Failed NCLEX to Prevailed over NCLEX..Heres my story

19 Posts

I graduated a B+ student with a BSN in May and studied a book by Loretta Manning called "How to pass". I frequently did ATI practice questions every day. I was confident that 4 years of schooling would probably be enough and those were just backup. Around June I got a job offer as a nurse on a Surgical floor in a hospital I was really interested in working in. Partly because my girlfriend got a job on the floor above me and partly because it is in a great city. However, the day i was signing a apartment lease I found out I failed NCLEX so there goes every great idea about a future I had. I failed. In 75 questions. I couldnt believe it. 75 meant to me that I didnt know squat and that if I ever passed NCLEX again I would have a ton to go.

So after that I committed myself to 4-8 hours of studying every day until September 12th my retest day. I studied the following materials:

Hurst Review (Watched lectures twice)

Kaplan Content (Refered to this book/Lectures alot)

Kaplan QT trainers ( scores: 67,68,54,60,57,60,56)

Kaplan online course trainer

ATI Comprehensive review (copied the whole book)

Mosbys Maternal (This was my weak area)

NCLEX mastery app(I would do 20-30 of these every night before falling asleep)

**PS Hurst ended up having several of their answer banks wrong in the practice questions. I emailed them in but Kaplans are MUCH more reliable.

I literally buried myself in my studies though. I made posters of EVERYTHING. They are all over my room still: infection control; personality disorders; drugs; maternal complications; neonate complications, etc.

I was so emotional and unstable. I would get a 68 on the QT and think I was doing alright then get a 54 the next day and be on my bedroom floor gloating over the 4% above 50. I found that going for a long jog often helped me battle this. I would say to myself, if I can beat this 6 miles then I can beat a 5 hour test. I made myself disciplined to wake up, work out, study, run, study, sleep.

*****HERES WHERE I KICK NCLEX's GLUTES******

The day of the exam I drove my car up to the testing center which was 3 hours away so I listened to a lecture on Pharm on the way up. I got to my hotel, shaved my patchy old depressed NCLEX cave man beard and ordered some food. I studied for maybe an hour just cause I was addicted to it.

I slept on and off about every 3 hours NCLEX eve. But I was wide awake the morning of (I set 4 alarms). I did some push ups, some squats, took a shower, coffee, breakfast and gatorade before leaving. I arrived on time and sat down to take the test. The headphones they gave me absolutely sucked so i wore them like a headband. 1hr and 30 mins into the test I was at question 50 and my time for a break had been allotted then. I had already had at least 10 SATAs. Of course my bowels were taking a beating from my nervous heart so I used the mens room and returned.

This time the man gave me some heavy duty headphones that I use to drum with so DO ASK FOR THOSE: that way you dont hear people with nervous bowels (like me) next to you.

I was on question 74 for maybe 10 minutes, I had 3hours and 30 mins to take the test and I just wanted to get to 76 so I could say I got further than last time. But it shut off. I was shocked. Oh well. I went out to my car and my girlfriend of 6 hours away had surprised me. I didnt do the trick or anything until the night before getting unofficial results.

The night before getting unofficial results was probably the worst sleep Ive gotten over worrying for the NCLEX so I decided to do the PVT despite what I heard of it not working. I got the good pop up so it helped me sleep. In the morning I woke up at 9, paid the 8 dolla and BAM pass. IN 75!!!

General Tips:

1. Stay Active --->Dont Get fat

2. Study your weak areas until they are strong areas

3. Know infection control precautions/transmission/duration. *See Allnurse NCLEX studyguide

4. Do something daily that you love (for me this was talking to my girlfriend/Playing guitar)

5. Schedule your studies, schedule practice tests, schedule free studies down to the minute so you dont waste your day away.