Passed NCLEX-RN on August 31, 2010

Hello all,

I posted about a month and a half ago about my first NCLEX-RN attempt and how I failed. Well, I retook the exam on Tuesday and found out this morning that I passed! If you have not read my previous thread and want to, it's here: Failed NCLEX-RN - need help indentifying weaknesses - Nursing for Nurses

I did the Pearson Vue Trick on both attempts and it was accurate. Not saying it is 100% accurate, but seems to be accurate for the majority of people.

For the first attempt, I took the Hurst Review course and did 1,000 practice questions. I got 265 questions on the test and received near passing on all my categories. For the second attempt, I did 5,000 + practice questions and read strategy books. People tell you that eventually you feel confident about taking the exam. I didn't believe them at first and thought "How will I ever feel confident about this test? It's so difficult!" However, on Sunday I finished up my final studying and took Monday off. I did feel confident about taking the test again. My test was at 2 pm, so I had plenty of time to sleep in, eat breakfast and lunch, and get to the testing center with an hour to spare. It is very important that you schedule your test at the right time of day. If you did good on your predictor tests in nursing school, look to see what time of day they were scheduled. I passed all of mine and they were scheduled for 1-3 pm. My first attempt was at 8 am, so that was definitely not so good.

So I showed up to the testing center and checked in. I did the tutorial and got to the 1st real question. Before I answered anything, I wrote down all my mnemonics on my eraser board, as well as my drug math formulas. The mnemonics can be found somewhere within this website... they were infection control. Then I began answering questions. I went to question 35 and took a break. During my break, I ate a Snickers bar and drank some Gatorade. I also did some stretches and tried monitoring my heart rate.

I went back in and had planned to take another break at question 76, but my test stopped at 75. I came home and tried the PVT an hour later and got the good pop up.

Anyone who has been through an accredited nursing program can pass NCLEX... it just takes determination and hard work. It might not happen the first time, or the second, or the third and so on and so forth... but I am a firm believer that if you want to accomplish a goal bad enough, you will do so. You must believe this is true to pass and not just say you can pass, but believe it.

:dancgrp:

P.S. There are a multitude of strategy and review books, so you can use pretty much anything you like and find comfortable/understandable. I used NCLEX 4000, Saunders, Mosby, and Kaplan.