Dr. Nurse Paul, Carolina, Marchelly and Shiena joining us. So thank you to all of you for being on today. And hi blessing. Thanks for being the first to comment on our chat this morning. We're so glad you're with us. I know it may not be morning everywhere. It's morning for me here in Tennessee. And Paul, I know it's morning for you in Texas. So I think what we'll do is get started with some introductions. And so if you want to take a moment, Paul to introduce yourself and then we'll move to Shiena and then Carolina.

All right, good morning everyone. I'm streaming from Houston, Texas. This is Dr. Nurse Paul. But you can call me Paul. I'm the CEO of Aspire RN and also do my own show and my own page Dr. Nurse Paul show. And today we're going to feature some of our passers and looks success heroes. We're going to hear their inspiring stories. But mainly I'm here as one of the battle along with Holly to talk about next generation NCLEX and how it impacts our students, our nurses in as far as passing and succeeding in their NCLEX exam. Thank you Paul. Shiena, can you introduce yourself for us? Yes, hello everyone. I am finally form on. I am married with two children. I'm currently working in private hospital here in our province and I was born abroad before in Saudi Arabia for almost six years as OPD nurse. Thank you Shiena for being with us today. Carolina? Can you introduce yourself? Yeah. Hello and I am Carolina. I'm from Brazil. I'm a nursing here for since 2011. I work in a private hospital in the surgical center in the labor delivery. And now I started to realize my dream to move to United States when IPass NCLEX congratulations Carolina, we're excited to have you here. Thanks for signing on from Brazil. We'll probably have some Brazil nurses either watching this while we're live or, or maybe in the future. So we're excited that you're able to be with us today. And Marchelly, where are you signing on from tell us a little bit about yourself? Hi, hello, everyone.

My name is Marchelly I live here in the northern part of the Philippines. It's called Isabella. So I'm already married. And I have a four year old daughter. I'm working in a private hospital here in the province. Okay, thank you so much. So I like that I like the name of your town. Is it Isabella? That's very pretty. We're glad that we have people from all over the world who are eager to learn about next gen NCLEX and want to hear the things that you guys have to share because your recent passes of this new format of exam and some of the different question styles. And so I do want to talk just a moment about our success path for the Connetics program. So We have here a slide that may be familiar to some of you. And basically, when we talk about the journey from the very beginning of hmm, I'm interested in coming to the US to arrival in the US and building a life and a career here. There are quite a few steps that you will go through and Connetics USA and AMN international are certainly eager to guide nurses through this process and work with them to find great matches for the Hospitals and facilities they may want to go to work for. But there's a lot of boxes to check to be able to make that dream a reality. And so that is where we come in, we obviously have helped a lot of nurses through the NCLEX part of the process. And those of you who are here with us today, you have been part of that pre NCLEX program that Connetics offers.

And Paul, with his Aspire program is one of our partners as well. And we do also partner with IPass for NCLEX reviews. And we've seen great success overall with our nurses who are doing the next gen NCLEX. It's really exciting because up to March 31, everybody was kind of like, we don't know how this is going to work. And now we're two months into it, or a little more. And we're able to kind of see how everything is coming into play. And hearing back from our nurses, both the people who've been successful and those who weren't able to. And we want to share some of that today with you. So now that we've done our introductions, I want to tell you that while you've got that NCLEX success path, the first step checked off with NCLEX. We are here to guide you through the rest of the process as well. Before we get too deep into your experiences, I do want to share a little bit about next gen and some of the differences so for those of you who are joining us, which I see blessing says she's from Nigeria Odette from Cameroon, Walter from Angola, and Vin guy from Zimbabwe Vani from the Philippines. So all over the world. Before we get to that I the stories I want to talk just a moment about Next Gen NCLEX. So we have some slides that will pop up here on the screen while we talk. But Paul, will you just give us sort of a quick rundown of what changed with next gen and NCLEX starting on April 1st.

Alright, so the Next Gen NCLEX, we've seen changes to the test items. So definitely we have new test items, particularly everybody's familiar with the case study setup, but individual test items we will see we have seen changes such as highlighting texts or drag and drop to complete a sentence we have Glos where you click a drop box and you see the answers there, we have bowtie which looks like a little butterfly or a bowtie where you complete all five boxes asking you the competencies for the clinical judgment. And we have a couple more like the SAP as are no longer we call it extended multiple response, we have tables or grids. And a couple more stuff. There are actually 14 subtypes of different test items, which I have discussed in my show as well. But also we've also seen changes to the scoring system with the Next Gen NCLEX setup. We are now doing partial scoring versus the old generation where it's all or nothing scoring format where you only get one point, if there's anything that you miss in one of the questions, then you get zero point. Now we get partial scores, which actually help our students because partial scores would give you a certain number of scores versus getting zero. So that's a plus for most of our students are doing the next one NCLEX. And then on the screen, we see the changes to the test plan, there is a 2% deduction to the management of care. But there is also an increase of 1%. And both safety and infection control and pharmacology questions. And then the test item changes to like the maximum I'm sorry, the minimum items is now 85 items versus 75 In the past, and the maximum is 150 items versus 145 items in the past. Well those are the changes.

Awesome. And I'll mention one more and just in case I didn't hear it from you ranges, the lab range normal values are provided. So little less guesswork for those of you who go blank when you're sitting trying to remember what's normal and abnormal. You'll have a little more information there which is kind of can take a breath and not have to feel like your brain is blank on those. So in all what trends Paul are we seeing and you and I can probably both talk about this actually What we do that I see Alicia has been able to join us. Hi, Alicia. Thanks for day. Can you introduce yourself really quickly and tell us where you're signing in from? Oh. Alicia, can you tell us where you're where you're logging on from where your location is? Like, what country? And a little bit about yourself? Hi, I'm Alicia rice. I'm logging in from Guyana. I'm a nurse since 2015. And I recently passed the NCLEX examination classes are four. Yes, so thank you, Alicia. We have a very diverse group on our call today, which excites me because we have so many nurses from all over the world who may be able to identify with you based on your clinical background, your cultural background. And so it's nice to have such a great group represented here today. So the trends, Paul, going back to that, What trends are you seeing with your nurses who are going through your program as far as their outcomes, some of the things that they're maybe giving you and feedback as they move through to take the exam and in most cases pass. Just tell us a little bit about that.

Right. So in most of the feedback that I got was students are getting, I don't know, our nurses here in front of us right now could tell me and verify with me, but most of them were able to get at least five, or between five to seven case studies in the entirety of the exam. Now I have a mixed group of students who finished minimum items, and some of them are finished maximum items. But what I've seen in our performance is all students that we've recommended to take the exam have all passed the NCLEX from April and May batches as far as the scholarship is concerned. And that's because we also in our program, to train them to do case studies we do what we have what we call next gen NCLEX master classes where I go to the class every weekend with our students to kind of train them. But aside from case studies, certain students would also get individual or stand alone next gen format questions. But majority of the questions are still in the old format, which is the multiple choice. And again, majority of them are still priority or about prioritization are still about prioritization. So while you guys are transitioning to next and Next Gen format, very important, and this is what I always tell my students to master your content, because majority of the questions are still going to be in the prioritization format, where you will have to really use your critical thinking skills.

All right. So I'm gonna go around and ask the group of Carolina Shiena and then Marchelly, how many case study questions did you get those six part case studies? We were a little nervous about so how many did you get on your exam this time? In my exam, we I had four, so Carolina, you had four and Marcelli? Me I had five. Okay. And Shiena? I think five to seven. So, so many. Yeah, it's, it's kind of a blur. Sometimes after you walk out of there you go, what happened? So, um, so Okay, so that's about what we thought when we were when we talk to nurses who've passed, and those who haven't made it, we do hear often that they're getting more than the three that was kind of rumored everybody's gonna get three. And so, you know, we know that some of those questions may not be scored, right, which is part of the process that's normal for NCLEX. Anyway, but that's what we're really kind of looking at is making sure people are aware to be prepared for more than three of those six part case study questions. So I'm going to slip a question in here. And I think I'll have Shiena answer this one. So Shiena, as far as the case studies went, did you did you find that you liked the case studies better than the stand alone format? Or did you prefer the stand alone?

No, for me, I must say am I enjoying answering the ng n question? Because you know the these choices are already like a bowtie questions, and then the matrix, multiple choice because you will not get zero on this because, for example, you will, you will select five, five answers and you will just select only a sure answer you have. For me, I think that the tips I use during my exam, that's good. Yeah. And your response is kind of what I expected to hear as well. So most nurses, we want to use that nurse brain and get that clinical picture. And the Next Gen and NCLEX questions that are case studies kind of build that story for you as opposed to kind of trying to figure out what is the story with a with two lines on a practice question or on the real thing, and it makes us want to add because we've seen these patients in some cases before. Okay, so Carolina, can you and Marchelly and Alicia will go in that order. Tell us one thing that surprised you on this exam. The Next Gen NCLEX just one for me is the quality of the new questions. Okay, the quality of the new questions was a better thing a better experience than you expected? Or yeah, for? Yeah, the better is better experience. Before? Yes, and I didn't mention it earlier. We, uh, we're gonna get into that, but I'll just give you a hint. Carolina had attempted the previous NCLEX format more than once. Carlina do you want to tell us about your previous attempts, and compared to next gen. You've done it a total of how many times?

I've done three times after the new generation. In the last chance, I say I will wait for the new generation of NCLEX to try again. And when I try IPass it yeah, for those of yes, I will do I will then in the United States the last the last chance now. Wow nice. So this was it. Yeah. But after I think that's very inspiring Carolina to know that you had tried it with the previous version multiple times, you didn't give up. So kudos to you. And you were successful with a new format as well, which some people they're very nervous, they don't know whether they're going to like it or not. So I think that gives people a lot of hope to know that. You know, number one, don't give up you will get there. And number two, this next gen is probably not as scary as some people may be finding it even if they tested on the previous attempt with the older format. So kudos Marchelly, one thing that surprised you on the Next Gen and NCLEX I think it's the type of questions you know, I got used to answering just multiple questions. But in the NGN, we answered a lot of type of questions like highlighting, or even go dice and everything. So that one surprised me. But for me, it's better. I think. I like the ng n question, rather than the old one. Okay, so again, more hope for those of you who are facing the Next Gen. And Alicia, can you tell us one thing that surprised you about Next Gen. Well, for me, definitely surprised me because I was keep practicing the world. And I was attending historical classes. So when I get to the exam, I was like, this is your questions I'm answering. So nothing surprises me here. Okay, it was it was good. She came in prepared. She did. So um, so that's good to not feel surprised. You can kind of take a deep breath during the exam and go okay, I can do this. And for the rest of you ladies, did you also use the UWorld practice questions for? Because I know Alicia just mentioned that she did use them and found them helpful. Did you also use them or did you use something different? Carlina Oh, sorry. Marchelly. Go ahead.

Yes, I use you will do and question backs from Aspire RN very good. Shiena. Yes, yes, I do. And Carolina next to try to then more questions to the new generation. Did you did you use a program for the next gen practice questions or no? Yes, there are only for one month. Okay. So short time, and we've had other nurses who passed that have also not used you world for several months, but just for a tight period of time. And, Paul, what's your recommendation on using question banks like UWorld, for that final prep? So with our Aspire our students, our students right here are from as far and right. So what we do is we have our own question bank, that's about 4000 questions. And then towards the end, when they're about one month away to the exam, that's when they're given. We give out their you roads. So your world is very helpful in, you know, practicing what they already know, like, strengthening those neural pathways is what I call your memory pathways. But again, question backs are just that question backs right, you wrote this very good, but it will not help you if your content is shaky, especially in the setting of next gen NCLEX. Where you are being tested for clinical judgment, it is very important that you have very good foundation with your content. So with our with the Aspire RN program, the progression is you master your contents first in the didactic space is what we do. And then you move to the neuro phase where we build your test taking strategies, we teach you next gen NCLEX concepts we show you case studies in teach you how to adapt those case studies.

But by that time, you would have expected that your content is already good guess honestly, gay studies are going to be easier for you if your content is good. So while you were on to help, you will help students that have very good foundation with their content or nursing core topics. And if they're if they're performing good with those topics, because at the end of the day, once you start answering those questions, if you do not have an idea of what the question is asking about, then you'll you're still not going to get a good score. And that is the same thing with NCLEX. We've seen students who fail the NCLEX. And they get to my desk I studied their candidate report and asked them what happened during your NCLEX. The problem was not how they answered the question. The problem was they do not know what the question was asking because the content was what was missing. So question banks are good, but make sure that your content is solid, you have good foundation with your nursing content before you move on to question Max. That's why with as far in your role is usually the last 30 Day push like, Okay, you're all you're gonna do in the last 3040 50 days, is to just answer question backs. But by that time, you would have gained enough knowledge or competencies already to pass the NCLEX.

Right. So you're polishing, you're taking that that content that you've established in your mind, and now you're having to apply it and polish your testing skills. And if you're busy trying to learn content, when you're supposed to be polishing your testing skills, you get to the NCLEX. And you might have the content, but you won't have the testing skills, right. So you need the whole picture. And that's why a structured program is also very useful. So Carolina, I want to go back to you for just a minute. Did you use a structured program for your previous attempts? So you still found it challenging? What made the biggest difference for you on this last attempt not to have a big, big difference, because we have the knowledge I study a lot of after and now in the next generation. I think I know that their knowledge now I need to, to put in the questions and to try to do a lot of questions to try the new the new structure of the new generation and pray a lot too, when I done the exam is not so then anything so different than the first attempt on which to put the my knowledge in the questions. Very good. So to some degree, I think we can say that this this style of exam was a better fit for you. And it sounds like for some of our other nurses here too. So, Shiena, I want to go to you for just a minute. What was one thing that you found really helpful during your prep for the exam just share one item that you're like nurses need to know this.

Well for me the Master Class of Sir Paul the NGN you to a attend live classes as soon as you as much as possible, you will participate. Because the more you participate in the class number, it will retain the topic in your review. So that's the one more thing before I use the you were to Cuba in the ng ng questions. Okay, yeah, that's great advice. And I think it's something that not every nurse necessarily is aware of how important you're gonna study so much. How do we cement it? So that interaction in live lectures can be extremely valuable? Alicia, what about you? What's one thing that you found really helpful during your review that you would want other nurses to know? Ah, attending the live classes, even if you don't get to attended the follow up? And keep reading and answering questions. Great advice. So content is important. You and Gina have a very similar view then of those live lectures. And I and the additional thing you mentioned is if you couldn't be there, go back and look at them, which is also, you know, that's really important. Marchelly, what would you say is one thing that nurses should know? And do when they're preparing for Next Gen. I think the answering of questions and favorite words was the NGN Master Class of Sir Paul. That's where I actually got familiarize of the question. And it would be my favorites, I just focus on it. And that's why maybe because it became easier for me when I when I already on the exam.

So it sounds like, you know, all of you really dove into all of the resources that you had available to you with the program. And that's really important. I think some nurses like a little less pressure, and a little less interaction with somebody kind of going, hey, you know, you need to do this or look at this or work on this. And I think that what we've seen, and Paul, you can maybe confirm this is when we have nurses during Next Gen and Next Gen who have not been successful. Oftentimes, these things that you're sharing that were helpful are the things that were lacking. So a lack of accountability, a lack of structured review, a lack of maybe knowing that content and having somebody kind of say you don't know the content yet, let's wait and don't rush into doing Q banks until you've mastered this. So it even though the pass rates have been good for the groups that we have. And Paul, from what I hear from you as well, the you have the odds in your favor, when you have used a more structured program, when you have worked through the content, as we've talked about and brought all of that together interactions or watching live lectures. And, you know, you can take notes and kind of go back to your books or content review where you where you're hearing things that maybe you're not as comfortable with. Paul, would you say that? You know, like, I know, we've had some students who have only partially completed a course. Right. So, so yeah, we, we have mentioned a structured program multiple times. But that is actually very important. The reason why, for example, with me with this firearm, I did not just create the program out of out of nothing. It was evidence base, it was also purely, not purely I'm sorry, but it was also factor into it. Anecdotal in my experience in 16 years as an ethics instructor. If you look at the pass rates of, say, internationally educated nurses, nurses that were educated outside us, we consistently see that were the scores are between 43% to 48%. In the last five or 10 years, in fact, last year was one of the lowest it was 43% pass rates.

And then when I reviewed the data early earlier this year, for the first quarter of the year, there were 21,000 international graduates that took the NCLEX whereas last year, same timeframe was only 6000 21,000 the next 39% best for the I'm sorry, 70 61% fail the NCLEX so the question is where are these 12,000 nurses going to write so they fail the NCLEX, the main reason why we are getting low scores for international graduate nurses is not because our nurses are not smart enough like our US graduate nurses, right? It's because of the differences in educational competencies and practice. So that's what we're doing in Aspire RN, and we're trying to bridge that gap to make sure that nurses are actually ready before they take the NCLEX. With the next gen NCLEX. It boasts another challenge, because there's going to be a change in the competencies that we need to check to make sure that the students will pass the NCLEX. And that is the clinical judgment. Now the advantage with our international graduate nurses are most of them have experiences. So the critical thinking is there. It's just a matter of what Carolina said, is applying it to the question. Sometimes nurses underestimate what they know. But when they actually move into my neural phase, after they do their didactic space, where they do their contents and master the contents, they actually know a lot. But in the setting of a question, it just gets confusing, especially when you're trying to understand a case study with 1000 words with the whole screen filled with a case. But with good strategy with good preparation. With frequent exposure to these types of materials, the students get more comfortable and more comfortable, the more that they do it.

So that's what we're trying to do with, with our program, we're not only building their content, we're also teaching them test taking strategy and kind of like desensitizing them to the scare about next gen NCLEX. That way, like what Alicia said earlier, when she faced the NCLEX, she said, it's just another year old quiz that I'm going to do, because she already came prepared, she was already primed, holistically, not only with a cognitive side, but also her skills and her attitude toward the exam are also have been improved with the program. So that's what we're trying to do with this firing, we want to make sure that by the time they face the NCLEX, they're fully ready. But then again, structured review program is very important for international graduate nurses, because this is the only way that you can patch those gaps that you didn't learn from your nursing school from whichever countries, you took your nursing classes. That's great advice. So you know, the number of candidates that we've seen, I think, to this point gives us a good pattern that we can look at. And unfortunately, what we do see is partial focus on those things will be to your detriment. So it's extremely important. Use what we're sharing here today, to think about how you're going to prepare in the future. If you're midway through your prep, don't stop, don't slow down, keep going and stick with the plan as it were. So I see that Cho is joining us from Cameroon, and Bay, your is watching from Ghana. Awesome. And then I do have a comment in the chat just in case you're interested. If you would like to apply to Connetics, you can go to ConneticsUSA.com/apply and submit your application to us.

And we'll be happy to look at whether we can make a match for you with one of our clients. If you're looking at taking the NCLEX either as a first time or even as a retest, there is some great information on our website as well for that, so we've pasted the link into the comments section, you can go ahead and grab that and use that. As Paul mentioned, he has done some other videos both for Connetics under our Connetics College. So we have lots of videos that he's partners with us on and his own website. So lots of resources out there. Evans is signing on from Kenya Ashlynn sorry, Arlene is on from state of Kuwait. And Gianna is joining us from Ghana. So thank you so much to all of you for being with us today. All right, so let's talk for just another moment. I just gotta get back on track here. Let's see. So who in the group we know that Carlina you had some previous attempts on NCLEX? But are Shelly was this your first attempt? Shiena, was it your first attempt at NCLEX? Yes, yes. So for both of you, this was totally fresh. You couldn't rely on 1000s of nurses who've done these questions styles before you had to sort of face it from the very beginning. And so what did you do for your preparation? Maybe something you haven't shared yet, knowing that you were going to sit next gen before a lot of other people had had experience with it. Shiena did you do anything, you know, different or say it's in NCLEX? I just haven't do the usual maybe the usual a read already the Saunders before I entered the phonetics. But for the ng n I, I only found that with the with the Aspire reviewers like Sir Paul and I really felt that the foundation of my review is with the ng n masterclasses. So it helps. It helps me a lot and then more questions and answers and the rationalities, you need to read over again, like that. So it really helps me. Great.

Good advice. And Marchelly, anything that you did different knowing Oh, my goodness, next gen is coming. And I'm one of the first ones. Oh, it got me nervous. Actually, I was trying to take the exam before April, I want to take the exam March, I was like, I have to take I mean, the NGN scares me. But God led me to you know, it all was fully booked. I can, I couldn't, I couldn't take the exam on March. So I think God led me to take the exam on ng n. So I think ng n is was for me. That's why the preparation I took was only just attending live classes of Dr. Paul, during NGN master classes and also answering questions from the you world, you world helped me a lot to be familiarized with the questions. And then I prayed a lot of hours. So I think that really helped me to prepare for the exam. So I think that the lesson in this is that we want others to know you don't have to be afraid, you just have to be prepared. This is a marathon. It's not a sprint. And so if you are doing Sprint's to prepare, which I sometimes see this, Paul, I'm sure you do, too, people are like sprinting away for a little while, and then they stop. They never get to the point of really doing that true marathon prep. And so when it comes time to actually run that race, do the NCLEX. The techniques that they've used aren't enough, and unfortunately, sometimes then they have to go try again. But it's also always a learning experience. So even when you don't make it, don't give up hope. As Carolina has clearly shown, it's worth, you know, having that belief in yourself and continuing to set those goals. And I can appreciate that, you know, it can be very demoralizing. If you don't make it. It's not a fun feeling.

We fully acknowledge that. But sometimes what you learn from that experience is, you know, get up. Takeaway. Okay, I know, I didn't do well on this I know I should have could have would have. And if you're working with a review company, you can also ask, Can you give me some advice, and they can debrief with you and kind of give you some ideas based on your experience with that exam? And what they think from your candidate performance report. So just keep pushing. I do want to talk for just a minute, Paul, what's the typical timeline for a re tester to try and target to test again? Should they give it another year? Should they give it a month? Well, they can't give it a month, they need to give it a little more than that. But what do you recommend? As someone who's been working in this space for a long time? Well, definitely not a year, I think that momentum also plays a factor. If you've been running the marathon for too long, you get fatigued do. So here's the thing. I want to see their performance report and what I look what I what I try to find out is what was their performance during their last exam. If I see that majority, six out of eight, or all eight have been low passing standard, which means the student failed, really failed, then the student would want to start with building their contents, right. So that would put them about three, four months into preparation. But some of them are actually borderline performers, they might have taken the maximum items, 150 items and we see one or two below pass standards, a couple of near passing standards and one or two above passing standards. These tells me that the student has the content.

What the students lacks is test taking strategy or more practice questions. Then I say, You know what? You just finished your question bags and we'll see what your particular exam would say. Right? So it really depends on the individual score sheets that they would get, they would get a performance report. If I see near past standards and above past standards there that that tells me the student has a good content, at least, we have some foundation there that we can build on as we do test taking strategies. But if it's like, below bass standards, all the way or majority are below bass standards. And that tells me the student would go back to scratch and work their way up to build that foundation before they can answer practice questions. So what timeline are we looking at for low performers, I'm sorry about the word but um, students who actually failed because they failed. And that's many factors. Again, the student might not be actually prepared, because they're going through something or instead of doing the marathon, they run towards the end, and they failed miserably because they didn't prepare, right? Then I say, four months, six months, but if the student already has good performance, and the cost of the failure to the NCLEX, was not the content, but you know, just death anxiety, or something else. But the content is there based on the performance report, then I'd say two months would be enough. I completely agree. I think the thing that we find a lot of times, at least when I speak with nurses who haven't made it on a on an attempt, is they've when they've gotten more questions, they thought that meant they failed miserably. And I'm like, it's actually the opposite. So if the questions, stop at that 85 Number, whatever the result is, it's solid, right?

You either knew yourself and you had your testing skills, or you didn't know what you needed to know, most likely, or you had a really bad anxiety performance. And so it's, it's extremely statistically obvious that you're not prepared to be successful, they may add something else because of because you mentioned the maximum items that people get scared with that. I honestly tell my students during my final coaching, I'm an ER nurse. And this is always my mentality going into work, you always prepare for the worst, but expect for the best, there is a sense of everybody's trying to compete to get to the minimum items and finish at the minimum items, which is 85, which is for me is a wrong motivation for students. I think what I always tell the students you always prepare with your NCLEX, thinking that you will reach 150 items. That way, if you finish at 85, well, then good, you finished early. But if you don't finish at 85, and you're expecting yourself to finish at 85. And I've seen this with high performing students, then they develop anxiety and they proceed towards 150. And they still fail, even though they were performing good during their review classes. So always prepare yourself as though you were taking 150 full items. But then again, if you finish with 85, it doesn't also tell us if you're if you fail, right? Well, what I'll do is I'll if you're my student, I'll check your predictor exam with me. And maybe I can get an idea if you will pass or fail. Right. But, but that's, that's how I deal with students. But yeah, don't expect that you will finish at five because a lot of students are like, Okay, I'm gonna finish at five, but then they don't finish at five, and they get very bad anxiety after that, then they lose their focus after that. So I don't want that to happen to you guys.

Right? Every question you get is an opportunity, right? Whether that's 8587 96, whatever, it's an opportunity. So don't waste it and don't let that you know, cause your mental focus to be shifted away from what's most important. And believe in yourself, take the full opportunity, don't let it kind of mess with your head if it were over, right. So let's see. Marchelly and Shiena, how did you manage your anxiety? So Marchelly, Were you stressed during the exam? Were you anxious? What did you do? Well, actually, before the exam I was very, very, very anxious because the Dr. Nurse Paul knows my scores during my assessment, I always get those below the standard scores. So I actually got worried but two weeks before the exam I you know, I focused a lot on my content mastery so that I can you know, master all the cases, especially for the NGN questions, and then, but during the exam, I wasn't really anxious at all. I don't know maybe because I already have prepared enough and or I have already prayed enough. So while answering the question Since I just focus on what was being asked for, and then I reached the item 85. I was expecting the computer to shut down, but it didn't. So I did experience what the learners fall said. That that's the time I went very anxious. So after the 85 question, I went very anxious like, oh my god, I knew all my friends who took the NG and before stopped at 85. But why not me? So during that time, my knees were shaking, I just answered all the other question all the way to 150. So I reached 150 items. With all those setups, I got five, five case studies, five bow ties, and a lot of setup questions, I think, 90 or so the question. So it was really hard, and I didn't even take a break.

So the tips that I can share is that whenever your anxiety attacks, you have you just have to pray, be steel, you have to talk to God and let Him take away your anxiety. Just you just say, Dear God, my heart is full of doubt right now. But I'm choosing to trust you, I know you can take my worries, and I believe that you're going to work it out. So after that, you're just gonna have to be steel and trust God, and just continue answering the question focus on what was being asked for. So it's awesome to hear when someone's faith is able to help them feel a sense of calm and security. And I'm glad that you have that. And I hear some other good things too. Like, it sounds like almost take it one at a time. And don't let it get to you. So stay focused. And I think I've heard almost everyone say prayer, everyone, every time I do this show, it's like, oh, yes, I was praying. So um, the other thing that, you know, I wonder is, or I guess what I heard that is important is that by preparing, you can reduce your anxiety. So by walking into the exam, knowing that you did what you needed to do, you can feel more secure and in control and rely on that. Carolina, I think I've already asked you, you know, what was different for your previous attempts with the old format and the new? But is there a when you step back and you look at it? Is there something that you know, with next gen coming? Did you change your approach at all?

No, I'm so anxious with the new generation, when I then then the first attempt in the identity questions in the end of the exam. And for me, I say, Oh, I think it's not so easier than the last generation of the NCLEX, I think is the easier because whenever you look for the question, you're thinking about the patient of the case. And you imagine what will be happening? And not to know to oh, if I have doubts, I look for the question. Look for the sentence. Oh, this is possible. No, this is not possible for this question. And I'm focused on the new generation, I'm focused on dandies, and I'm so calm, and I'm done. So calm this attempt, but when the end of the exam my husband stay waiting for me, and they he say, he says, Honey, I think it didn't pass your face is so bad. I just what you want to hear? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, sometimes I think when we walk out, and we feel just exhausted after that exam, and you start to think about it, and you go, oh, there's just no way. And then you get a result that you, you know, get very happy with. So I'm glad it was great news this time, but it is an exhausting experience and our family and loved ones. They see that in our faces. And they hear that and our voices I think if we're able to speak at the end of it. Paul, there's a question that came in from Arlene. She says she's going to sit the exam on June 8, how best to use the remaining days before the test. So it's June 2, she's got like a little less than a week left. What would you do?

Okay, ah, tough call. But if you still have a couple of days left, you can try some more practice questions, but I usually tell my students to stop answering questions two to three days before the exam, because you want to give like a little rest of your neurons so you can reserve that energy towards the exam. You'll also want to relieve your anxiety as much Just people are in denial. Whenever you take an exam and everybody feels this, we go through a certain level of anxiety. And we want to keep that anxiety very low or low level. If you do if you fail to recognize that it might hurt you during the actual NCLEX. And I've taught a lot of students over the years, and there are students that anxiety during the exam. So what it wants you to do is, and two to three days preceding the exam date, what you want to do is to just relax I tell my students to, if you're like walking, go around, walk in the park, or call your friends and FaceTime your family, stop talking about the exam, stop talking about the NCLEX, nothing nursing related, but just, you know, be in the state of calm. It's like what Marcelli said earlier, because if you try to answer more questions that day, I mean, a day or two before the exam, it's not going to help you, it's just going to make you more anxious to think, oh, I still don't know a lot. Oh, no, I should know this by now. But I don't write, there will always be that feeling that you don't know everything. And that is actually true for everybody. Even myself, when I took my NCLEX or my nurse practitioner boards, you would feel that way. And you have to accept that. And you have to be in a state of peace, to think that you've already done your best at that point that you're already prepared for this for months. And you are ready. Alright, but in the next couple of days, try to answer questions, I guess in one or two or three days from now. But three days before the boards or your NCLEX do not answer any question at all, just do a real relaxation activities.

Yeah, you definitely don't want to walk into the exam with your anxiety levels at their highest point they've ever been, that will not be helpful. Okay, Evans, I do see your comment that you're, you're looking for some communication from our Connetics USA team. And we will make sure to get back with you as quickly as we can. So thank you for letting us know that you're still looking for a response. Jamila, you want to live and work in the US. As we said earlier, there's a success path that begins with NCLEX. And so with if you're interested in working with Connetics, USA, you can go to our website, ConneticsUSA.com/apply. And you can submit an application there. And also, you know, be looking into what we're talking about here with NCLEX. Are our website has Connetics College videos that talk about what is in NCLEX? How does it work? What do you need to do? And so you can learn a lot from those resources as well. And we've posted that link in the comments too, so you can take a look. Rolf is saying that during the exam, she prayed for the max questions, and cried when it shut off at 75. But she passed. So yes, it is definitely, you know, good to prepare for the longer one, and then it's still stressful when it stops. The countless people are like, I have no idea. I remember, you know, it's been a while for me, but when it stopped, I walked out called my mom who's a nurse, and I cried, I didn't I didn't make it. I didn't make it. She's like, Oh, honey, you're okay. I had to wait. I had to find out just like everybody else. So during that time, to agonizing, but you know, it's nice to have people who are there to be your cheerleader, too. So, um, let's see, we're going to be closing out in the next few minutes. Shiena, really quick, prior to Next Gen. Most of what I heard, and maybe what you heard about it was select all that apply questions. Were just a nightmare. How did you did that make a difference for you knowing that you could get some points positive for that? Or was it still really stressful?

Well, for me before even before I so hate SATA questions, but then this is the end this exam. So I just focused on where we are I have a low grades in my reviews. So maybe in two weeks or three weeks before I focus on that SATA questions like also in like OB cases, I say, and then let's, that's I think that's the advice. I will I want to share with them that maybe two weeks or three weeks before just focus on where you have low grades when you're with a circle reviews. Yep. So um, the last thing is how I think all of you were in this buyer program. So you had Um, what is a study schedule and a structure because we've talked about that. But ideally, Paul, what's kind of the time that you would recommend for maybe like three months, six months, you know, what's ideal, especially for a nurse who's currently working in the nursing profession and trying to prepare for the NCLEX. Right. So the structure of my program is like this, if you devote 15 to 20 hours a week, for your review, then you can finish my program in as little as 16 weeks. Now, some students can do much faster than that, because they probably have good content already, or they have more time because they're working less hours, that they can do it faster. But some students could also not commit 15 to 20 hours a week, because they're just working too much. And there's a lot of nursing shortage where they have to pick up more shifts, than they could do it in six months to eight months. But ideally, we want you to take the outputs three to four months, because we're not only checking your ability to progress or improve your scores, but also your momentum, the longer you stay in a program, the longer, they're much faster that you'll lose your momentum. So by the time we check in on your eighth or ninth month, then we feel like, you're just gonna start again, because your momentum is lost at that point. So I don't I want to ride on that momentum. As soon as the student is onboard the program, that excitement I want to bank on that, until they pass the NCLEX. Because that will help them you know, keep them going and motivate them to keep studying.

Yeah, that's really important that and making sure that your NCLEX application is staying in line with that timeline. So it is possible, but it means you have to get those milestones accomplished as well as submit your documents that are required both you know, for your credentials evaluation. If you weren't educated in English, you might also have to get some translation of your school documents if they're not in that in English, and then send that so those things take time and you kind of want to run that parallel or get a little ahead with your application. And then you really intense in your review. Don't let the application be the last thing you do. It takes too long. And you'll be extending your study time, way more than you need to also avoid CGFNS for now. And a student that's been waiting for nine months. It's incredibly frustrating on the nurses and two because they feel like they're ready to take the wrecks, but they couldn't proceed CGFNS is severely backlogged. I mean, imagine millions of nurses around the world trying to apply for NCLEX. Yes. So there are other options for credentials evaluations that will get you through certain boards faster. And so with those boards, you know, you kind of want to know who will accept those different providers and evaluators and most other the most common one is Joseph, Sony, but there are other companies out there that depending on that state may be acceptable. So that's something that's another show that we do, but we won't go into that today. So your program is built for the working nurse. That is doable, guys. Some nurses often tell me that right before the exam, they'll take some time off.

They'll take some extra leave then right before but they're not like I'm not going to work. I'm just going to study because that's really probably not the best thing for your preparation to come to the US either. You need experience. To make yourself more marketable retrogression we got one minute retrogression is here. So unfortunately, that is slowing down the, the appointments for getting or getting an appointment to go and have your consulate interview and then get your visa and move to the US however, we're still filing, employers are still sponsoring. And so you need to get your NCLEX done. Get a sponsor if you don't already have one I know some of you do, and get into that filing queue. So that you know you continue through that process as we showed earlier with the success path and clicks is the first step. But if you've already got a sponsor who's just waiting for you to get done with NCLEX you want to make the most of that job opportunity because it won't last forever. They won't wait forever for you. They said they liked you they gave you that offer. They are still going to file but you have to also be very much engaged in the process. So let's see final advice. Carolina one piece of final advice for our nurses who are watching today. Do not give up. I like that don't give up. You are the living embodiment of not giving up and it was worth it. Marcelli a piece of advice you have to have faith in Add, but you know, Faith without action is dead. So you have to do as well master on things thanks just to not underestimate what God does to help you achieve your dreams step by step as long as you trust him.

Yes, there is a lot of resources out there. And so faith in action is very important. Making the most of those resources is what's going to give you the most opportunity to be successful and Shiena, for me, don't be afraid to take the energy and banks just attend the live classes of Serpo. It's really helpful. And then answering questions or rationales, it's also important to review all that. He says, and then just have faith and always pray. So, Paul, is there anything you'd like to add to that? Or did they sum it up pretty well, they summed it up pretty well. But I just want to focus on one thing, all right, I said that word already. Very important. Focus. So set your goals, focus on it. And when you focus on your goals, everything else will fall into place. So once you know your goals, you're gonna, you're gonna work hard to get that. So NCLEX is just like that. It's just another milestone in your career. So make sure you get 100 focus for the exam, and you're gonna get there. All right. And I'm gonna take the last word and tell you that many of us have a cheerleader or more than one in our lives. And sometimes we're nurses. So we're kind of built to be this appear the cheerleader and the support for a lot of other people. Our onwards and upwards shows are meant to inspire you and give you ideas for how you can keep moving forward with this dream and making it a reality. But in the meantime, also look to those cheerleaders around you that sometimes maybe depend on you.

And when they ask you how can I help? Let them know you need some cheerleading, you need some support, you may need for them to give you a little more time to spend in study than what you normally can do. But I find that many times once you reach out and ask the people around you who support you will rally. And they will, they will be you know, ready to give you that support. So usually, I know you're the support system for everybody else. It's kind of in our nature, but they do return the favor a lot of times if you're willing to reach out and ask. So with that, we hope to see you again on future Onwards and Upwards shows. Thank you so much to all of you from around the world who were joining us. I did see a quick pop up have the schedule that's coming up for some future shows. I wonder if we can get our team to bring that back up for you. And then yes, there we go. So OET if you're going to be studying for the OET we've got some information to share with you about that on June 9, June 16, immigration Q&A, the 23rd, we're talking about Southern living being in the US and living in the South, which is where I currently live. And I think all a little bit to Texas, kind of the South. And then on June 30, we're going to showcase one of our clients. So we hope you'll join us and the Lefora Talk Show on June 3, excuse me, June 13. We'll be back to talk about work life balance in the US. Very important topic, especially when you're transitioning to your life here in the US. So we hope you'll join us. Thank you so much to our guests for today. We really appreciate you being on and sharing your stories and your advice with us and we hope maybe we can do it again soon. Thanks, everyone. Have a great rest of your day. Have a great weekend. Thank you. You're welcome.