Completed kaplan classroom course AND...failed in 75 questions

texasmaleRN · Jul 29, 2011

More info...sorry about giving you guys so little info.

Background info:

I'm going to be very honest...no BS!

Terrible student in nursing school...could barely remember what I read (and I read...ALOT)...Always have been a VERY distractable person I can barely pay attention or sit still at church...I remember literally reading the entire book and still being completely clueless about the material( my exam results seemed to NEVER be representative of how much I study regardless of the discipline)...Always seem to get psyched out in school...barely passed on my second time around (I failed out first semester last time, lots of external problems)/I've always had trouble with the academic environment for some reason (unlike my other siblings, Im a middle child/ my sister graduated nursing school with honors/took kaplan and passed in 75 questions) (/always got written up as a child all the way until the 8th grad. May also have adhd (but is still not a valid excuse). Somehow I made an A in organic chemistry ***** Basically the only nursing course I did well in were jurisprudence and psych. Graduated in may 2011, immediately put in for my ATT --> got $$ and signed up for the (initial) kaplan classroom review course scheduled for mid july. About 2 weeks later I set my date for the nclex (big mistake!).

Kaplan review course/prep materials experience:

-Pretty much registeterd b/c what I read off of here and my older sister's success with the course.

-Most of kaplans questions are application/analysis level.

-Basically outside of the first day you do nothing but questions (about 55-60 per individual session).

-Could barely keep focus in class throughout the questions...KAPLAN PROBABLY NEEDS TO SHORTEN THE LENGTH OF THEIR QUESTIONS (WHY? NCLEX WILL NOT BE LIKE THIS! It will mirror the question trainers moreso than the classroom questions/qbank in word length. But will be very hard like the qbank though!)

-As stated earlier I registered for the june session....but it got cancelled...*****??? *****????? ***//// the kaplan guy called me and told me and gave me rescheduled dates either take the online session without the classroom (about 1.5 weeks later) or the take the july session which would start about a little bit more than 2weeks before my actual NCLEX date. The kaplan guy highly suggested me taking the online kaplan class (Which I should have done maybe I would have passed nclex!) But I foolishly opted for the later classroom course.

-Two week course, M-Thr...basically imagine 6 intense 3 hour med surg lectures just like nursing school scattered with tidbits that only kinda leave you more confused.

-Nice instructor...kept saying over and over that we should be making at least 60% and above on EVERYTHING.

-Basically a massive cram session of board exam strategies and tactics plus doing in class questions. Many of the other students were just as confused as I was! yikes! Many of the students had previously failed nclex-rn something like 3-4x according to my instructor...but had studied on their own and had not used kaplan!

-Took a bunch of caffiene...studied alot at rice u/a bunch of other places

-diagnostic: 40%

-qbank average:45%

-qtrainers: 1-3: 46-49%, qt#4: 45, skimmed through qt#5&6, qt#7: 52%

-readiness exam: 44.5% (taken around the end of the classroom course)

-Videos: Completed all the orientation videos,

-Overall I felt it was me and not the kaplan course...the course is well worth the money...helped me pinpoint that its mainly the gaps in my core content mastery that doom me to failure not necessarily strategy and tactics (theres no substitute for core content mastery ladies and gentlemen).

Actual nclex experience:

-Had a very bad feeling right before the test started during the tutorial session.

-Didnt like the pearson sign in session, kinda felt like I was about to be incarcerated.

-Brain turned to mush by the 25th question I thought I was still taking kaplan questions...I could never really think straight thoughout the entire testing experience (still kind of recovering from barely completing question trainer #7 at 2am the morning of the test day).

-I could barely decipher which topic/discipline I was being asked much of the time unlike the kaplan questions...maybe that's part of why I failed...couldn't really get past step 1 of the decision tree.

-Lots of PRIORITIZATION, OB (my worst area), safety and infection control, "compatible roomates", only about 5 SATAs, teaching and learning (ie. evaulating statements)

-Pearson proctor lady..."cool looks like you had a short test"

-Immediately went home...did PVT...took me to the cc page and sure enough earlier today my failure was confirmed. Failed in 75 questions

Overall lessons learned:

-Cramming doesnt work...If you don't allow yourself enough time regardless of the method used...you will have problems. I FELT SO FREAKING RUSHED AND COMPLETELY SELF-DESTRUCTED during the nclex...read into the questions...kinda just like nursing school

-kept getting distracted by noises in the testing center

-If you dont understand the decison tree...you will have problems

-If you are indeed taking a review course allow yourself enough time to actually fully process the materials and more importantly review each and single wrong answer and their rationales (which I did neither of...due to time constraints). I NEVER REALLY GOT TO SEE WHAT THE RIGHT ANSWERS WERE AND WHY OUTSIDE OF THE NCLEX CLASSROOM COURSE...DUE TO THE CRAMMING B/C OF TIME CONSTRAINTS.

-Don't even THINK about setting ANY date for the nclex unless you are consistently making at least 62-70% on your practice exams (funny how kaplan ONLY tells you this after you have already paid them and in the middle of the actual classroom course).

-Don't psych yourself out so much that you blanjk and do something really stupid...like completely forget to write out the decision tree on your white board like me!

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MAN IT SUCKS ASS KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE TO CALL UP YOUR FAMILY AND TELL THEM THAT YOU FAILED! I HAD HONESTLY BELIEVED THAT I PASSED...UP UNTIL THE PVT. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES AND STUDY HARD GUYS. THERES NO SHORTCUTS OR SUBSITUTES FOR TRULY KNOWING THE CORE CONTENT. HONESTLY THE KAPLAN DECISION TREE WASN'T ALL THAT IMPRESSIVE AND PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THEIR MASS MARKET PREP BOOKS.

texasmaleRN · Jul 30, 2011

Started going through my saunders review book and re-reviewing the NCSBN test plan.

fmAtoZ&backagain · Jul 30, 2011

sorry to hear about it. do not give up.

i think you see what you need to change to improve, take your time. studying content i think is the first step, it would be great to consider a 3-6 months just for content, 1 day off per week, study 3-6 hrs or more per day, focus in basics more than questions. saunders sounds like is the 1st and main book to do that in my humble opinion. lacharity to complement, the whole book. if we do not perform at least 60 on the kaplan test, consider check other tests, scoring 70-80%, otherwise consider holding taking the test for another month or two, or reschedule. people with strong background can do that, going with risky under 60%, but some of us, will be better to hold the test for what i seeing with people here.

do not give up! do not stop studying, is hard when you fail and feel like giving up and take time to return to hit the books... not good, make it worse or at least more difficult. start today! as you wrote previously.

caliotter3 · Jul 30, 2011

The best of students also fail, so don't be too hard on yourself. Keep at it, and you will pass. Good luck on your retry.

india37 · Jul 31, 2011

Don't ever give up you can do this just believe in yourself and have faith...your one step away from completing your journey...god bless

texasmaleRN · Jul 31, 2011

THANKS YOU GUYS