And just like that its over...

I passed!!:) I'm still in shock & can't believe that I can finally call myself a nurse. I took my test on Feb. 20th and once I finished I started hysterically crying in my car. I left that test completely convinced that I failed. I drove home in silence, didn't call anyone, didn't even have my radio on. When I finally got home I went straight to my computer and did the pearson vue trick fully expecting to get the CC page but no, I got the 'good pop-up'. If I could've done a backflip I would but that would have just ended up with me having some broken bones.

So here is what I did:

First thing I did after graduation was give myself 2 weeks off. I graduated in Dec. so I decided I wanted to spend some quality, stress free time with my family during the holidays. The studying didn't begin till Jan. 6th.

I started with Saunders 5th Edition book with CD. I planned to review all the content in the book. Ha!! Have you seen that thing?! There's so much material in that thing there's no way you would be able to retain everything. So I did the 75Q assessment on the CD and focused on my weak areas. Why study what you already know, right?

I started to notice that even while studying the content I would do horribly when answering questions. I felt bummed. That's when my friend said that I need to focus on test taking strategies. So I bought Kaplan 2014-2015 Strategies, Practice and Review w/ practice test. This book was my God sent it helped me read the questions and actually focus on what it was asking & how to narrow down my choices. Once I finished this book, along with the the practice test, I noticed a HUGE improvement on my testing scores. For the 2-3 weeks leading up the NCLEX all I did was practice questions.

In my perspective no amount of studying can ever prepare you for a test like the NCLEX-RN but if you keep calm, stay focused, and triple read the questions you are given, you can do it!

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