07.22.08

Well now.

Posted in The ins and outs.... at 11:16 am by smarriott

Statement A: In life there will be days that make absolutely no difference whatsoever in the deciding your life course.

Statement B: Contrary to this, there will be days that ABSOLUTELY decide the course of your life.

Now you may personally agree or disagree with the above statements. Some would say that every decision has an effect on a persons life course. I would argue that sitting at home all day watching “The Wire” does not directly affect my the direction of my life. Now if I decided to sit at home all day watching said TV show and eating several large bags of potato chips that might be a different story, as it would directly affect my health status, thereby affecting my longevity. In contrast to this, having a baby or getting in a major car accident would absolutely decide the course of the rest of my life. In general, I would say my proclivity is to agree partly with statement A and most definitely with statement B.

Why am I being philosophically vague and not to mention strange? No, no, no, I am not pregnant. It would, however, most definitely be due to the fact that I have recently had a bout with a certain NCLEX test this morning. Not sure what this is. Let me decipher it for you.

The NCLEX is an incredibly obnoxious test that can either be 75 or 265 questions, in which you can either pass or fail within 6 hours. If you get 75 questions you may have passed OR you may have done so poorly the computer decided you would be an INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS nurse. Now if you get 265 you may have needed more questions to decide your fate or you did very poorly.

On top of this there are various types of questions: regular multiple choice ones, calculations, diagrams, or SELECT ALL THAT APPLY!!! Yes, that’s right there are multiple choice questions that allow you to select up to FIVE right answers and if you miss one right answer you fail the entire question. This might not be so bad, if for instance, your test had one, two, maybe even a handful of this type of question. But it is extraordinarily discouraging when your test is composed of nearly 50% of these questions. That’s right I would guesstimate 50% (not an over-exaggeration).

Oh, and I forgot the best part. . . after taking such a test you don’t get to see your results. You must wait 2 business days and then pay $7.95 for YOUR results. This is mind-boggling to me. The first being in the age of advanced computer technology a test designed to calculate your score WHILE you are taking it, and shut off at a certain point if a passing score is achieved or not, and it cannot tell you your score immediately. Of course it could be that the company chooses not to show the results in case a crazy nursing student has suicidal, or even homicidal, tendencies. Not knowing the results after the computer shuts off is hair-raising yes, but what is worse is paying 8 bucks to get said results. 8 BUCKS! Did I not already shell out a bazillion dollars already to take the stupid thing now I have to pay 8 BUCKS to have a little sanity and piece of mind by receiving my OWN test results. I find this to be simply illogical.

In the test-nazi’s defense I guess I don’t have to wait months for my paper results to be calculated and it only took an hour and a half to take the test rather than two days. But I still maintain my right to be peeved-off, regardless.

So returning to my initial statements, today could be/most definitely is one of those days that changes the course of my life. Or it could be another day that I had to take a silly little test. I think I’m going with the former, rather than the latter. I’ll be sure to let you know my decision in 2 business days once I’ve shelled out some more cash. Dum spiro, spero.

Hope all is well for you.

Disclaimer: All statements made above could quite possibly to post-test anxiety and not the real opinion of this blogger.

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