Failed NCLEX... Now what?

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Hey everyone,

I took the NCLEX-RN exam this past Saturday and found out this morning I didn't pass. When I initially found out, I was in extreme denial. But as the day has gone on, I've been having feelings of anger and sadness come in waves. However, after talking to some friends and family, I have come to realize that just because I didn't pass the NCLEX the first time around doesn't mean the world is going to end. I can always take it again and give myself another chance at becoming an RN.

A little bit of background on my nursing education, how I prepared for the NCLEX, and what happened during my exam. I went to a small school in the Midwest and graduated in May of 2015 with my BSN. My nursing program has always been known to be very prestigious and selective, with the first-time pass rate on the NCLEX consistently being any where from 95-100% within each class the past couple of years. I was never the best student in my class and I know I could have studied more throughout my time in college, but I definitely graduated thinking I had learned so much from my nursing program and prepared to be a Nurse in the "real world".

My nursing program used Kaplan and we started using it our sophomore year in the program. At the end of each semester, we would take the lovely Kaplan exams based on what classes we were taking that semester. I would usually get in the 60s, sometimes 70s on these exams, but I know some of my class mates got in the 80s and 90s. Not sure if this is realistic or not! Before graduation, we each took the Secure Predictor exam which I hear is the newer version of the Diagnostic exam. I was told I had a 95% chance of passing NCLEX the first time. Once I graduated, I took the Kaplan review course immediately and found this to be very helpful. However, over the course of the summer, I have to say I barely studied. I'm assuming this is what led me to fail the NCLEX. I would do some Q-Bank questions here and there, but that was all.

As for my actual exam, my test shut off at 75 questions, which makes me feel like I shouldn't even be a Nurse at this point. I had a fair amount of SATA questions, maybe 6. I had a lot of prioritization questions, but no delegation of anything of that sort. I had one calculation question that was really easy. Other than that, I've tried to block most of this exam out of my memory. I felt like I was getting some more basic questions in the middle of the exam (i.e. what would you look for after this surgery), so I was getting that feeling that I didn't pass. Sure enough, I ended up failing.

I guess my question is... Now what? Obviously, I'll need to study my butt off so that when I take this exam again in 45 days I'll be 100% ready. But I was thinking about working as a CNA in the mean time. I don't have my CNA license because my nursing school didn't require it, but since I graduated with my BSN, it's hard for me to believe that it would be difficult to get this. I just need to have some source of income in the mean time, since the job opportunities I had lined up will more than likely go down the tube now.

If any of you nurses out there have any tips or even just words of encouragement, I'd appreciate anything at this point! Us nurses have to stick together! Thanks for reading until the end!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Welcome to AN!

You should receive a candidate performance report in the mail. This can help you determine your areas of weakness- was it just certain areas or all of them? That information can help guide you to how you should proceed (focus on the weak areas vs. overall review).

This site explains the CPR and also provides links to a sample. (If the link doesn't work, go to ncsbn.org and search for CPR- for some reason I kept getting error messages)

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no one is perfect. you fail it sucks. it ruins everything in your life and we start to overthink everything and become angry at the world, but it is our way of coping to become better. we learn from mistakes and will eventually overcome it.

Hey it took me 3 times dangit. haha. What I think is the best way is to relax for a week clear your mind, start understanding what is your weakness. in sections like healthcare and maintenance, safety and all that crap.

kaplan is ok but rationales do suck.

saunders has good rationales, but what I absolutely love is elsevier adaptive quizzing. the rationales are good and it helps me choose questions into categories and keeps up with my progress. it builds your self confidence up also. A nurse also gave me a judy miller nclex review and that really helped me in understanding the questions.

Basically what I am saying is. first you need to understand the questions, once you learn the style of reading questions and answers things get easier.

second read rationales because a lot of answers are in the rationales and help break down a questions more easier and you learn more in the content.

third don't second guess and read to much into the question. it is actually a easy test if you just step back a little and see the patterns. goodluck it is doable

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I too was in denial with waves of different emotions when I found out I did not pass about 2 weeks ago. I also had 75 questions. What helped me was to take a break from studying for a week and then slowly getting back into it. I found that my experience was an opportunity for personal growth as it was a very humbling experience. I realized that my experience is not for nothing and I took some serious time thinking about what went wrong. For me, it was the way I was approaching the question and I did not have a solid strategy. If one method didn't work that good, change the plan but never the goal. Do not give up, take the time you need to recover. Time heals and your nursing journey has not ended with this test. I hope you feel better.

I highly recommend uworld as it has great rationales and good practice questions.

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