Afraid Of Failure

[Renna86]

Hello everyone, I'm going to give you a little background. I graduated nursing school in December 2020. I started out an honor roll and ended up barely passing. I was in a fast track online program and I found it very difficult and felt I didn't learn anything. After graduating I went through some difficult personal experiences and I never took the NCLEX. I've now been graduated for 2 years and I started studying today for the NCLEX and after about 20 questions I just broke down. My anxiety level was out the roof. I need to pass this for myself, for my husband, and for my and our future. I purchased the Kaplan program. I don't have much of a support group, no friends, and the only family is my husband's family and there's a language barrier there. I guess I'm looking for advice or input. How do I pass this after not studying for 2 years? Any advice? I want to take the exam in February. I'm trying to avoid the new Next Generation NCLEX. Does anyone know if we graduated before this year if we are grandfathered in for the old NCLEX or do we have to take the new one once it starts in April next year? Thank you everyone. I have not given up hope, just don't know where to begin.

[FiremedicMike, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

It’s probably going to depend on when you schedule your test.  If you take it before April, you’ll probably be on the old test.

I’ll say this - there was a chunk of the new style practice questions at the end of my NCLEX and I am so glad I didn’t have to take the new test. 

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

Many students swear by UWorld.  I used it and loved it.  Tons of questions and the rationales are superb.  But you would need to get going on that now and start doing questions daily, if you're trying to beat the Next Generation deadline.

Archer Review, which also has many questions like UWorld, is probably the closest thing to the current way NCLEX questions are set up. It also costs way less than UWorld. Archer does look "cheap" and sometimes there are even missing words in the questions, but it mimics NCLEX very well.  The difference between UWorld and Archer is UWorld tends to give you a lot of "clues" in the questions it has, while the Archer questions are somewhat more vague, just how NCLEX is.  The Archer Review does not have great explanations/rationales like UWorld does.

You may want to go to each of the websites because I believe they may offer a free trial of like 25 questions or something to see if it's something you might want to use.

Also, you don't get grandfathered in for NCLEX .  

Good luck to you!

[Natasha A., CNA, LVN]

Please take your time. 

First take pretest and see where you are. Review nursing theory orem and Maslow nursing process in your fundamentals book..Listen to mark k priority audio on YouTube, read any test taking strategy book and have your nursing diagnosis book ? handy ..then learn to dissect the question from a test bank...Get any test question bank with good rationales and get the priority assignment test questions book... learning how to dissect the question with the new knowledge from test taking strategy, Maslow, and priority book. This should be a time to really go slow to read questions. Do not start answering questions yet ..just learn how to dissect. See what the question is asking, see what only key knowledge you need to answer the question  and see what words or phrases are in the question, etc.  Next get a large study schedule calendar and practice daily with flashcards and actively review until test date.. Take your time.

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

If you take all the time you need to study, you’ll be more successful than if you try to rush and cram so that you can take the old version of the test. If it were me, I would not worry about the new NCLEX. I would slow way down and put together a schedule for studying that would allow me to learn the material— the actual concepts, not trying to master the types of questions on the exams.