[wackymole]

I just want to say to those who failed the NCLEX to not give up. I failed my NCLEX the first time with 265 questions after completing 6 hours (had too many distractors). I had taken one month off from work and studied for 8 hours pretty much every day. In other words, I studied really hard.

I took a two month study break before I decided to hit the books again. This second time I didn't studied as much. I reviewed Kaplan for about two months for 5 hours each day focusing on strategies, while working 20 hours/week. Three weeks before my scheduled exam I just focused on answering 100-200 questions each night before I went to sleep.

The following resources that were useful to me were:

1. Frye's 3300 Nursing Bullets NCLEX RN by Charles M. Frye
2. Prioritization, Delegation Assignment by Linda A. LaCharity
3. Learning extension***
4. Listening to tapes to relieve my anxiety
5. Drink chamomile tea the night before and the morning of the exam (make
sure you test it before or otherwise you will be too relaxed).

***My friend had recommended the learning extension and I registered for the 3-week review course, since I only had 3 more weeks to study before my exam. At first I was hesitant, because I already had so many other books to study from. However, learning extension helped me since the questions were similar to NCLEX. I felt going into the exam as if I was practicing the same questions that I practiced each night. What I didn't like was the outline format and the fact that they give you rationales for the right answers only. Other than that, in my opinion, it was worth the $50. I passed the NCLEX with 80 questions after 2 hours.

I hope this helps some of you. What I also did differently is that I didn't tell anyone when I was going to take my exam. This is to prevent my anxiety from building up.

Good luck to everyone!




Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved. ~Helen Keller~

[caliotter3]

:

[Rajiv]

Congratulations for not giving up until you succeed.

[Silverdragon102]

Congratulations

[paganmommy]

I believe that you can study too much for this test. I didn't read a lot of books, I did question after question after question and I did flash cards of the ones I got wrong. I also did the Kaplan review week and that was helpful to me even though I did not use the tree all that much on the NCLEX. I think what is good about Kaplan is it gets you used to doing it automaticly. I agree to not tell people when your test is. That is why I didn't do graduate nursing. Too many people in my business. Good luck to all of you!!!

[wackymole]

Thank you to everyone for their best wishes! I decided to post this message because I know how hard it is to feel like a failure and having to face people who believed in you. I had a lot of support and help from other people and this is my way of giving back to the "nursing communiity".

[jadu1106]

congratulations!!!

[Melinurse]

CONGRADULATIONS!!!!

[momelly05]

Thank you so much for this post. I just failed for the first time and feel horrible. I am the kind of person that likes to be perfect and am extremely embarassed I did not pass. You helped me lift my chin up a bit!

[NurseKatie08]

Originally Posted by paganmommy

I believe that you can study too much for this test. I didn't read a lot of books, I did question after question after question and I did flash cards of the ones I got wrong. I also did the Kaplan review week and that was helpful to me even though I did not use the tree all that much on the NCLEX. I think what is good about Kaplan is it gets you used to doing it automaticly. I agree to not tell people when your test is. That is why I didn't do graduate nursing. Too many people in my business. Good luck to all of you!!!

To many of my friends/classmates doing this---which is why I'm waiting until AFTER my exam to talk to them.