After all the complaining, PM's, posts, etc. It was my turn for the Nclex-RN today!

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This is kinda long. But it was my first Nclex-RN attempt, AND LAST!

After the months of reading posts and just lurking around..not to mention making the most random threads about unimportant topics that didn't even show up on my test lol, I finally took my Nclex-RN this morning. Seems like just yesterday I was a student in the student section :). But anyway, I'm gonna be honest about the test. It really was NOT bad at all and I left feeling confident. It shut off at 75 questions after about an hour. I had 19 select all that apply, 1 audio lung sound question, 1 picture question that happened to be a select all that apply. I had about 5 Pharm questions, and they were all drugs that we learned in school.

I had a BUNCH of who would I see first and what's the priority for this or that... And I was saying before the exam, "I hope I don't get any Peds, psych, or OB". Well most of my test was Peds, Psych, and OB...but they weren't bad at all. I did get worried because I didn't get any infection control til the very end and I thought that might not be good. But really, the test wasn't bad if you knew the basics. I was feeling pretty confident as I went..and that kinda had me worried because I read that a lot of people on here who feel good and don't do well. But when it turned off...I was 99.9% sure I did a good job. The way they word the questions, it's NOT tricky. I think that most people are nervous and that's what makes the test seem so bad, so be calm, and it gets much easier. I felt like I was taking just another practice test. Btw...I did do the Pearsonvue trick and got that nice "good pop-up".

My studying went like this:

-I graduated in May, took the rest of May off to relax

-The first week of June, The Hurst was paid for by work so I did that. It's a decent content base, but honestly my test wasn't based on much content. And I felt I already knew 90% of what they taught us during the Hurst review because they simplified it so much. Not saying that others won't have a BUNCH of content based questions on theirs. But the Hurst practice tests were pretty good and it's very simplified...so I DO recommend Hurst if you can get it.

-The famous LaCharity book, I just sat down and did all the questions over a couple of days. My scores ranged from 50% in respiratory all the way to 100% a couple of other chapters. I would say the average score was a 75-80%-ish. It's a good book, very worth getting!

-Someone gave me access to their Q trainers, so I did the first 3 over the course of the LaCharity question days. Scoring an 81% on QT1, 83% on QT2, and 74% on QT3.

-We did take an ATI predictor and it gave me a 98% chance of passing ..and even those who got lower % chance of passing in my class have been passing. I did the ATI practice tests for practice and scored 75-90% on those, so I knew I was good in content.

-And I did have the Saunders book..didn't use it lol. But I did do random quizzes on the CD every now and then. Those questions were pretty good.

-Oh and the Kaplan strategy book, I bought it from Barnes and Noble last Friday to do the questions in the back(and returned today after my test before the refund period was over lol). Those questions were ok too.

All I can say is...don't kill yourself studying. I did the Hurst review, reviewed back over that book for a few hours a day over the course of like 4 days. Did the LaCharity questions over a couple of days, the Kaplan and ATI when I felt like it. I would say I studied maybe 2 weeks total? Most of that time was just doing practice questions in front of the TV(I can't just sit quietly and study).I'll be honest again...I didn't think any one question source resembled the Nclex. Some questions were like ATI, some were like Hurst, some were like LaCharity.

But thank you for all the people who put up with my random PM's and threads to argue about god knows what(sickle cell, precautions, etc lol)

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Thanks for the advice and Congratulations to you! I am taking NCLEX RN in 4 days and am feeling pretty good but must admit I am nervous because I'm not sure what to expect. I have been doing tons of questions and reviewed some unfamiliar diseases I came across in my questions but that's it! I am nervous about the drug questions and of course my weak area like maternity..uggh! I just want this to be over with!! haha..hopefully I will feel the same way you did after the test!

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Good luck.

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I feel the same way, i thought it was okay, not feeling confident about it as much as you do, but i got the good pop up that last 7 times in 12 hours, so crossing my fingers. I got like 8-10 SATA more than 5 pharm like 15 pharm or more some like choose what med to clarify to the doctor like 5 of those, and psych and peds, no ob. Its going to be just random so don't stress to much. The only thing i thought that really helped was LaCharity and i spent four days reading the whole book and doing all the questions. and a week or two of mild saunders brief reading.

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Yeah, I'll give those two a second and a third... don't kill yourself studying! I cannot even begin to list the things I was ready for, and didn't even see. Like late decels and variable decels, and early... nothing on OB for me. 1 priority OB, now that I think about it.

But infection control, THANK YOU SPIDERMAN!!!! is all I can say... oh yeah, and if I had known the "other" name for a certain piece of equipment used with a certain type of precautions *cough* airborne *cough*, I would have gotten #3 right as well. Oh well, the test more than made up for it, as I had A LOT of infection control. What did they even test on back in February, when precautions wasn't a big thing (so they say)? :rolleyes:. I got a lot of pharm questions, too. Way more than I expected... And only one that had a common ending on it, and the question about it was way out in outerspace. And one other one I had heard of, but what I knew about it wasn't a choice. So I punted, of course. And I didn't have any med calcs, bummer, because I rock the house with those!:dncgbby:

I was tallying the number of SATA I had, in order to come back and report. When my computer shut off at 75, I just closed my eyes and prayed, and thanked God for the opportunity to test, and of course, asked Him for the forty-thousandth time to please let this be the only time I would have to take this test, and when I opened my eyes, my wipe off board was gone, along with my earplug wrapper, and there was a woman standing there with a garbage can there for my earplugs. Funny. You'd think that they were watching me or something (hehe they were!)...So I don't know exactly how many SATA I had, but I know it was over 20-something (out of 75, yikes!)

When I got home, I didn't even know my zipcode to send out a letter, no kidding. My brain was erased in that test, I swear. Maybe that's really what's going on in those testing centers! >>

I did Kaplan online, and Saunders, NCLEX 4000, and Exam Cram (although I didn't give it much time at all), and I bought a set of Mosby's med cards that I looked through 1/10th of. I practiced about 3850 questions before this morning. It's a little weird not feeling guilty for not studying right now. Now I just feel guilty because I have to go to work at 0555 in the morning! How awesome will it feel when I am official, and can sign, RN after my name instead of explaining to all of my patients and the other hospital staff why my name has , GN after it! That, my nclexing friends, will be a-mazing!

K, sorry to hijack kgh's thread here, it was just fun to go on the same day and have the same *surreal* experience. Congrats to all of you who tested with me today and are counting hopefully on the validity of the PVT!

God Bless!

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Haha talk alllllllll you want. I gotta be up for work tomorrow too! I can't wait til I switch to nights in a month.

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SSSSSOOOOOOOO glad to not be looking for a job. What a huge blessing!

What kind of nursing are you doing? I am on a neurosciences unit. Think it's gonna rock!

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I'm actually in one of those "Hospitals with a hospital". We have a lot of vent weaning, CHF rehab pts., new Peg placements, dialysis pts, fresh amputations, lots of woundcare...it's basically extended care with the acuity of ICU type pts. Most of our patients are there for about 3 weeks. We get them better enough to go to a nursing home, or their home, or some end up back in ICU. We have 2 floors within the big teaching hospital here in town. But we have our own pharmacy and everything. But I like it because I've gotten to use seriously EVERY skill we learned in skills lab and clinical, great for hands on stuff. I externed there for a while and liked it a lot, glad to be staying. And I'm lookin forward to grad school in the fall, starting on my MSN in education so I can teach clinical. Neuro definitely sounds interesting though!

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