I took the NCLEX-RN on 7/6 at 8AM. I slept for only 5hrs prior d/t anxiety. I woke up with an upset stomach, didn't eat or drink anything which I know was bad. It was like my mind completely shut off to everything except for NCLEX questions.
The day before the test, I worked from 10:30-3:30pm. I didn't relax after, all I did were UWorld questions and my last practice exam which stated I had a very high chance of passing. However, I felt like I was only partially prepared.
How I studied: I only studied for 5 weeks inconsistently before the exam. The first two weeks I probably only did 50-75 UWorld questions every two days or so. After that I started doing 75 questions every other day. The last 2 weeks I did 100+ questions a day. I always read the rationales and I even went back on some of the ones I got incorrect. I was averaging in the 50-60% range. But now I know that I should've studied with the TIMED mode instead of the tutor mode. I knew I wasn't doing enough to prepare and before I knew it, test day was here.
Right before the test, my classmate told me our other classmate just passed with 265 questions. I was shocked because I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't do any "research" on the exam prior because I didn't want to freak myself out even more.
Then in it happened to me. I went all the way to 265 in 5hrs. At first I thought "why me." Then I thought "this would happen to me." I felt that I had a lot of SATA. I didn't take any breaks because my anxiety was so high that I just wanted it to be over. My stomach was killing me and every time I placed my hand on my neck or arm, I could feel my pulse bounding rapidly. I felt like I was just answering each question with no confidence. I wish I utilized more the dry erase board they gave. But I went blank. I don't know what happened.
After the test, I was still blank. I walked out of the building to my car, feeling like I was starting to have a panic attack and the first person I called was my mom. I started bawling and told her it was hard. I kept saying "I'm sorry" to her and "please don't be mad if I failed." (My mom is a nurse for about 40 years now.) I thought she would get mad that I was going to spend another $200 to retake it or that I work too much. Surprisingly, she was super understanding and kept telling me why would she be upset and that she knew I did my best. I know I didn't know my results yet, but I just felt like a failure. She kept telling me to not worry and to just pray.
Once I got home, all I did was look up people's experiences with NCLEX and the PVT. I saw that a lot of people passed with 265 questions which gave me some confidence. The wait became excruciating even though it had only been 4 hours since I had ended the exam. I couldn't wait anymore and gave in to the PVT and got the good pop-up. I immediately started crying because as much as I hoped for it to really mean I passed, I knew that it wasn't 100% accurate and that I needed to wait.
So here I am now about 24 hrs after I started the exam. Waiting. Like most people. I couldn't sleep again and my stomach still hurts. I'm still going to study and practice UWorld questions pass or fail just because I want to keep my brain thinking. UWorld's format is really similar to the NCLEX, but I felt that the NCLEX was trickier.
I just wanted to share my experience and maybe one day I can look back at this post and laugh. Hopefully tomorrow I can update it and say that I'm an RN.
Best of luck to those taking the NCLEX and congrats to all the new RNs. This journey we go through is definitely not the easiest, and it's nice to know that we can understand each other and reflect on our experiences together.
