Encouragement and Pearson View Trick September 2017

I wanted to encourage any future nurses that had difficulty with the HESI exams like I did that YOU CAN PASS THE NCLEX on the first try!

I graduated from an accelerated BSN program in August 2017. My school required the students to have at least a 900 on the HESI to have your graduation paperwork sent to the BON after graduation to sit for the NCLEX. I scored an 882 on the first HESI, and from there it got progressively worse--a 800 on the second, and a 780 on the third. I was SO discouraged because I knew that the HESI was supposed to indicate how well you would do on the NCLEX. Since I did not have the 900 score for the HESI's I had to do an NCBSN training which was some what helpful, but an overwhelming amount of info.

I heard UWORLD was awesome from multiple sources. I signed up and started to do at least 75-150 questions a day and I took notes on the rationales of the questions I missed. I also skimmed through the Sylvestri Saunders NCLEX-RN book (way too much info to read page by page), took notes, and answered the practice questions at the end of the chapters. In the meantime I received my ATT number and scheduled my exam about 2 1/2 weeks out.

During these two and half weeks I spend the majority of my time studying during the week and working on the weekends. I went to church on Sundays and gave myself time to relax, but would still study in the evening. The day before the test I went to get a mani/pedi, did some shopping, and ate at my favorite sushi restaurant.

The morning of the test on 09/13/17, I was nervous but knew I had studied and prepared to the best of my ability. I was so antsy that I kept going back and forth to my car to get items. lol I ended up taking in water, a jacket, my keys, and lip gloss. Before I started the test at 8:00 a.m. I prayed that God would help me remember everything I had studied. The FIRST QUESTION stumped me! I was down to two answers, but I had learned from all the practice questions to go with my gut so I did. By question 60 I noticed that I kept getting SATA questions back to back. Sometime 3-4 in a row. I was getting frustrated and my heart started accelerating, and again I prayed for peace. I tried to aim my focus on the question in front of me. When I came to question 75, I fully expected to have more questions. I did well in nursing school, but was no where near the top of my class in grades or HESI scores. So when the test shut off at 75 I sat there is a daze because I fully expected to have more questions. I went numb and had a hard time processing what just happened. Immediately the survey questions started and I was so spent that I got confused and thought that I was still taking the test! I called the proctor over and she verified that my test had ended at 75 questions and the questions I was answering were survey questions and I could stop at any time. I did about 15 survey questions (most were ridiculously hard) and stopped. I knew that at a minimum of 75 questions I either did really well or really bad. But honestly could not call it either way--- there were some questions I knew I answered correctly, but much more that I felt like I guessed on, especially the SATA. Thank God I had no med calculations! I also did not have any EKG strips, pictures, and very little pharm. I had one drag and drop and lots of prioritization, delegation, and psych.

I initially had decided that I didn't want to do the Pearson View Trick (PVT) at first, BUT the longer I waited the more antsy I got. I tried about 8 hours after the test and my fingers were shaking as I put in my card info. When I hit the submit button, I got the good pop up!! This encouraged my greatly because I had read tons of information about the PVT and how a false positive is unheard of. The next day I made the five hour drive to my home town and when I stopped to get gas in the afternoon, I checked my email and was on cloud nine when I saw the notification from the BON with my RN license number. I almost cried and could not stop thanking God!! Whew! I called my parents and sister and it felt like I was having a outer body experience. It was a moment I'll never forget!! All the hard work paid off!

Allnurses.com was such a huge support to me while I was studying for the NCLEX and I want to say thank you! Also to anyone who has struggled with the HESI, you can do it!!

I personally think UWORLD is AMAZING because it teaches you how to critically think. And Saunders is a great content review. Very little of what I studied was actually on the set of questions I had for the NCLEX, but because I learned how to critically think and read carefully, it helped immensely. Just do your BEST, have faith, and trust that everything will work out like it is supposed to.

Blessings,

Goldengirl, BSN, RN