Little demotivating, studied so much and felt like everything was foreign. Was scoring high on Smart Bank and Mocks on other platforms. Not looking for sympathy just ranting and letting y’all know it’s brutal. I’m not sure I agree with the sentiment it’s easier than the SEE. Not even sure how retaking works. Thanks for letting me vent, and kudos to yall passing it out there.

Edit: This sub is wholesome, thanks yall <3.
Second edit: Emotions still high with the title. Failed**

got my acceptance a few weeks ago and i start in january. posting this because the version of me from last year after getting waitlisted would have wanted to read something like this. second cycles a charm!! tools for fools

GPA 3.6 SGPA 3.8 SICU 4 years

biggest thing that helped was doing mock interviews with a friend. they don't have a clinical background at all and that honestly made it better because they could hear immediately when i was rambling or when an answer only made sense inside my own head. they'd stop me and go "what r u saying" and half the time i couldn't even repeat it clearly. that was humbling.

for the actual science i leaned on ninja nerd a lot. i had been memorizing what a drug does without knowing why, which works except for when they grilled me til the cell level last year. i'd watch something on shock states or a pressor, close the video, and try to explain it out loud to an empty room. also started using chatgpt to go deeper on specific mechanisms, grounded in textbook, using @ visualize mode is super helpful for seeing relationships.

moxprep i used mostly for volume. there's a limit to how many mock interviews one friend is going to sit through lol. i'd do the full interview mode and just pretend i was sitting in front of the panel. kind of like exposure therapy for interview anxiety honestly. getting put on the spot over and over until no more crisis. the clinical scenarios ended up pretty close to my interview.

remnote for retention. honestly the least fun part of all of this. i'd understand something in march and by july it was basically gone. so i started only making cards for the stuff i was actually shaky on instead of everything. autosorts cards into how good u know it.

the interviews themselves were still uncomfortable. one of mine was maybe 15 minutes total and i walked out pretty happy. was able to break the ice with them about the weather lmao

What is a reasonable amount of time to take off between school and starting work? I know it can take 4-6 months to get licensed and credentialed -- I'm planning on applying for a post-doctoral research opportunity abroad (Barcelona) right after graduating and passing the boards -- minimum 4 months, maximum 9 months. What do y'all think?

Hello, I’m an ICU nurse trying to decide between medicine and becoming a CRNA.

The big dilemma I have with becoming a CRNA is that i might feel like I lack might lack autonomy and the acuity/difficulty of the cases I may see will be different than if I were to pursue becoming an anesthesiologist.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to provide insight to this thought… does anyone feel that way? Do CRNAs get more routine cases? Do you feel like your learning experienced ever get over shadowed by anesthesia residents?

I haven’t shadowed a CRNA yet, just physicians, so I’d love some insight! Thank you!

This is horribly embarrassing, but I am hoping I’m not the only one with this issue.
I’ve now been in the clinical portion of school for 8 months. I feel like as my skills improve, my book knowledge is constantly getting worse. I feel so overwhelmed by even simple things that I’ve learned before. I am constantly thinking of all of the didactic information that I don’t remember and I don’t know where to start reviewing all of this information again. Does anyone have a specific order they went about reviewing/studying for boards. Tips or tricks to remember things that i so easily forget… gas laws, G proteins, pharmacokinetics, etc

Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone! I want to get better at using anki for studying. A lot of people have said using Claude or ChatGPT to make the decks based on class PowerPoints to save time. What prompts do you use/what have you found to work best?

Use this thread for applicant questions, including GPA, ICU experience, CCRN, GRE, shadowing, interview prep, resumes, personal statements, applications, waitlists, and "what are my chances?" posts.

Please include enough context for useful answers:

- Current role and ICU type

- Years of experience

- GPA or trend if relevant

- CCRN or certifications

- Shadowing or leadership experience

- Programs or application timeline

Keep it professional, specific, and respectful. Current NARs, CRNAs, faculty, and applicants are welcome to answer.

I am wondering what is a "typical" amount of money students have saved prior to starting their program? I know everyone has a different financial situation and comes into school with different bills, cost of living, and financial responsibilities.

Are there any creative ways, aside from picking up OT or travel contracts / budgeting, you increased your savings?

Not having income for three years and living off of loans and savings is something that I worry about.

SRNA considering relocation to Charleston. Curious if anyone has insight to MUSC, Trident, or DPI anesthesia. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice on pediatric intubations. Currently in my first pediatric rotation, a lot of them being dental cases. So far I have struggled getting a good view of the cords.

In my prior rotations I rarely have used a miller blade as most preceptors push us to use a MAC. I am much more comfortable with it. Aside from the obvious nervousness of taking care of kids I feel like a lot of my issues are stemming from this. I know a lot of it will come with repetition, but looking for any advice!

Thanks!

How is it over half my cohort has not pass see with a 450 and many have scored under 425. This is wild …Ik many of us who study so hard do the apex exams and score pretty well and yet do so poor on see. All of us have attended valley etc. I’m shocked and confused. Any tips on what’s going wrong? Are there specific tutors for hire?? Did the see change? Our school says it’s all on us nothing they did. Idk I’m so defeated…

This thread is for current Nurse Anesthesia Residents to talk about school, clinical life, studying, preceptors, stress, wins, setbacks, and support.

Good topics include clinical days, didactic survival, study workflows, professional identity, wellness, difficult weeks, useful resources, and small wins.

No patient-identifying details. No medical advice. Keep it professional and human.

Hey everyone — mods gave me the ok to post this, so here goes.

A while back I messaged the mods about posting here for an anesthesia app I built (GlottaVue), and at the time it still had a subscription tier so they said not yet — fair call. Since then I ended up rebuilding the whole thing, and it’s now 100% free. No subscription, no premium version, no ads, nothing for sale at all. Just wanted to say that upfront since that was the whole reason it got held up before.

Quick rundown: weight/age-based drug dosing, equipment sizing, local anesthetic and spinal dosing calcs, case tips, crisis checklists, a medication reference, and a notes feature. No patient data is ever stored or sent anywhere — it just lives on your phone while you’re using it and disapears the second you close the app.

Part of why I built this in the first place — I’ve done 3 trips to Liberia since 2024 working with their anesthesia providers. They have something like 4 anesthesiologists and under 90 practicing nurse anesthetists for the whole country. I’m headed back a 4th time in February, and for the first time I’m hoping to bring a couple anesthesia students with me, which is honestly a big part of why I wanted to post this here.

It’s on the App Store and Google Play, just search GlottaVue. Would genuinly love any feedback, good or bad, especially from students since you guys use these apps way differently than someone who’s been doing this 10+ years. And if anyone’s curious about the Liberia trip, feel free to comment or DM — happy to talk about it.

Thanks for reading this far lol

Hi all! Looking for advice from anyone who’s taken the NCE since the increase in passing standard on July 1st. I’ve got a little over a week left to study and feel at a loss of what to focus on.
I’m averaging 65% on smart bank, 63-73% on the Apex NCE mock exams and then the NCE domain exams are crushing me (50-60%) I swear half the stuff on those I’ve never heard before, and then Ollivate I find too easy - most the questions seem to be level 1 basic recall.

Now that you’re on the other side, which of the 3 question platforms do you think would be most helpful for me to dedicate most my time in the next week?

I recently applied to a school where a critical care exam is part of the admissions process, particularly before the interview. The school says it’s to assess foundations of critical care and clinical decision making skills. Has anyone else gone through this, and if so, how did you study?? I’ve started with the CCRN but it just feels so broad. The exam is allocated for an hour.

Use this thread for applicant questions, including GPA, ICU experience, CCRN, GRE, shadowing, interview prep, resumes, personal statements, applications, waitlists, and "what are my chances?" posts.

Please include enough context for useful answers:

- Current role and ICU type

- Years of experience

- GPA or trend if relevant

- CCRN or certifications

- Shadowing or leadership experience

- Programs or application timeline

Keep it professional, specific, and respectful. Current NARs, CRNAs, faculty, and applicants are welcome to answer.

Good on the NCCAA for doing the right thing here. Once they had evidence the June exam was compromised, invalidating it was probably the only defensible option.
But I really feel for the AAs who did everything right. They studied, took the exam honestly, passed, and now have to do it all over again because other people had access to exam content beforehand. That sucks.

What I do not understand is why the NCCAA is still using a fixed-form 180-question exam instead of computerized adaptive testing.

The NBCRNA NCE is adaptive. The NCLEX has been adaptive since 1994. Other high-stakes healthcare certification exams use adaptive testing as well. Australia and Canada medical exams are adaptive. Questions are pulled dynamically from a large calibrated bank based on candidate performance, so compromising one exam form becomes far less useful. It does not make cheating impossible, but it makes this exact type of widespread compromise much harder.

The other interesting piece is the pass-rate history. NCCAA reports a 92.8% first-time pass rate for 2024-25, while ARC-AA reports a 99.9% three-year average overall exam pass rate for programs graduating in 2022-24.

For comparison, the NBCRNA first-time NCE pass rate was 89.3% in 2024 and 90.5% in 2025.

None of that means high CAA pass rates equal cheating. They do not. But once you confirm that actual exam content was circulating before an administration, I think it is completely reasonable to start asking questions about item reuse, exam security, the size of the item bank, and whether a fixed-form exam is still appropriate.

To NCCAA’s credit, their forensic review looked at 20 administration windows and they have only identified June 2026 as compromised.

Still, this seems like a pretty strong argument for moving to adaptive testing.

So I am literally in my first week of school. I have some work to get through before Monday for one class. Its already dense material. I was out most of the day with my sister, had dinner with her and my partner. I went back out to work on my stuff from like 8:30-10:30. I am feeling locked in. He made a weird comment about "being stuck in there for four hours" and the tone was definitely not one I liked. Then I stayed up to work on some anki cards and its 1200, i'm not feeling ready to sleep and I want to be up working. Like I said, I didn't do much work at all today bc i was with my sister. He came out at midnight and was annoyed I was still up and said "you're already overdoing it". I'm basically worried he is not as supportive about all of this as I initially thought. I'm not sure how to approach this with him. If it wasn't obvious, we live together and I can't just "break up". I'd like to try to navigate this appropriately. We've been together for almost 4 years at this point. Any suggestions or advice??

I've made a pretty comprehensive Anki deck for all of Apex. There's a handful of lessons that are missing but I did a really involved board prep over the summer and have ~10k cards in there, broken down by each Apex subtopic.

I'm about to take the NCE and wanted to pass it down to future classes. Anyone interested in collaborating on the final few Apex lessons to get it to be fully comprehensive?

Edited to add: I'm happy to share what I've got if you send me verification of a current active Apex subscription.

Looking for help on Kidney, Liver, Endocrine, Coagulation, second half of Ultrasound.

Second edit: I had no idea I'd get this many responses. I'm literally taking the NCE in the next 10 days, so I'm going to get to everyone but it'll be a little slowly. Thanks for the understanding!

Use this thread for tuition, loans, budgeting, cost-of-living, federal/private loan questions, scholarships, work planning, and financial planning during CRNA school.

This is peer discussion, not financial advice. Verify program, lender, and federal loan details directly.

Use this thread for tuition, loans, budgeting, cost-of-living, federal/private loan questions, and financial planning during CRNA school.

This is peer discussion, not financial advice. Verify program and lender details directly.

If Breeze does not include transcript of record and breakdown of international nursing program as a deficiency, do I still need to submit them?

I know its a redundant question but I really do not want to request for these papers from my school abroad.

This thread is for current Nurse Anesthesia Residents to talk about school, clinical life, studying, preceptors, stress, wins, setbacks, and support.

Good topics include clinical days, didactic survival, study workflows, professional identity, wellness, difficult weeks, useful resources, and small wins.

No patient-identifying details. No medical advice. Keep it professional and human.