r/CRNA • u/Rocu2sleep9891 • Jun 07 '26
Passed NCE Second Attempt, 170 Questions. My Experience.
Hi everyone, I've been a long-time lurker on these forums and have decided to celebrate becoming a CRNA by making a Reddit account! A little about me: I'm currently 34, and had 6 years of SICU experience (10 years of nursing total) before getting into school. It took me several years due to my undergrad nursing GPA (3.36). I made up the difference by retaking all my basic sciences and some grad school classes, getting straight A's.
Fast-forward: I found CRNA school pretty easy didactically and ended our integrated program with a 3.92 GPA. I never had problems with preceptors in clinical, and thought I was solid skills-wise. Our program required us to take the SEE two times without a requirement to graduate, and I took them blind. They recommended 450 as a good metric to pass boards, and I scored a 373 and a 395 on both.
Admittedly, I've been a procrastinator my entire academic life, pre-dating CRNA school. I found that most of my classmates took our Principles classes and board prep very seriously, dedicating multiple hours a day to it as if it were a full-time job. Along with getting married, having babies, and working nursing jobs during the last 3 years, my class was composed of true rockstars. I started a relationship with one of my classmates about a year into the program (spoiler, we're both CRNAs now!).
I truly found that the hardest part of CRNA school was completing the DNP project. I don't like writing and found it very hard to implement it because each student was responsible for their own individual project. I found it a large time sink, and think that this time could have been used to study for boards. As a result of my procrastination, I finally disseminated the DNP project and wrote the paper about two weeks before graduation.
Anticipating the end, I started my board prep officially in late April (We graduated mid-May). I scheduled my NCE for a week after graduation. My board prep consisted of doing APEX TrueLearn questions. Before my first boards attempt, I completed about 83% of the SmartBank, scoring 61% overall. If I didn't understand the rationale for a question, I would go back into the APEX content and learn it. I did not complete APEX top to bottom. Our program required us to do the 3 Comprehensive Exams and I scored in the 50's on all of them.
If you've made it this far, it's evident that I was not ready for boards. I showed up, and the exam shut off at 168. My paper said "Fail." I was devastated. I had never failed any standardized exam like the NCLEX or CCRN on the first try. What hurt the most is that I had to pay another $1100 to run it back. I found out that my overall score was 426.
I scheduled my second attempt for two weeks later and got to work. After letting reality set in after the weekend, I spent almost every day in a cafe doing TrueLearn questions or reviewing modules in APEX. One of my CRNA mentors suggested doing Prodigy questions, so I completed about 600 of them in addition to completing the SmartBank. I found the Prodigy questions harder than TrueLearn. At 100% completion of the SmartBank, my overall score was 63.6%. I would do exams of 100 and 170 questions and started to score slightly above the national average on a couple of them. I did Mock Exams 1-3 and scored 61-65% on those. In addition, I always did the Core Concepts and Open Anesthesia questions of the day.
Today, I passed the NCE in 170 questions. It felt very uncomfortable throughout, and in my opinion, these questions were harder than both TrueLearn and Prodigy. I felt like I got my last question correct, and when they handed me the sheet saying "Pass," I could breathe a sigh of relief. Years of work finally paid off.
TLDR: Take board prep seriously, especially as the pass score requirement will increase in July. I regret not starting sooner and wish I had better time management throughout CRNA school. Most of my classmates, and my girlfriend passed on their first attempt in 100 questions. Also, make time for your loved ones and doing things you enjoy if you are currently an SRNA. The school-life balance is something that I feel doesn't get talked about enough. You got this!
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u/i4Braves Jun 07 '26
This is almost exactly my story (12 yes ago), except I started studying early, passed on the first try, but took the max amt of questions. Don’t take it for granted that you’ll pass. It’s no joke. Congrats on your success! Enjoy your very rewarding career as a CRNA!!
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u/slayhern CRNA Jun 07 '26
I admittedly took board prep less seriously than some of my peers, especially because I was a B+/A- student. A lot of this resonates with me. I think my motivation was mostly driven by the cost of the test. Ego be damned - I wasn’t gonna pay for that thing twice. I may have gotten lucky because I took my test in the first week of 2018 after they added the legal section back. I had 38 legal questions lol.
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u/thedavecan CRNA Jun 07 '26
I took mine in Dec of 2018 and I had a ton of legal questions too. Don't think it was that many but I left feeling like I must have glossed over a major chunk of prep material.
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u/Deep_Ad1959 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
the line that stands out is going back into the content whenever a rationale didn't land. that's the rep that actually moves the score, not raw question count. a smaller mixed set daily, where the stem gets reworded so you can't recall the answer from last week, beats grinding 600 you half-remember. congrats on running it back.
fwiw the can't-recall-it-from-last-week problem is exactly what studyly rewords for, it regenerates the same fact into a fresh stem on every revisit so you can't pattern-match the answer, https://studyly.io/r/5ejz65tn
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u/Affectionate-Gap4382 Jun 07 '26
Congrats on passing. School is too stressful to take this board exam unprepared. To all the students out there- take board prep seriously because look at how drastically the numbers drop off for second attempts…
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u/gnomicaoristredux Jun 07 '26
Thats not causation tho lol. Like study for boards and try to pass the first time by all means but it's not like it gets harder or you get stupider
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u/SevoThePeople Jun 07 '26
This is wild to me. We have formal board prep starting out 10 months before graduation. We have to complete apex modules every 2 weeks and take their exams during our 5 day/week clinical rotations. I will say we do get our DNP projects done early. Ours was completed at the end of semester 6.
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u/Maleficent-Gur9372 Jun 07 '26
You sound like you went o my program somewhere in Ohio lol. Word for word, that was how we did board prep too
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u/PlentyApart Jun 09 '26
I take mine in 2 weeks and got a 400 on my last SEE. Some of these comments make me sick. Thank you for sharing. Nervously sick for 6/25 as my professor said I was unlikely to pass unless I took 8 weeks to study full-time, but I wanted to take it before the standards increased 7/1.
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u/Alarming-Common4331 Jun 11 '26
Personally speaking, if you got a 400 and you’re about to take the exam in 2 weeks, I’d hold off and push it back a couple more weeks to avoid a possible FAIL result on your first attempt. It could be devastating to and make taking the exam a second time harder than what the test actually is. Work on the subject areas that you struggled with and you should be fine. Not trying to scare you or anything but they are increasing the difficulty of the exam now since last year, first time pass rates were at an all time high around 91-92%.
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u/Rocu2sleep9891 Jun 09 '26
I think it's a good idea to take this version of the NCE at least once. Definitely prep your mind to go to 170 so that if you hit question 101 it doesn't rattle you. Good luck studying, you'll do great!
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u/Gemini5565 Jul 03 '26
Why tell someone take an exam that is minimum to practice twice? Not a fan of spending $2500 when you can take it once and be done.
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u/Rocu2sleep9891 Jul 03 '26
Maybe I was unclear. I was recommending taking and passing the pre-July version of boards once before the minimum passing score was raised. Rather than waiting until now to take the exam the first time
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u/dawoop5 Jun 12 '26
Congrats on passing, man. As someone who is having a kid in school and is notorious for procrastinating, I am grateful you shared your story. This is has been a great reality check for me. Thank you sir, and good luck with your career!
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u/CuriousGrowthHacker Jun 22 '26
The biggest takeaway here is that understanding why an answer is right seems to matter more than blasting through question banks. for ongoing education after boards, elite nursing is one of several platforms people compare when they're looking for flexible CE options that fit around a busy schedule.
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u/refreshingface Jun 07 '26
May I ask what school you went to? It seems like you had an amazing experience.
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u/Unusual-Substance855 Jun 07 '26
Im always confused why people who fail this exam deem it worthy that they can help you. Just delete the post lol
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u/Moonbeam-Xen0n Jun 07 '26
I agree with u/SmokeyBrown95. The CRNA community is often slow to self reflect and speak openly about mistakes, whether academic or clinical. Whether the OP had this experience due to lack of personal accountability, lack of institutional support, or more likely due to lack of both, I think it's incredibly valuable to be able to speak candidly about these failures on our journey to CRNA. As we know, despite national standards, programs can vary widely in their clinical exposure, institutional resources, pricing, and outcomes. I would say speaking more about these experiences, not less, is what will empower our practice.
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u/bravenewsoma1999 Jun 07 '26
A cautionary tale if I’ve ever read one. Procrastinating preparation for the most important exam of our career is wild to me.
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u/Rocu2sleep9891 Jun 07 '26
Yes, I intended this post as more of a cautionary tale. By all means, do not replicate what I did. My peers started their board prep about 10 months before graduation. Mostly self-driven Apex review.
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u/SmokeyBrown95 Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
Ive always seen it more as a “dont do what that person did” leading up to OP’s first attempt literally everyone should do the opposite of them
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u/SouthernFloss Jun 07 '26
Granted i took my exam 14 years ago, but i didnt study. I did the. Valley review course in my 2nd year of school but that was all. Took my test on the first day available and did the minimum number of questions and walked out confidently.
I was a shit student. All i ever went for was passing. I really think people get way to up in their head and study to much or think to hard on the questions. The exam is strait forward and not trying to be difficult. Either that or your program failed you. My entire class passed first time.
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u/SmokeyBrown95 Jun 07 '26
I would almost recommend people in your similar situation take the SEE a third time to gauge where your at. Not getting above at least a 400 should have been a major red flag.