NCLEX and tips to pass the FIRST TIME

Hello to my new fellow grads! I just graduated December 2015. and waited more then a month to take my NCLEX, yes it might sound silly but I wanted to prepare as best I could, (and took a 2 week vacation to sit on the beach hehe). I was a B student in Nursing school, with a couple C's and a couple A's, my school has a bad pass rate so i knew I really needed to study my butt off to take the NCLEX, lots of people in my class failed the NCLEX their first try :(

My school worked HURST and KAPLAN into our curriculum, so I utilized both resources:

I started off my 3 WEEK review by re-watching every single HURST video

followed by 50-100 Q bank questions on Kaplan.

Once my videos were all completed (took about a week) I did one HURST Q test a day, 125 questions each.

My scores:

Q1- 78/125 63%

Q2- 69/125 55%

Q3- 73/125 58%

Q4- 73/125 58%

Q5- 74/125 59%

Q6- 66/125 52%

I also completed all of Kaplans Qbank (doing 50-150 a day in 50 question increments) with an overall average of 56%. My scores were mostly in the upper 50s and middle 60s by the end of it. I also did the NCLEX PREP SAMPLE TESTs, there are four of them and they were EXTREMELY helpful!!!

My Kaplan Trainer Tests:

Trainer 1- 57%

Trainer 2- 64%

Trainer 3- 51%

Trainer 4, 5, 6, 7...(I just reviewed these because I was required to do them in school)

After completing all of this I took the Readiness Test and my score was 65.6% and I felt confident to take the NCLEX.

Day of NCLEX Feb 11, 2016- My boyfriend (also an RN and passed at 75 questions) was a sweetie and drove me to the Test site, I ate a good breakfast and some coffee :) I sat down and was feeling confident after 3 weeks of just NCLEX prep I thought I was totally prepared, boy was I in for a treat!

20 questions in I was choking back tears, I knew by then that it wasn't going to go past 75 because I felt like the NCLEX ladies were laughing at me and WANTING ME TO FAIL!

I got 3 SATA within the first 5 QUESTIONS! And had anywhere from 30-35 SATA!

My computer shut off at 75 and as soon as I walked out of the building I balled my eyes out I WAS SO SURE I FAILED!!!! My boyfriend listened to me cry on and off the whole day... haha!!! and also my mom, haha!

...BUT.. I checked my Florida Board of Nursing account 25 hours later and I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then looked myself up on license verification website 48 hours later and sure enough my name popped up! :)

MY advice to you is...

1. ALWAYS review your test IMMEDIATELY, AND LOOK UP anything you don't understand. Even if you got it RIGHT, review it!

2. Kaplan helped the most, if you do nothing else.. do kaplan....

3. NCLEX is a SAFETY TEST, know your PRIORITIES, AND LAB VALUES and PPE Precautions (standard, airborne, droplet, etc..)

4. There is a 35 pages study guide floating around that is totally helpful.

5. DO NOT GO UNPREPARED, you need to be taking NCLEX style questions EVERYDAY for at least 2 weeks, (in my opinion) to not feel like the NCLEX ladies are slapping you in the face when you take that test. (actually you probably will feel like that but you are way more likely to pass if you PREPARED)

6. I walked out of there feeling like i failed... BUT MY PREPARATION PULLED ME THROUGH! I took my test in an hour, and I am so happy I never have to take it again!

I hope this is helpful! Happy studying! :)