6 days away from NCLEX...... Feeling the nerves hit hard

littleone17 · Jan 14, 2012

Good luck on your upcoming exam! Try some relaxation techniques to take your mind away from the stress and anxiety of NCLEX, tell yourself that "It's just a test to see if I am a safe nurse", you can do this because you have prepared so much for it. Do not forget to breathe during your test, and good luck :) keep us updated..

God Bless..

"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future..."- Jeremiah 29:11.. (everything is planned, so do your best and God will help with the rest)

newstudentrn · Jan 14, 2012

I just took the NCLEX Wednesday and found out yesterday that I PASSED! Please, don't overwhelm yourself with too much studying. It is very hard to be fully prepared for this exam, and you will likely leave the testing center feeling like you failed and guessed your way through it. Take some time to do things that make you happy and will take your mind off of it for a while. Just review some pharm and always remember safety first! Good luck and keep us updated. You can do it!

Delishatarver · Jan 14, 2012

Thanks for the well wishes guys, I am trying to focus on keeping myself calm... I dont really think that I have trouble when it comes to taking test but with this one its just the fear of the unknown. I have also been reading in other post that people have studied using only saunders and failed the test (seeing that is kinda scary I will admit) but I refused to do Kaplan because I didnt feel it was smart to try to change the way I think so late in the game... Hopefully my methods work for me. I tried reading through one of those priority and delegation books but I felt like it was information I already know (since I just took Leadership my last semester) I usually do well on those questions with nclex. I also have been trying to focus on pharm. There are so many darn drugs, it seems impossible to know.... Once I get a drug class down and the common side effects, I will see a drug were I do not recognize the name, generic or trade so that leaves me guessing and I have no idea lol

@newstudentrn: How did you prepare for nclex if you dont mind me asking? Did you tackle it alone or in conjunction with a review course?

Thanks Guys for letting me vent :)

newstudentrn · Jan 14, 2012

I did mostly review questions from a disc that came with The Illustrated Study Guide that was given to my class during a 3 day prep course provided by the school. Tim Bristol was the presenter and he has a website rnnextsteps.com that we were given access to that had some helpful tools. Also, I used "Nclex made incredibly easy Q&A" book and did so many questions I lost count. I didn't sign up for any expensive online review courses like The Hurst Review or anything for the first try. I figured if I had a large deficit and did not pass the first time, then I would go in that direction. Good luck!!! You will do fine, I'm sure!

Delishatarver · Jan 14, 2012

Did you get any peds questions? I have gone over the major complications like pyloric stenosis, intuseception, hirshcprung, sickle cell etc to study that section but I heard not to focus so much on the developmental stages and stuff like that (no desire to be a peds nurse, I love kids but not sick kids :cry: ).... right now Im reviewing acid base balance and will be going back over pharm... I jump around a lot when I study, I get bored super easily :eek:

newstudentrn · Jan 14, 2012

I only had a few peds questions but I have had people tell me in the past that they felt like their whole exam was mother baby. Honestly, I think that everyone gets a different exam so there's no real way to know what areas will be covered. I do think that your jumping around is a good thing though. All of the information you were taught is "fair game" so it's good to be prepared for anything they throw at you.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jan 14, 2012

i taught five of the ten sections of the kaplan nclex review course (all med/surg plus the practice test and review) for several years, and this is what i did when we met for the first one. i was presented with a roomful of nervous new grads, sure that they were gonna fail. so i started out, after introductions, with this question: "tell me about your nursing faculty. pretty easygoing bunch, let you slide on a lot of stuff, pass-fail on your exams, right?" and they looked at me like i was clean out of my mind.

"ok, then. your nursing faculty were tough, made sure you knew your stuff, brooked no sloppy habits, and minimum passing grade was what, 75? 78? you graduated? good, then. they think you're good enough to be a nurse."

then we discussed nclex passing rates. "guesses, ladies? (all females every year i did it)" "50%?" "45%?" nope. in our fair commonwealth, the average pass rate of the grads from all the schools was 97%. you can go online and look yours up-- it’s not a secret and it's not hard to find. there are very, very few accredited schools with pass rates of less than 85%.

then we talked about how the nclex is derived-- from errors made by new grads in their first year of practice, largely. why do new grads make errors? because they jump before they look and don’t think about why they are there. read on.

general testing principles, and how to pick between the two of four answers that both look pretty good: the answer is always the one that makes your patient safer (move him out of the room before you pull the fire alarm, safe positioning before procedures, airway before anything else, privacy is a sort of protection too) or makes you obtain more information (check the labs, check color-circulation-capillary refill,,ask, "tell me more about that," or, "what do you know about a low-salt diet?"), or follows the cabs of cpr. these are all things that if done by a new grad will save a lot of trouble.

never never never choose the answer that turfs the situation to another discipline. they don't want to know what dietary will do, or social work, or hear you say, "you'll have to ask the doctor about that." they want to know what you, the nurse, will do.

then you have to know that in every test there are items that are being trialled to see if they're any good. when you come to a bad item (or a run of items all on the same thing that's not something you ever heard of) or one that is impossible to figure out as above, guess, tell yourself that one will probably be thrown out of the test bank, and move on.

the day before the test, do not study. brain research tells us that is not useful. champion musicians play a little of a new piece on monday, a little more on tuesday, finish it up on weds, and don't look at it until friday, at which time their brain has it settled into a comfortable place ready to access and work with. you have studied, you know stuff. what you do is take some r&r-- go for a hike in the woods, an art exhibit, a swim, a concert. you take a nice hot bath by candlelight. you read a trashy novel. you get a good night's sleep now that you are all tuckered out and relaxed.

the day of your test you open your refrigerator and take out the mayonnaise jar. you read the lid. it says, "keep cool, do not freeze." you go to the testing center, you incipient rn, you.

Isitpossible, LPN, LVN · Jan 14, 2012

im preparing right now with kaplan...grntea, your words are so positive and upbeat! thank you

OP: good luck!

YDRussell · Jan 15, 2012

good luck! i will be in your shoes soon and am so, so nervous--just can't wait for it to be over. my school used ati and their predictor for passing. i logged back in today to do some practice questions; i find the ati questions much easier than kaplan's for some reason--ati's seem very 'content' based, no real application in some of the questions.

@isitpossible, how is kaplan review going? i've been doing qbank questions and averaging a 60-64%, just shy of the 65% that they tell you to aim for. i'm finding it to be kind of discouraging, but i'm plugging along and reading rationales and taking notes.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2012

Listen to GrnTea.

I put off NCLEX for over 2 months. It was absurd. There was no reason. Like the OP, my predictor scores said I would not have a problem. At a certain point you have to call it done and just go take the test. Hopefully sooner than later.

shay&lynn, ASN, RN · Jan 16, 2012

Awesomeness! Best of luck! You will do well, I know it!