Oh, man....I took test this morning, and I'm totally torn up. I could tell partway through (like around 40 questions) that I was screwing up; I got some easy questions....and then some kickass hard questions....so I didn't know what to think! I'd get a couple of questions that seemed "too easy" and I'd tell myself I have to step it up a notch, I'm screwing up....and then I'd see questions that made me think "I'm supposed to KNOW this?!?". Sigh.
Then there were the questions that looked like they were supposed to be easy (or easier) and STILL I didn't know the answer!! I swear I guessed more than anything, and I don't feel comfortable that I guessed correctly. Not at all
I just KNEW when I got to the 60's, 70, this thing was NOT gonna turn off at 75. So I wasn't shocked when it didn't. However, it DID stop at 79! Totally clueless here....the last four questions apparently were enough to tell the computer I know what I'm doing, or I shouldn't get a license! AND, to make me feel worse, I'm pretty sure I got two of the last four WRONG! Although I *think* I got the last one right...
Ok, ok, getting the last one right or wrong doesn't decide. But still, having FOUR questions above the minimum is disconcerting to me. Particularly since I don't have any confidence in answering those last four correctly.
I had two or three math. Not normal dosage, drip rate math. Math for units per ml per hour per minute per....crap, I had NO clue! Was hoping it was "hard enough" that I was still in the ballgame. Actually, two straight maths, one where you had to DO the math (same kind of horrific, convoluted stuff!) to answer a multiple choice correctly.
I had a bunch of meds. Apparently a weak area for me, since I had alot of them. I DID have a lot of prioritizing, such as "who you see first, who you call first" as well as "which procedure do you do first". I had all of one delegation question, and THAT was a weird "reverse" one: you have an RN and an LPN, which pt does the RN get....and THREE of the four choices I wanted to give the RN!!! Checked the question....read it right...only one for the RN.
Not a single blood question (infusing, reaction, etc). A precious few on anything to do with electrolytes (apparently answered these well enough to move on). Three r/t maternity, although one was really a med question. Nothing directly peds, although babies/kids were used in the procedures. Where were the questions on Addisons/Cushings? Psych? I had one. Two or three if you count meds Where were the ABG questions? Not one. What about reading lab values? None...except I had to know the correct range for hematocrit to get one question correct. No blood, no urine values. No MI questions!
I feel totally sick. I'm really ready to cry, I feel like I blew this so badly.
My kaplan scores were great. My practice tests went well. I studied like a fanatic. And yet, after 79 questions, I feel absolutely nauseous.
Thanks so much, pri.....I just feel hopeless, like you described! Can't believe I answered enough "harder" questions to actually pass. Figured the computer needed just a few more wrong answers (#76-79, actually!) to bang the nails down on the coffin of this exam.
Did you feel like you missed easy questions? Did you feel like you had some really wicked hard ones, but then also ones that seemed TOO easy? That's my real fear. I felt like I was getting alot of questions in a couple of areas, and that maybe I couldn't bring my answers up enough to meet standard.
This is really awful! My husband peeled me off the walls, I called him after test was over. Reminded me of passing rate, of how I studied, yada yada. Yeah, but I still feel like I missed too many, and too many simpler ones. I swear, there were so many that felt like I was going in the wrong direction....I don't know what to think anymore.
I won't say "Don't worry" because I know this isn't possible but PLEASE, do remember that we all feel like you did when we leave the test. I certainly did. I passed at around 105 questions and I am sure you passed as well. The only remotely good thing about assuming we fail and being miserable for 48 hours is how you feel when you see the word PASS on the screen. It's overwhelming. I felt such a sense of relief and freedom and I cried in my husbands and daughter's arms. It was a great moment. i will keep my finhers crossed for you-well, maybe it would be easier to say a prayer.
I forgot to mention this in my earlier post: I also screwed up on what I think were "easier" questions. One of them, and I'm embarassed to admit this, was an easy skills question(how to perform a specific skill). But I still passed.
Just remember what myself & several others have said: those of us who have taken the exam have all left with the same feeling(and had to endure it until our results were available)...like we just bombed the biggest test of our lives & watched our nursing career go right down the drain. We've all gone through the post-NCLEX syndrome(nausea, despair, depression, crying, looking up questions & realizing we answered them wrong, etc, etc). I think part of this is because the NCLEX really forces us to use our critical thinking like we've never used it before. Memorizing concepts about Med/Surg issues or lab values isn't enough. And since we're all beginning nurses, that scares the living sh*t out of us. But it doesn't mean we're dumb or didn't review/study well enough.
Keep yourself busy as much as possible for the next 40 some hours until your results are available & continue to have faith in yourself that you did the best job you could & you are still a damn good nurse!! Easier said than done, I know.
I forgot to mention this in my earlier post: I also screwed up on what I think were "easier" questions. One of them, and I'm embarassed to admit this, was an easy skills question(how to perform a specific skill). But I still passed.
This really DID make me feel better, thank you :) I saw questions on catheterization like three times, and I kept thinking "ok, these are NOT hard, am I getting them wrong?" Or, worse, "I can't believe I don't know the answer to this catheterization question!!"
Totally shakes the foundations of hope I was standing on, you know?
Thanks, too, for the kind words. I know everyone (ok, almost everyone, lol, there's always some wingnut who thinks they did great!) felt like this after the test, and the great majority pass it. Praying to be part of the crowd
I got lot of easy questions in between,even though i still wasn't sure of the answers. Whenever i got those kind of questions, it was harder for me to concentrate, thinking this is not good, i am going down hill. There may be just 5 % of peop who felt they did good, but rest of us all have felt there is no way we could have passed. So i totally understand what you are going throu. Thats just the way nclex questions are. But again to emphasize majority of people pass inspite of feeling that way, and you will too. :wink2:
I got lot of easy questions in between,even though i still wasn't sure of the answers. Whenever i got those kind of questions, it was harder for me to concentrate, thinking this is not good, i am going down hill.
EXACTLY! After some questions that seemed like what I'd expect, I'd get some easier questions. That's when I'd tell myself "get with it, step it up, this CAN'T be good"!
I really, really didn't think I'd feel THIS unsure after the test. I mean, ok, I knew I wouldn't think "I nailed it", but this was totally unsettling. I haven't actually cried yet, but boy am I due, lol.....near tears reading POSTS!
And of course my dh has a meeting to be at tonight, so he can't listen to me sob and worry for four hours....lucky HIM
EXACTLY! After some questions that seemed like what I'd expect, I'd get some easier questions. That's when I'd tell myself "get with it, step it up, this CAN'T be good"!
This whole easy/hard thing is where things get so muddled up when trying to analyze the NCLEX. I'd say a person's perception of easy vs hard is influenced by several things: how smart/prepared they are, where their areas of strength lie, etc. Elizabells recently started a thread about this which explains it much better.
Also remember that a significant percentage of the questions (at least 15 questions) are unscored trial questions, so that's going to be where some of the repeats come into play. On my test, I had four questions about the same relatively obscure treatment.
Keep in mind too that the test is designed so that everyone is intended to only get 50% right. That can further alter your perception of the exam since we've been trained all of our academic lives that a 50 is bad!
Bottom line: From seeing you on this message board, I know that you're smart and I know that you were very well-prepared. Barring a complete test day flipout, or some fluke misalignment of the planets, I don't see how you might have failed. If I were a betting man, I'd go with 'pass' all the way on this one.
Bottom line: From seeing you on this message board, I know that you're smart and I know that you were very well-prepared. Barring a complete test day flipout, or some fluke misalignment of the planets, I don't see how you might have failed. If I were a betting man, I'd go with 'pass' all the way on this one.
BALLING now!
Actually, I laughed, then cried. Then laughed again.
I think that most nurses have this OCD, perfectionist quality about them, which works quite well when it comes to med checks, etc. But it's also what makes us overachieving, neurotic students. Lastly, this gem of a characteristic also means that when it comes to a major exam like this, we stress, suffer, worry, overstudy, undersleep, and generally run ourselves face first into the nearest pile of rocks we can find. Figuratively, of course.
Then again, a good rock pile just might do the trick for me here.....
Hang in there everyone. I know it's a long 48 hours. I took mine last June. I felt well prepared and finished in 75 questions and left feeling like a complete moron. I felt like I guessed every single answer. Guess what. I passed. Good luck to all of you.
Hey, i posted a separate thread about my NCLEX experience, but wanted to say I got 75 questions. I am on the fence about how i feel. I don't feel too bad, but not great. Make sense??? LOL I am indifferent, that's what I am. We will see.
Where were the ABG questions? Not one. What about reading lab values? None...except I had to know the correct range for hematocrit to get one question correct. No blood, no urine values. No MI questions!
pri4fun
60 Posts
oops 3rd para text = test