Failed NCLEX 3rd time, should I go back to do LVN?

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Hey guys,

I have the full story of my journey up in my page in another post. Long story short I graduated nursing school end of 2012 (dec) in Australia. Stayed an extra year as I got hired as a new grad on the med surge unit. When I moved back, had to retake peds/ob as my clinical hours weren't concurrent. After that I took the nclex without really studying. Failed it. Second time took Kaplan and failed and now just found out I failed it a third time. Last year was very tough family wise as we had diagnosis of cancer and a death in the family among other things. I put effort into this last time. A lot! I'm a horrible test taker with bad anxiety and though I was near passing on my results i feel defeated. It's a New Year and I'm ready to start again. I'm taking an online prep course as well as heard many good things about uworld that I'm gonna try.

my moms an RN and she's been pressuring me lately to take a break, go back and get my LVN work for a bit then go back and try. I don't think that's the best option. I'm in the zone now, and I will get it. Just have to keep going. Has anybody had any experience with this? I'm not even sure how the LVN program works if I already have my BSN? I'm just kinda lost. Nobody wants this more than me, and I keep telling my family I know they're frustrated but nobody is more than me.!8; they think I'm happy with my situation, well I'm obviously not. Any insight or advice is helpful!

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

You need to study harder- you have to take the NCLEX for LPN too so...

I'm not even sure you can go backwards...

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

How did you pass the final exam in Australia?

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They don't have NCLEX there.

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Ok, so things were overwhelming and now they are not. So now is the time to buckle down and try again. Are you currently in America? If so, I would see about taking some classes at a local university. (and you can sit for the NCLEX because???? I don't know, just asking). In other words, are there specific refreshers you need to take to be successful in America as an RN? Is a BSN in Australia compatible with a BSN in America? If not, you would do yourself a good thing if you were to take nursing courses here.

You should sit down with your academic advisor, or an academic advisor at a local college, and talk about all of this. If you are in a place where studying more may just do it for you, then get as many practice tests as you can and continue to take them. If there is a theme of questions you are getting wrong, then that is what you need to review. Pull out all your class notes, your text books....and if you took a live Kaplan class, many will let you take it again if you don't pass.

LVN is a completely different NCLEX. Which may not compute well with your BSN schooling. Just throwing it out there, would it be feasible to get a teaching certificate and teach at a local vocational school as a job until you are in a place to try the NCLEX again?

Best wishes

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Im frustrated also because all the Americans that went to school with me in Australia and came back passed the nclex on the first try. I am back in America currently and BSN is compatible here. I need to buckle down and study more and learn better test taking strategies and how to answer the questions. I will check with Kaplan about retaking the course, thanks for that! Didn't even think of that and would save me $$ too.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics.

Our nursing school utilized a program called ATI that really helped, in my opinion, prepare us for the NCLEX. I know of a few fellow classmates that took Kaplan and did not pass NCLEX. All I did was retake a few practice exams on ATI and passed NCLEX first try. Maybe it is worth looking into. Good luck!

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Thank you! I actually am currently taking ATI, did not wait for the green light before taking my exam as it was too late to reschedule my test so I am starting the class over again. It's definitely helped me since the last time, even though I didn't pass my scores were better than last time.

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Specializes in Assistant Professor, Nephrology, Internal Medicine.

Have you tried hurst review? I would never recommend going backwards. I've known people to take the exam 5-6 times before passing it. Most of the time it turns out they have not studied enough or just have poor test taking abilities.

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ATI is really helpful. the questions are pretty hard, we had to do a bunch of them our last semester of my ADN. it really prepped us for NCLEX. It's good because the questions are knowledge content.

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Have you tried hurst review? I would never recommend going backwards. I've known people to take the exam 5-6 times before passing it. Most of the time it turns out they have not studied enough or just have poor test taking abilities.

I haunt tried Hurst review. I"ve heard mixed reviews about it. I don't want to have too many different avenues. I need to treat studying like it's a full time job. I have ATI testing and i'm going to sign up for UWORLD. Also i'm going to keep my test a secret from everything so it's less pressure on me.

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ATI is really helpful. the questions are pretty hard, we had to do a bunch of them our last semester of my ADN. it really prepped us for NCLEX. It's good because the questions are knowledge content.

Thank you! I am going to start over with that and UWORLD

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