Dear Kim,

I will be in Canada by August Kim, my immigrant Visa was approved and I’m planning to take the exam, this year. [ What do I need to know?]

R.

Dear R,

You are very fortunate to have learned about CELBANPrep so early, and to be able to access information and begin your preparations so early! There is so much valuable information for you, that many people tell me they wished they knew earlier. They all are so giving in sharing information with me so that the path of others following their footsteps can be more smooth.

There are some important things I want to share with you about the CELBAN:

• You can only take the CELBAN 3 times. (This can change to fewer chances. )
• You have to pass all 4 sections in one sitting: reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• The scores set by the provincial college of nurses are set for one year, and can change. (The scores for both the IELTS and CELBAN have increased as of July 1, 2011.) Here is a link to NNAS’s minimal scores.
• In most provinces English scores have an expiry date, and expire after 2 years. (This can change to a shorter time.)
• Often the licensure process to become a nurse can take longer than 2 years. (It can take 6 months to a year for all your documents to arrive at the provincial college of nurses or NNAS.)
• At times there has been a 6 month required waiting period between taking taking the CELBAN exam, hopefully this will be shortened with the announcement of a new national administrator of the CELBAN: CEPHEA.

What this means is:

• The pressure to pass the exam the first time is low. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will be, the better you will do.
  • If you do not pass that is OK, you still have 2 more chances, and you get feedback. They will tell you your strengths and weaknesses, so you know what to improve.
  • If you do pass, you have 2 more opportunities if your exam expires before you become a nurse.
• The pressure to pass the exam the second time increases, but is still relatively low. Using the feedback, you will know what you need to work on to improve your score.
• The pressure to pass the exam the third time intensifies. Many people at this stage feel fear, procrastination, and stress. They feel like their career is in the balance. If they pass, they can be a nurse, if they fail they can not be a nurse in Canada.
  • There is still the opportunity to take the Academic version of the IELTS, but this exam is much harder, and many IENs I know feel great fear and trepidation about this exam.
  • There is also a limit on how many times a person can take the Academic version of IELTS.
  • There are no more chances, so if the process to become a nurse takes more than 2 years, and the exam score expires, there are no more chances to take the CELBAN, and the person will have to take the Academic version of the IELTS to continue.

Ensure you are prepared for the exam the first time you take it!

This not only increases your probability of passing, and decreases the level of stress you might experience, but gives you the most options for the future. You save not only time, but also money.

Knowing all of this is how you avoid the CELBAN Trap!

Hope this helps!

Kim