Ok, I need to hear your NCLEX stories out there!

I took a review class, and did practice questions daily for the month or so leading up to the exam.

On the morning of the exam, I ate breakfast (lite d/t nerves but still had a little something) went into the test did the whole ID thing and sat down at the screen.

Did some deep breathing, and started.

I went as slow as I could and thought about each situation and made sure I'd read everything accurately.

I always kept in my head that at least 15 of the first 75 were 'fake' (test) questions and wouldn't count and anytime I had a question that made no sense, I did my best and then told myself that that question was one of the fake ones and to just keep on going.

THe machine turned off after 75 questions. I put my head down for a minute, and then I left and went out to a real breakfast with my good friend, who is a nurse practitioner and understood my pain.

My whole test took less than 45 minutes.

And it was not super difficult and no where near as bad as I have heard.

Just relax and realize that you are prepared for this. Its what you went to school for. You will do it and you will do well.

My advise is remember that on the exam, you live in NCLEX world and you work at NCLEX hospital. That means that you must NOT read into the questions and you must NOT put the question into a real-world context. Yes in real life you would have your cna being busy with 15 other patients or the LPN would be too busy with her own patients to help you, but in NCLEX Hospital they are all there and available for you to assign/delegate to. Take the question at pure face value. And if a situation comes up in a question that mirrors something you've seen/done at clinical/work....remember that you are at NCLEX General Hospital and no matter what you saw in the real world, you must stick to their scenarios and the given answers.

Good luck! :)

~Mia

My mom, an RN now for over 30 yrs, told me she took a paper and pencil exam over a three day period. She thinks CAT is "cruel and unusual punishment."

I took my NCLEX-PN on paper and pencil and my NCLEX-RN per CAT exam. Having experienced both my opinion is that the CAT is a far far better method.

Main thing is to relax. If you do fail, you can always repeat.

You made it through NS you can pass NCLEX.

I read the question, closed my eyes, did some deep breathing, thought of what the answer should be, opened my eyes and made my choice. I did not change any of my answers. Mostly what I thought the answer should be was one of the choices when I opened my eyes. I did this with most every question. Was this my reason for success? Who knows but it did relax me. Best of Luck and be thankful, very thankful for CAT.

3 nights of worrysome sleep, going in 3 days in a row sleep deprived, worrying about filling in the wrong circle with a #2 pencil, constantly checking to see if I'm still in the correct order, haven't accidently missed a circle, because the answer sheet was a separate piece of paper from the test book, head pounding about hour # 2 of each 8 hour day. Proctors walking you to and from the potty. No thank you, give me CAT anyday!! It's amazing that I passed, now that I think about it, and we waited 6 weeks to get the results via mail.

We had an in school review the last 3 weeks of school. I also took a formal review class. We did computerized testing similar to NCLEX all thru NS so I also studied NCLEX questions all thru NS to prepare for our tests. By the time I actually graduated, I bet I had seen well over 10,000 NCLEX questions.

We also did the HESI 2x during NS. The final HESI had a breakdown of your weaknesses and I used that to help me study my areas I knew I had issues with.

The weeks between graduation and the test, I practiced more questions.

It took me less than 25 mins to take 75 questions. Of course the day of the test I was FREAKED OUT and thought it was going to be horrible, but in reality my tests during NS were actually harder than that test.

I found out exactly 48 hours later I had passed.

i'm one of the old dinosaurs that had to drive to a central location (three hours from home), rented a motel room for two nights, and sweated bullets taking four exams over two days, one each morning and one each afternoon. then we had to wait twelve weeks for the results. everyone across the country got their results at around the same time. for me it was exactly 12 weeks to the day. (this is why i get irritated when i see new grads on here complaining about not having their results in two weeks!)

the best advice someone gave me was, "don't panic when you see the questions, because you're going to think 'i didn't learn any of this!'" he was right. just breathe, take your time, and think about each question. and make sure you read all of the answers, because many of the questions will have more than one right answer but asks for the best one.

that first night i called home in tears, telling my mom i couldn't do this and wanted to come home. she said "okay, come home tonight." then my dad got on the phone and i heard, "we did not support you for all this time and pay for your schooling just to have you quit. you can fail, but you are not allowed to quit."

i stayed.

i passed!

Someone was definitely looking out for me the day i took my NCLEX. For starters i took my exam in a town about an hour away, and decided to wake up early that morning and drive to the testing site(big mistake, dont recommend it). When i got to Wilmington, i got completely lost, could not find the testing location to save my life, luckily my brother's gf knows the town pretty well, so i called her. After figuring were i was, she finally directed me to the location. The testing center was located in a doctor's office on the top floor, no wonder i had trouble finding it. I was 15 minutes late for the test, fournately the test adminstrator understood and allowed me to take the test. I was a nervous wreck and thought sure i would fail. I took the exam in about an hour and a half and it cut off at 109 questions-which didnt help the stress level. I drove back home, stopped for some ice cream to drown my sorrow's and waited the 48 hours. That Friday morning the results were not up, so i waited and waited. My brother took me to the beach and out to lunch and that helped alot. When i got back home that afternoon the results were up and i PASSED. :w00t:

Best of luck on your NCLEX adventure, i am sure you will do fine.

I can give you input from someone who just took the NCLEX two days ago.

I graduated NS December 14th, but the earliest date I could get to test was Jan. 17th. I prepared by doing about 100+ questions on CD a day. I also studied the Kaplan book and the Saunders book to figure out testing strategies. I've heard mixed things about the NCLEX and decided from the beginning that I'd take it as early as possible, hopefully pass, but if not, I could retake it in 45 days and still be on the same schedule with most of my classmates. I woke up (after a good nights sleep), ate a good breakfast and drove to the testing center. I stayed calm the entire time, I knew that there's no way to be completely prepared for the test, but I was determined to do my best and hoped that my experiences in NS had prepared me. We had to take the HESI 2x and I had scored fairly high both times, plus our school used computerized testing with NCLEX style questions so I was familiar with the format. When I got to the testing center I had my picture taken, my fingerprint taken, went to the bathroom, and then was led back to my computer. I took a deep breath, went through the example questions and then started my test. I carefully read each question, looked through all the answers, and could usually narrow it down to just two answers. I then used my test taking knowledge from Kaplan to figure out the answer. There were several questions with things I'd never heard about, so I'd just assume those were 'test' questions and answer them to the best of my ability. I stayed focused the whole test and gave myself a lot of positive talk. It was like running a marathon, you just take it one step at a time and keep going until you finish. I KNEW my computer would shut off at 75, so once it reached 70 I did some more deep breathing, kept myself calm and tackled the last five questions. When the screen went blank, it wasn't a surprise. One other thing that helped me was that I wrote down all the lab values I could remember, on the white board they give you. I have a tendency to mix up numbers when I get stressed, so I wanted to write them down to refer to, before I had a question that made me mix them up in my head. This enabled me to stay calm and not panic because I could see and work out the problems (one of the problems I have with computerized testing is not being able to physically work out problems).

The whole experience was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The test wasn't too bad if you realize that you're going to be missing a lot of questions, the idea is to just stay above that line they want you at. Stay calm, trust that you know the information or can work it out if you need to.

You'll do fine,

thanks a lot for this post, it will be a big help for me when i will take my nclex again, i've got clearer view on what are the "do's and don'ts" in taking the exam..

one of my weaknesses is wrong things I've done while taking the nclex..i didn't relax..i was worried that i might gonna failed again (which i did), i didn't take a break instead sat in front of the computer for almost 6 hours just to finish the test.. i was so exhausted..

but this time i must got to change my attitude..now i learned..

I am moderately embarrassed to admit this...but I took it like I have always taken tests. I stressed about it, stared petrified at my review book for about a week, rescheduled it the day before I was supposed to take it, did like three review tests, and walked in with the idea that this was a $200 practice run. 1hr 40 minutes and 265 questions and 3 days later I had my liscence.

Some might say that I was lazy, others might think I took all the questions because I was so weak and fluctuated a lot. But in the end I did my work in school, that is why I went there, and I let my common sense do the rest.

o.0

Tait

My biggest tricks? Remember that pain is psychological, children and adults aren't that different, and if all else fails follow your ABC's.

I took the exam and barely studied a day for it. I even pushed my date forwards instead of backwards. I felt prepared when I graduated that I was taught enough to pass the NCLEX. I got 99% " predicted" chance of passing it with ATI. I had been using NCLEX study guides all through school...I just couldn't take another day of studying.

I woke up that am and drove to the center WAYYYY too early because I was afraid of traffic. I drove past the building and when I realized that I turned around..only I turned around INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC and almost killed myself and others on the road. So, you wanna talk shot nerves? yikes

I paced back and forth outside the center for awhile calling everyone I knew to calm me down.

Took the test in a bit over an hour. 75 q's. Walked out with one thought on my mind " WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT??????????????? Ther is no study guide I ever laid eyes on ( and I owned like 12 of them) that even came close to what I saw on that exam.

Swore I failed it.

Found out 48 hrs later that I passed.

:w00t:Best of luck to you. I can relate to how you feel. Let me just tell you that it does not matter how many questions you get when it comes to determining if you passed or not. Just some insight.....I took the test two days ago. I scheduled my test with my friend so that we could go at the same time. I graduated with honors, and she barely graduated. She suffered the entire time in school while I worked full time as well.

The day was as everyone has mentioned. However, my friend who struggled through school got 75 questions and I got 262. Who gets 262. I have seen 265, 120, etc but never heard of anyone getting 262. So, I figured that I had failed. I have already started my job and they were anticipating me having my license number by the end of next week so that I could move a bit faster along in orientation since I did my internship there and already knew my job.

This morning my results were available for viewing. I paid the eight dollars and to my suprise, I passed!

I took the Kaplan which was a huge help. I also read through the Saunders book from front to back. Also, I put sticky notes all over the house with drug names and lab values so that I could study and practice not matter what I was doing. It did help.

All I can say is try not to beat yourself up over the exam. The number of questions you have will mean nothing. Just try to keep busy during the 48 hours between completing the exam and getting your results.