Passed NCLEX-RN in 75 Questions (Sept 2015)

Hello all.

While procrastinating from studying, I looked at a lot of these discussion boards about other people's NCLEX experiences, so I thought I'd share my own experience in case it helps anybody else.

Background Information

I finished a 14-month accelerated BSN program at the end of July 2015. I didn't have the best grades in my class, but I still ended up with a 3.83 final GPA (so three Bs with my university using a 92.5% cut off for As.)

My university offers an ATI Predictor exam at the end of all the nursing programs. I was given a 99% chance of passing the NCLEX on the first try.

Prepping for the NCLEX

Between being in a fairly intense accelerated program and working, I did not have (or make) time to study for the NCLEX while I was still in school. My last final was the last Monday of July, so I mostly took the rest of the week off. My university offered a discounted Kaplan review for ~$380, but I was too cheap for that.

The Friday night after my last final (on Monday), I bought the NCLEX Mastery app and started trying to do at least 100 questions a day. It comes with 1,730 questions total and was a clean, easy to use app on my phone. There are a lot of select-all-that-applies questions, and the rationales are very clear and more detailed than from the Exam Cram book described below.

I didn't stay as on-track as I planned with my study schedule. I ranged from no questions or just a handful a day to around 250 a day split up throughout the day. I think the biggest thing about getting a practice question app for your phone is that you always have your phone and you're always looking at it. I read somebody else's tip online that they treated their NCLEX Mastery App like it was social media, which really increased the amount of time they studied overall. I did that too, so every time I felt the urge to check my email or Facebook, I did at least 5 questions.

I didn't end up finishing all of the NCLEX Mastery questions until the week before my NCLEX on Sept. 2. I got 60% of the questions right. I went back and re-did the questions that I marked as "not knowing at all" and re-started on some of the ones that I marked "somewhat know."

I also got the following practice question books at the public library (remember those?) and started using them after I finished NCLEX Mastery:

• NCLEX-RN 2014-2015 Strategies, Practice, and Review with Practice Test (ISBN-13: 978-1618653796 ISBN-10: 1618653792)
  
• NCLEX-RN Exam Cram (ISBN-13: 978-0789751058 ISBN-10: 0789751054)
  
• NCLEX-RN Questions & Answers Made Incredibly Easy! (ISBN-13: 978-1451185492 ISBN-10: 1451185499)
  

I found the first two very helpful, but I didn't like the last one so I didn't really use it. It had a bunch of cartoons with tips and facts sprinkled throughout, but I'm just not a cartoon/infographic person. I have no idea if the content or questions were any good.

I really liked how the Kaplan book had a 265 question practice exam along with tons of other questions at the end of the content review chapters (I just did the questions though). I got about a 73% on the 265-question practice test.

Exam Cram had a bunch of questions and terms I never encountered after going through NCLEX Mastery and the Kaplan book, which helped a lot, but the detailed explanations weren't as detailed as I would've liked. Sometimes it seemed like it just said, "C is the correct answer. A, B, and D are not appropriate." However, I did really like how there was a 90-question practice test entirely made up of alternate form questions. I got 72% right on the first practice test and 38% right on the alternate form questions only test. (The book recommends you score at least 77% on the tests before registering for the NCLEX. Oops.)

I did not review any content. I ended up doing about 2,500 practice questions and reading the rationales for the ones I got wrong. I Googled things I didn't remember or hadn't heard of, but I honestly didn't hit content.

Random tip: My best advice for the select alls is to treat each option like a true or false question. Could this happen, or not? Since I didn't review content, I didn't always know whether something applied or not, so I just did my best to make an educated guess.

Exam Logistics

I made sure everything I needed was already in my car beforehand, laid out my clothes the night before, and did a test drive to the testing center the day before. You really only need your ID, but I brought copies of my ATT and testing appointment confirmation just in case. I also brought a water bottle and some snacks in case I went the whole 6 hours.

You pretty much arrive at the testing center, check in, get called up for an ID check, palm vein scan, and photo. You'll also sign consenting that it's okay for them to video and audio record you while you test to make sure there aren't improprieties. Then they assign you a locker. If you brought your phone, they'll have you power it down and then they'll seal it in a plastic bag that they cut open before you leave the testing center for good so you can't access it during breaks from the exam. Then you're called back to the testing center where they check your ID and palm vein scan again before letting you into the test room.

Random tip: If you get cold easily, you can bring a light sweater/jacket, but you have to be wearing it at all times in the test room. If you get hot and have to take it off, you have to raise your hand to be escorted out to leave the sweater/jacket in your locker.

I went to the testing center in Oklahoma City, OK. They provided noise canceling headphones and a separate set of headphones that actually work for when you have audio questions. The white board/marker board is more like a laminated sheet that has directions about how to get a new one on one side and a blank graph paper side for you to use. You aren't given an eraser and can't erase what you've written down with your finger.

There's a short tutorial you go through before you actually access the test that shows you what to expect for every type of question, e.g. how to click on regular multiple choice answers, how to select/un-select multiple options for select alls, making sure your audio headset and calculator work, etc. I thought I read in the directions that it didn't count against your time, but my 6-hour clock definitely started counting down when I started the tutorial.

Thoughts on the Exam Itself

I mostly used my dry erase board to keep track of how many select alls I had since I'd read here that a lot of people who passed got 20-30 of them. I got 20. Sometimes there were 2 or 3 in a row. Other times I just got one and went back to regular multiple choice. I also only got 1 calculation. I got several prioritization questions (at least 5-6), and my last two were both prioritization questions. I didn't get any audio or picture questions.

My test shut off by going to a blank blue screen after I submitted my 75th answer. I left feeling pretty good. My friend who got better grades than I did and took the test the same day left feeling awful after her own 75 questions because she didn't feel 100% sure about more than maybe 5 questions. That got me nervous since I wouldn't bet the farm on most of my answers either, but I knew I was able to eliminate at least 1 wrong answer every time and that I was making educated guesses, not just blindly picking because I had no idea at all.

Overall, I think the practice questions I did were harder than the exam itself, especially the select alls from NCLEX Mastery.

Results

A total of 6 people from my program took the NCLEX at the same testing center on Sept. 2. The Oklahoma Board of Nursing updated at around 3:30am on Sept. 4 with all of our license numbers. I heard from last year's class that their turnaround time was also about 48 hours.

I know of 2 classmates who did the PearsonVue Trick the same day as our test. They submitted their credit card info for the $200 re-registration charge and got the error saying they couldn't sign up for the NCLEX again. They both did end up passing. I didn't do it myself or watch them do it, but as far as I know, the trick still works.