Hi everyone, I promised myself I would create an account on this website if I passed the NCLEX-RN! I'm so happy the dread is over with and I wanted to share my experience with you all! I was NOT an honor student in nursing school. I worked at least 1-2 jobs throughout the nursing program because I had to support myself. I graduated in December 2013.
I mainly used the KAPLAN as a review guide for my boards. Their questions were out of the question, harder than most of the other review questions I have tried out, such as NCLEX Mastery and Saunders... so I just stuck with Kaplan because I felt like it would help me more with the NCLEX.. and yes, it definitely paid off! Kaplan style questions were very similar to NCLEX style questions.. straight to the point with vague answer choices.
To be honest, you get out of the NCLEX examination what you put in. I studied for about a month, once or twice a week for 4-5 hours long per study session. I didn't get the chance to study more than that because I got hired right after I graduated as a graduate nurse in December.. and because of that I had a lot of homework from work too! Anyhow, 8 days before my examination day, I crammed for the entire week. I barricaded myself in the house and did nothing but eat, lay in my bed, and answered a gazillion questions from Kaplan's QBank and reviewed over what I didn't know. I didn't use a study guide or those PDF documents circulating around the internet. What I did do was google up pictures of diseases or things I didn't understand to help me visualize what the disease really was. I also used YouTube look up diseases like Hungtinton's disease to truly understand how chorea movements looked like, etc.
What also helped was having a job in the medical field. Anything in the medical field will help you understand what you learned in class soo much more than just reading about it. People always said that those who worked in the hospital failed because they were answering questions based on what they did vs. what should really happen in NCLEX land. However, I felt like having a job in the health care helped tremendously, especially because I come from a family with no medical field backgrounds.
All in all, I came out of the NCLEX-RN examination with 75 questions and passed! What irritated my concentration the most weren't the questions, but my nerves! I was sooo nervous because I felt like... if I failed my exam, I would lose my job, then I would lose my income, and my apartment...and I would be homeless, moving back in with my parents. I had a lot of pressure on my shoulders so this exam was huge for me. I graduated in December, and I really wanted to make it happen.
I told myself that I know I won't know all the answers to the questions when I take the NCLEX. BUT, I know that God does! If I did my part and studied my butt off to the point where I can look back and say "I tried my best".... then God will take care of the rest. AND HE DID!
So, for the rest of you worrying about your examination date, just know that you didn't fail nursing school. You know the basics, so just brush up on what you don't know. Your program prepared you! You just need to believe in yourself! AND don't cheat yourself. Good luck! :)
