CBT(ea) Time

Well.. today it FINALLY happened. After about 4 months of practically begging the Texas Board of Nursing to send my license verification to the NMC, it finally happened! (Shoutout Carl from TBON). That just goes to show what a little bit of patience and a LOT of nagging can do for you if you're just persistent. I have now scheduled my CBT exam and it is officially time to grind. I've been using the PearsonVUE practice exams and the NMC CBT app to study. The NMC CBT app has a lot of free practice tests and I'm finding that anything you NEED is already free on the app. Through those practice tests, I have gathered some notable topics that are not taught by most American Nursing schools and put them in this Quizlet for your use and benefit. It is by by no means comprehensive, but theres some things that I thought a lot of American nurses might find helpful. I also found this PDF which clarifies NMC standards on medication administration, delegation, etc.

I have been having a hard time finding practice questions and study materials that are specifically geared toward the Child Health CBT I am taking for my job, but these resources are FREE and have a lot of good stuff. If you're planning on taking the Adult Health CBT, you are in luck as you have a plethora of study materials at your disposal (one google search is all you need), whereas the Paediatric exam has a lot less materials that are easy to find.

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A few weeks have passed since I started writing this post, and SO much has happened! Or.. not happened..

I was fully expecting this part of the NMC application to be the easy part. No more third party companies I have to call... right? RIGHT?? Nope lol. The CBT exam is booked through PearsonVUE, but the exam itself is something called an "Authorization-based exam", meaning the NMC must be the ones who push your information through to create the account that allows you to actually sign up for and take the test. From February 10th to March 3rd, I was on the phone with both the NMC and PearsonVUE multiple times a day to check on the status of my account creation. My personal information kept getting rejected by PearsonVUE due to some issue with my phone number format?? (Still to this day have no idea what the issue was, but it got fixed and thats what matters). I probably made 20 phone calls to each respective company from the time I received my Authorization to Test (ATT) to the time my details were actually accepted by PearsonVUE.

This is the email that PearsonVUE will send you once your details are sent from the NMC

I say this with great distain, but asking to speak to a manager does work.. DONT HATE ME! "Be the squeaky wheel" my mom says.. well, Mom was right because after weeks of calling and pushing and stifling anxious sobs over the phone, I got my account details and my CBT was scheduled: March 10, 2023 at 2:15pm. I am nervous, sure, but the only thing I have found solace in during this whole debacle (CBT-gate as I fondly refer) is the fact that I was productive during my waiting and STUDIED. I have heard from the American Nurses in the UK Facebook group (a literal godsend I don't know where I would be without it) that the CBT is a BREEZE, especially considering the hell we all went through preparing for the NCLEX. Its a 120 question multiple-choice exam that has some med calculation and clinical questions. I am not taking any chances, though, I will study like I'm retaking the NCLEX if that means I can be done with this the first time!

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3/10 UPDATE:

I. PASSED.!!!!!!! To be honest, there were a lot of questions that I was like ummmmm what even is this.. But most of those kinds of questions were about NURSING LEGISLATION (like I didn't know I was taking the Bar exam but whatever). Looking back, the most valuable study material was the NMC CBT app I have linked above 100%. Even though some questions are marked incorrectly, I found a lot of my actual CBT questions were IDENTICAL to some

of the App's questions, so definitely do as many of those as you can before testing! I definitely think any practicing American nurse could pass with minimal studying but I definitely wouldn't recommend not preparing at all. Like its EASY but not THAT easy. The med calc was so simple too, I'm almost upset I wasted so much time studying that portion. Something I didn't know, however, is that results are IMMEDIATE. Like I finished my test and the lady told me "theres a print of of your results up front" just so nonchalantly and my heart rate skyrocketed as I walked- or ran- down that hallway.

The next step is getting my Certificate of Sponsorship from my future job and starting the Visa process!! ITS GETTING REAL <3

Now...

Go Travel!

TRN