Assessing Readiness for the NCLEX

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I am scheduled to take my NCLEX-RN in less than 48 hours. I was wondering how you determined your readiness to take the test. I understand that it is common to panic and feel like you aren't ready, even if you actually are. My concern is that I may not be quite ready. I don't feel like my practice test scores reflect what I can be capable of. Did any of you push your exam back by a week? Do you think it helped? Was it useful to have the extra time to calm your nerves? Or did it just prolong the anxiety? Did any of you have extreme anxiety/lack of focus/fuzzy head and decide to just jump in and take it anyway? What was your experience?

I did well in school and my school has a great pass rate. I consistently had some of the highest Kaplan scores in my class. I took the Kaplan review and the strategies worked. I did well on my Kaplan readiness test. But, that was over a month ago.

Since then, I took a few days to relax. I sent my son off to boot camp. I had prepare for Christmas and attend to my duties as a mother. Then I got the flu, which really sapped all my brain power. It took 2 weeks to feel like myself again. That seriously impacted my study time. Now, I feel like I forgot so much and my recall of material is terrible! I am doing practice questions through Kaplan, and even using the decision tree, I am scoring only around 50%. Some of this I can attribute to anxiety. Objectively, I have not put in sufficient studying time. I don't doubt my abilities, I just have doubts at this particular moment!

I am considering postponing it for a week (but no longer than that!) I believe it would be better to wait a week and pass, than take it now and risk not passing. I have a job lined up, and I start the end of February. If I did not pass, I won't be able to start work until April. If I postpone by a week, it will not affect my current start date. On the other hand, I really just want to get it out of the way! There is no guarantee that any other test dates are available.

Friends and family mean well when they tell me, "You're smart. You got this!" But that really does not help. I don't think they understand how the test works or the timeline and cost of re-testing. I'm not saying that I'll never pass. I know I will and I know I will work to become a great nurse. I really don't need a pep talk. I'm not freaking out because I'm not confident. It is just raw reality that I may not actually be prepared and could use a few days to sharpen my mind. I just need to hear from those of you who:

Postponed a few days and it helped

Postponed a few days and felt the same

Didn't think you were ready, but took it anyway

Thank you for listening! It helps to purge the negative thoughts and move on.

Back to studying.

-A

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care.

I think it is normal to question whether one is ready or not. Yet if you push it off, push it off, you may get to the point of forgetting too much content et al. Schedule once, put in the study time, relax completely the day before and morning of, eat a good breakfast and take the exam (my opinion).

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I just took the NCLEX and honestly way overprepared for it - I wish I had the study time back. Don't postpone - seriously - I wish I had three weeks of my life back!!

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Congrats :) what materials did you use & how did you prepare for NCLEX?

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Haha, I don't know if "prepare" is the right word, since I don't feel prepared! I used Saunders and NCLEX Mastery (casually) and Kaplan was my main study platform. I started studying about 3 weeks ago. (I had the flu the week before, and my fever brain was not compatible with studying. So there was a whole week lost.) I had it in my mind that successful candidates studied 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week, doing about 250 questions, including remediation and content review. But realistically, it was more like 2-6 hours a day. 2 weeks prior, I was so flustered at not living up to the "ideal" standards of studying that I think it hindered my efforts. And then I started to panic, which really messed with my mindset!

On here, I've read plenty of people saying that Kaplan was harder than the NCLEX. But graduates from my school say that the NCLEX was considerably harder. So, who knows? I think that is too subjective to determine. I am hoping I fall into the category of those who think Kaplan was more difficult.

I did not reschedule my test day, so I'm still on for tomorrow! I just have to trust my abilities and utilize the decision tree.

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Do you feel that the test was easy? Did you use Kaplan. A couple friends took it last week and said it was really difficult but passed.

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TX2015: Do you feel that the test was easy? Did you use Kaplan. A couple friends took it last week and said it was really difficult but passed.

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I passed in 75 questions! I wouldn't say it was easy, but it wasn't intimidating. I think it was a combination of Kaplan and the quality of education I received. My school puts a lot of effort into ensuring its students are NCLEX-ready upon graduation.

I used the decision tree and that helped me to remain focused and methoducal rather than flustered and rushed. I spent some time psyching myself up beforehand. I thought of all the tests I had already passed up to this point. I thought of times when I had worked really hard and faced something challenging and succeeded. (I looked at a picture of myself after my first 10K last fall!) I just told myself that the knowledge, skill, and ability to succeed is already in me. Even if my recall was not great, it was all material I was familiar with. I think having a positive mindset helped!

Will you be taking yours soon?

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