Another success story

[norynne328]

Hey everyone,

I've been following the forums for the past two years now but have only posted a few times. This community was really helpful for me during nursing school and preparing for my NCLEX. I just wanted to share my experience in hopes it might help someone, like the stories of others helped me.

I took my NCLEX for the first time yesterday (10/1/14) and ended at 75 questions. I SWORE I failed it. Over half of my exam was SATA - and I have always been horrible at SATA. I spent the rest of the day being nervous and trying to distract myself and checking the state licensing board every few hours. I checked this morning (10/2/14) when I woke up - still nothing and I told myself to simmer down and just wait until tomorrow to pay for Quick Results. Of course 1 hour later, I checked again anyway and I saw NULL AND VOID next to my Temporary Practice Permit, then looked up and saw REGISTERED NURSE next to my name.

I can't tell you enough how many times I did not think I would make it to this point! I did an accelerated 15 month program that sucked my blood and soul away. It was difficult, but I made it through. I studied a lot throughout the program - I wish I was a person who could learn something once in class and not think about it again until taking the exam. My grades were okay (B's mainly), nothing stellar and I even had a C and C+ thrown in there.

At the end of our program, we had a 4 day Kaplan in-person class that was included in our tuition. It was super boring and I spent most of the time on Pinterest or gchatting with friends. I think it was a waste of our time. BUT the Kaplan study plan is what I followed to study for my NCLEX. I used the 30-day plan and followed it pretty much to a T, until the week leading up to my NCLEX. I completed all of the Kaplan QBank questions (over 1000 questions) and all 7 of the QTrainers. Our Kaplan lady had told us to aim for over 65% on all the QBanks - Most of my QBanks were in the mid-to-high 50s, with a few 40s, 60s, and 70s thrown in. I read on Allnurses not to get discouraged if you weren't hitting high marks on the Qbanks - instead to focus on understanding the rationales and that is exactly what I did. I had a notebook and after each QBank I went through and wrote down information from the rationales. The study plan schedules certain days for you to go back and review the notes you took. Plus I would bring this notebook everywhere - dentist, train, out to lunch - to review it whenever I had free time. I had purchased the Saunders book but did not use it much. I also rented Lippincott's Alternate Format book but that didn't help me much because the questions were just too hard for me. Oh - I also found the 35-page study guide floating around here to be helpful - especially with the Airborne v Droplet v Contact precautions because I could not remember that for the life of me!

So that's my summarized story. I wish the best of luck to anyone who is getting ready to take their NCLEX and I believe that you can do it!

[GodmademeRN]

congratulations! will take mine tomorrow.. May God bless you more success :))