I Know What You Did in Taipei

I Know What You Did in Taipei, me talking to myself. Let me share it with you all.

September of 2022, was the time I decided to toughen myself up and prepare to take the NCLEX in Taipei. As many of you may be aware of, NCLEX is the kind of exam all nurses are aiming to pass. It is the exam that a nurse needs to conquer to be able to practice the nursing profession in the USA, Canada, and Australia; and for once you may all be cleared, I am a registered nurse in the Philippines since 2005. You are right, this busy mom and a dedicated teacher can be sharp as a tack. For a while, I seemed to forget. Thanks to those who have pushed me to take this decision. To my family, loved ones, few friends who gave me words like; “Oh come’n you can do it!”, “With your ability, that exam is going to be a piece of cake!”. They just love me that much, and I thank them all for that. They know who they are. Thank you.

So let’s hop into it…

What Did Teriz Do in Taipei?

My NCLEX journey was a rollercoaster ride filled with ups and downs, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It took me nine months of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice to prepare for this exam. I have my alarms on every single day for every single study time I have planned to do. I was determined to keep my routine, except those days that I was feeling ill. I used three main NCLEX resources, Saunders 8th Edition Book, Pharmacology Success, and 2018 QBank NCLEX Questions. I added some interactive resources to go along with those text books, and those were Archer Review, Simple Nursing, Mark Klimek’s Audio and joined in the Gapuz Review Center. I did spend a daily studying routine starting from on my way to work, and the very last minute before I went to bed, every night. I deprived myself of many family events, friends get-togethers, and even movie time. There were even days that I told the kids and my love to literally don’t mind me and don’t expect anything from me along the way. I could hardly listen to their needs and stories during those nine months. My messenger and group chats were quiet and idle. I haven’t even visited my parents to ask and see how they were. I totally chose to be isolated and to stay focused in preparing for the exam. I can only mull over my ultimate goal; to pass the NCLEX and become the US registered nurse. Taking the practice tests as I approached close to my exam day were 98% successful. Results showed that I had a high chance of passing the NCLEX. With this as a fact, I felt confident with my knowledge and skills after a nine-month intensive studying.

How Did I Prepare for the NCLEX?

I took active changes in my habits, making them healthier, to ensure that I was in the best possible shape for the exam. I cut off coffee a month before the exam, I followed a daily morning exercise, and I even slept earlier as I moved closer to the date of my exam. I went the extra mile and traveled to Taipei to take the test. You are right, for nurses who are not based in the Philippines, we do have to travel and spend more for the exam. As many of us are aware, the NCLEX is done through the PEARSONVUE test centers, and these centers are not found everywhere. The nearby options I had were, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hongkong and India. It was difficult to stay tuned for any availability schedule in the Philippines and so I opted to book my exam in Taiwan. It was actually also because I was pondering, “If experienced nurses fail on this exam, I can also fail that easily. Incase I fail, atleast I saw Taiwan.” That mentality. Many of you probably have an idea, that I love keeping dates to remember, don’t you? So here I want to share with you all the timeline of my NCLEX journey, plus the expenses involved.

December 10, 2022- Took all necessary courses for NCLEX Eligibility. Spent 60$
December 15, 2022- Paid 143$ to the Board of Nursing to apply for eligibility
January 2023- Sent all my Nursing documents from my University to the Board of Nursing in US. Spent 100$
January 2023- Spent 100$ for my text books for studying
February 2023- The Board of Nursing sent my Authorization to Test
March 2023- Paid Pearson Vue for the Exam Fee, that was 200$
April 2023- Paid Pearson Vue 150$ to schedule my exam
May 2023- Booked my plane ticket 400$
June 2023- Paid my hotel booking 200$
June 2023- Pocket money 500$

27th June 2023, the Flight to Taipei

Now after seeing that timeline and the expenditures, let me walk you through into more details of my adventure. My journey won’t be that meaningful without difficulties. There were connecting flight issues, flight cancellations, and struggles to find my hotel and to choose food that I could eat. First up, the three hours delay from Phnom Penh to Manila kicked off my journey. As I wanted to stay calm and collected, I didn’t complain nor rant about it. I was waiting patiently and focusing on “don’t let negativity keep you out of track”. It was indeed helpful. Arriving in Manila, the airline staff had to announce my name in the aircraft, giving me a note that I needed to meet a ground staff to escort me to my connecting flight. You can imagine it. It was stressful and exhausting. As I got out from the aircraft, another staff indeed was waiting for me and he uttered, “Maam, let’s go, we gotta hurry.” As we both ran in the crowded airport, I was panting and shivering. With sleep deprivation and dehydration, that incident was taking me in dire straits. I was pulling my suitcase with me pondering about the possibility of me missing my connecting flight; but hey I am still a fast runner after all. We made it and there I was waiting to be boarded for Taipei. The exhaustion was extreme, and I was at my wits’ end. Good thing I was able to nap for the whole duration of the flight. Well, it was only like for two hours but felt like I had an 8-hour sleep. Lucky me, I guess.

Welcome to Taipei

Now, welcome to Taipei. Arriving at the airport was already impressive. Everything to my eyes was nice and orderly; clean and pretty; lastly, huge and many. Taipei is a bustling city filled with bright lights, busy streets, and stunning scenery. The magnificent views as I took the MRT to the Xinyi District will always be engraved in my memory. The unlimited options of food, pastries, and cosmetics in the Train Station left me incapable in making choices. I purchased my first set of bread and pastries in the Taipei Main Station as I knew I needed some energy by then. Although, my search for my right direction to the exact exit I needed to make took over, leaving me hungry and exhausted. I forgot about my bread. I forgot about eating. After a long haul of finding my right way, finally; yes finally I found my place. I felt like a grand winner during that time. Nothing beats the feeling of sense of accomplishments, big or small.

Days Before the Exam

Despite the challenges I faced in locating the area, I had two days to rest before my exam. I arrived on a Wednesday around 1 pm in my hotel and I immediately freshen up, had a little nap and went out to see the first sunset in Taipei. I stepped out around 6pm and there was no clear sunset but a beautiful rainbow striking the busy area of Xinyi. Again, another reason to stay positive and hold on to the fact that, “there’s a rainbow after a rain”. And so, walking around the area at 6pm made me decide to check out the testing center. After reading so many blogs about this, those blogs are indeed helpful. My hotel was 3-5min walking distance from the testing center. So here I am, looking at it. Envisioning the day of my exam with bells on. I was feeling extremely prepared and confident. Pretty much the Wednesday and Thursday were about keeping my self healthy and mentally prepared. I strolled around shopping malls, enjoyed some food stalls, and devour some snacks that I can see. Good thing, food in Taipei was affordable and delicious. Should I mention, healthy as well.

The Night Before the Exam

Thursday night, the night before the exam, again all the blogs I read are true. Many test takers mentioned that it was impossible for them to sleep. As I knew about that, I went for a long long walk and tire myself that night. I knew that this style works for me, just like all the other sleepless nights I had. To my surprise, that didn’t work on the night I badly needed to sleep. I put my self to sleep around 10 pm, with the plan to wake up at 6 am to do some running before I sit for the NCLEX at 8 in the morning. I was burning a candle at both ends just to put my self into sleep. But hey, I was awake every hour. Such a silly fact, I couldn’t sleep well. Recalling it now, I knew I didn’t sleep well but still I woke up with the roosters, June 30, 2023 at 6am. I wasn’t able to do the running but I did a little work out in the hotel room. Took a warm shower, had banana, noodles, bread and coffee for breakfast; and then off I walked my way to the test center. I remember every single step I took, and every single view I saw along the way. I felt some nerves but still I was vividly collected.

The Exam Day

Arriving in the test center, I met two other Filipinas who will also take the same test like me. There were like ten of us who were taking different kind of exams. I chose to avoid looking other things and was constantly looking down and kept on reminding myself to stay focused. The PEARSONVUE test center proctors I must say were not very friendly and accommodating. The moment the test takers arrived, the old lady was a bit rude or harsh. Maybe I am wrong, but the way she sounded was just simply adding anxiety to all of us, or better say only to me. It was challenging to hear her clearly and I have asked her to repeat her instructions like twice or thrice before I understood. I didn’t practice my self English conversations with Chinese. My bad. I wasn’t oriented about this possibility. Right before 8am, I was already facing distractors; but then again I was calm and collected. I handled that well despite the proctor’s behavior of getting pissed everytime I asked her to repeat. Anyway, those instructions were mainly about:

your bag there
your snacks there
empty your pockets
show me your passport
what exam are you taking?
spell your name
put your palm on the machine

Anyway, that’s the strenuous process before entering the test center cubicles. Let’s go to the exam proper.

The moment I sat down in computer number 3, I was calm and confident as planned. First question, I answered with confidence. After like an hour, I raised my hand to use the bathroom. This too was already in my plan. I wanted to give my self a stretch and empty my bladder to feel more comfortable in answering the next questions. I guess I was in item #30 at 9am. That gave me an idea that I was answering a question approximately like 2 minutes atleast. Seems like a good statistics. And so another bathroom and water sipping break I had at around 9am. Going to the bathroom was a tedious process again. Palm scanning, eye glasses checking, emptying pockets and more of checking everytime you go to the bathroom. This was what I expected and it’s all good. The timer keeps running even if you go to the bathroom, and if you don’t know yet, nurses are given five hours to finish the exam. My last bathroom break was when I was at my 70th question. I was feeling confident still as I was quite aware that I was facing challenging questions along the way. That’s what they all say; the moment you face difficult questions, it is likely that you are doing great in the exam. That realization didn’t bother me though. I took every question as serious as possible and always had a thought of making sure I did my best in answering each item. And so my computer shut at 85th question.

Evaluating my Performance

Recalling how I answered the questions, there were like 30% topics that I was certain of. Most of the questions needed critical thinking skills and I used strategies in answering those. I remember smiling everytime I answered the questions, because I knew I used the correct strategies and that I got the right answers to the topic I may not be familiar with. As I approached close to question number 85, the least possible number a test taker can face, I was feeling like “Oh no, I wanted to answer more.” I felt like there were some difficult questions in my exam but I knew that there could be more difficult questions than those; and I wanted to face those difficult questions. Sadly, my exam shut off at 85 questions. I had a Select All That Apply question before my 85th question, and my last question was prioritization question. My computer immediately shut off, and ofcourse I did close my eyes and wish my self good luck and gave myself a virtual shoulder tap. I knew that I was able to answer most of the questions correctly using my knowledge and test-taking strategies; and those alone were enough. So, I walked down from the test center with a feeling of, ” Finally, I won’t be seeing the proctor’s angry face ever again”. As I walked back to my hotel, I felt like I was floating. I couldn’t believe that I sat down for the NCLEX, and I couldn’t believe that I did it strong. I mean, I hear stories from other nurses that the exam really affected them negatively. For me, again I was ready for whatever the result would be.

Taipei 101 Exploration- Post Exam Reward

After the exam, I felt positive about my performance. Still, all of a sudden, I began to doubt myself, and anxiety sat in. To ease my anxiety, I decided to check out Taipei 101, which is a towering skyscraper that offers a breathtaking view of the city. The Taipei 101 tour made me forget the agony of waiting for my exam results, and I felt at peace. I remember not feeling hungry at all after the exam day. I had to push myself to eat and encourage myself to enjoy the extra days in Taipei. Oh and also these extra two days after my exam were because of the Airline flight cancellations. So I guess, thanks to them? or not. Anyway here are some photos and videos I enjoyed as I waited in agony for the result of my NCLEX.

Reality Check Once Again

After the Taipei tour I went back to my hotel with the fact; the anxiety. The anxiety crept back in, and it was challenging to sleep. The next day, I flew back home, and despite encountering more flight delays, I was delighted to be back with my family. Unfortunately, four days later, I received the news that I had failed the exam. At that moment, I felt like the world had stopped, and I didn’t know what to feel. But, as they say, when one door closes, another one opens. I didn’t let my failure discourage me. Instead, I took it as a learning experience and a chance to improve. I will try again, taking the NCLEX, and I will be better prepared. I will not let this setback define me or my journey. I will keep pushing forward, and I know that with hard work and determination, I will achieve my dream of becoming a registered nurse.

And now you all knew, ” I Know What You Did in Taipei”.

My Final Take On This

It has been a month since I knew my exam result and here is my final note about my experience. Despite my strong preparation for the exam, and despite the fact that I knew I did well on that exam, at the end; it is not within my control. I encountered many things in life that proved that many times our hands are always tied. I took this another challenge with pride and grateful heart because I knew, whatever had happened contributed in creating a better me. As what we always hear now, we all are a work in progress; and so do I. My next NCLEX blog, I will make sure it is going to be a great news! I am sharing this journey to encourage people who are in the same boat as myself to never get easily discouraged with some little bumps we face along the way. I have posted on our Facebook Page this message:

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! We all face challenges in life, but it’s how we respond to them that really matters. Instead of dwelling on the sour moments, let’s focus on the sweet possibilities.

Lemons can be turned into something refreshing and delicious, just like challenges can be turned into opportunities for growth and learning.

I was also able to come up with some practical and helpful tips on how to face our lemons in our lives. Maybe you would love to give it a go:

1. Stay positive: A positive attitude can make all the difference in how you approach challenges. Look for the silver lining and focus on the good in any situation.

2. Embrace change: Change is often the catalyst for growth and progress. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try new things.

3. Learn from mistakes: Mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. Instead of beating yourself up over them, use them as opportunities to learn and grow.

4. Ask for help: Sometimes we all need a little help from our friends and family. Don’t be afraid to reach out for support when you need it.