The Heat Is On

Four days, eighteen hours, twenty-four minutes... the heat is definitely on!

Today after church I drove down to Lynchburg to find the PearsonVue site and to scout a good spot to stop for lunch before NCLEX. It was a lovely drive and it was good to have some quiet time to think. My initial schedule will work great and I think I've built in enough time that even if I got a speeding ticket, I'd still be able to manage to get to the exam location on time (although I'll have to skip Panera and have to eat my pre-packed snack for my lunch). However, if my car breaks down, that will be a bit more challenging.


Note to self: locate numbers for Lynchburg taxi services!  (No surprise there... I'm a bit of a planner/control-freak).

Weather forecast is calling for 100 to 103 degrees on Friday- my NCLEX date!!!! Aaack! I HATE hot weather. I'm just not sure what to expect inside the testing site. Some places (buildings in general) are notoriously cold, some have HVAC systems that lag and have a hard time catching up to really hot or really cold days. I've read that it's suggested that you wear layers to NCLEX, that way you can be prepared for whatever the situation. However, my understanding is that if you remove a layer of clothing, you will be escorted out of the testing room by a proctor to your locker where you then have to be rescanned and so forth before going back into the testing room (same goes for bathroom breaks outside of unscheduled break times).  They won't let you hang your layers on the back of your chair. Also the clock on the exam does not stop if you take unscheduled breaks.

I'm very optimistic that I will do well on NCLEX. Hoping that I get the "good pop-up" at 75 questions...but I'm also trying to prepare myself for the worst--being that I have more than 75 questions, more than 100 questions, more than 200 questions. That's the joys of computer adaptive testing...the computer won't let you  stop until it's sure you meet the basic competency level... and hopefully you'll meet that competency level before question # 265 or six hours - whichever comes first.  If you don't know anything about NCLEX's computer adaptive testing... Kaplan has a FREE Strategy Seminar that they offer every couple weeks or so to explain how computer adaptive testing and NCLEX work together. Here's a link to where you can find these free events through Kaplan. I found this information very helpful AND very encouraging.

In addition to my continued NCLEX preparations, I am also shadowing (Monday) on the hospital unit where I want to work AND will be interviewing (Wednesday) there too. Gonna be a full, GREAT week! Here Goes!