Failed NCLEX for 3rd time... This has to be wrong!

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Please someone help me to decide where to go from here. I have questions about the test I just took. I have now taken my NCLEX 3 times... the first 2 times I took all 265 questions... when I got my scores back I had not done horrible on any particular area... so I decided to do the Hurst review 2 more times and study from the NCSBN website as well as several other books. I took my test for the 3rd time on December 2nd and never felt more confident. I walked in with great confidence and when my computer shut off at 75 questions... I left with even more, which was not the case in either of my previous attempts at this test. Then I get my results that I failed.... how is this possible? I have been studying for almost a year. We were told that high priority questions meant you were doing well, not the case for me. I felt that the majority of my test questions were select all that apply and high priority, and I can honestly say I feel with my whole heart that there has been a mistake. Is it because it's my first time taking this test since it was changed as of April 2010? Where do I go from here... what can I do from here? And is there anyone that can help? 2 options - pay $1350 for remediation, $119 for re-examination, $204 to the FBON and then $200 to take the test or I can pay $350 to NCSBN to request my results from Pearson Vue, $250 to Pearson Vue to pull my test and then $75 dollars per question that I would like to discuss? Either way it's money and time I do not have... but I also am NOT a quitter... evident by what I am about to say.

Since I started nursing school several years ago I have had to fight my way through it. A journey I never was prepared for but a journey I was determined to complete. In my third semester of Nursing school, not only did I find out I was pregnant, but I was also raising my 6 year old little girl, working part-time as a surgical dental assistant, and in school full-time. This was the semester my life was changed forever. I had horrible anxiety with this pregnancy and was sick all day everyday. Two months into it I was told there was something wrong with the baby. Upon further testing and higher level ultrasounds they found she had Choroid Plexus Cysts on her brain and Echogenic bowel... 2 signs of a baby with down syndrome or trisomy 18. I was devastated to say the least but determined not to believe it. With the love and support of my parents and my fiance' and family I was able to stay positive and continue with school, using it as an outlet of distraction to what I was going through. I mean after all, this couldn't be happening to me... I was only 26 years old and had already had a perfectly healthy little girl and an effortless pregnancy. With no more than a few weeks left of my 3rd semester, and after having 2 amniocentesis, I was at home with my daughter, at 25 weeks pregnant when my water broke. In the hospital where I lay upside down for 8 days until an emergency C-Section, when my daughters leg was found hanging out of my cervix, did I deliver a 2lb baby girl, born at 26 weeks and 1 day.

Terrified to say the least and numb from head to toe, I needed an outlet... an escape... something to make me feel some sort of normalcy, something to do that I had control over. I figured I would make school be my outlet. To my surprise I was asked to withdraw from the semester. I was told that I had become a liability and that I needed to focus on and care for my daughter in the NICU, as well as for my 6 year old at home. No one ever asked me how I felt? Or how my 6 year old felt? Or my fiance' felt about giving up something I had worked so hard for. It was all just decided for us. I was confused and angry to say the least. Besides visiting 3 times a day and pumping every 2 hours for a baby I couldn't hold... what more could I do than just love her with my whole heart and pray everyday that she would fight through this. Although I fought to stay in school I did eventually end up withdrawing, only to return the next semester to finish what I had started. I did end up graduating from nursing school in May of 2009. I not only completed school but I did it with a baby at home on a 24 hour heart monitor and a 6 year old who needed more love and attention now than ever.

So I ask this of you... help me find out why fighting for this... my dream of becoming a nurse has been my biggest fight yet. I never wanted to be a nurse because of the money or the benefits... I want to be a nurse because I genuinely care about people and I want to be that nurse that restores dignity to my patients and the nurse that earns the respect and appreciation from their families. I want to be a nurse because I know how it feels to be the patient and I know how the attitudes of those caring for you can affect the way you feel when you are at your lowest point. Laughter and love can be so healing... that along with the knowledge I have gained from nursing school would make me the kind of nurse I would proud to be.

How could I do so poorly on my 3rd try that the computer would shut off at 75? How could answering the rest of the test, an additional 190 questions, not help me bring my score up? How could I feel so confident that I had passed? I can recite the Hurst Review book... so how could this be? And where do I go from here??

Do I fight for this too?

This is my story and I am writing it because this is my dream... and I can't let it go... and I won't quit.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I am sorry that you've had a tough time of it lately and wish you the best of luck in getting your life back in order. My recommendation would be to invest in the remediation.

The fact that your school wanted you to take time off suggests to me that your performance there was falling below their standards ... which in turn suggests that you didn't have a good learning experience and develop as strong a foundation as you should have. That seems like the most likely explanation for your inability to pass the NCLEX. Spending tons of money to look at individual test questions won't help that. You would quickly rack up a bill that would be greater than the cost of remediation. The action most likely to help you develop a stronger nursing foundation would be the remediation course. But that's just my opinion.

I wish you the best of luck in whatever option you choose.

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my heart goes for u girl,,,, never give up , never!!

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You need to be persistent. If you don't give up, you will pass. Good luck on being successful on your next try.

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I can do everything through christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. (Matthew 7:7)

The Lord replied "write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

You need to keep faith and have trust in God. Write down the revelation, confess the good success over your life and your family. God said write it make it plain on tablets. IT WILL CERTAINLY COME AND WILL NOT DELAY! So write on a plain paper I'm a RN or LPN whatever you studied and place it in the bible in the scripture (Habakkuk 2:2). It will come to pass! Pray, fast, and sow a seed. God is with you!

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Thanks for your advice and had I not received letters of recommendation from all my clinical instructors I would feel the same way... which is why I am at a loss. In every clinical I was in I was completely comfortable and at the end of each received the letters of recommendation to put in my resume...

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As for studying, get a nursing review on audio that you can listen to over and over everyday, review saunders, incredibly made easy, and kaplan books. Practice at least 100 questions a day. And pray, pray,pray!

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If you really feel like you passed then maybe you should request to see results. But let me say this that God has your plan mapped out for you already and when its time for you to pass nclex then it will happen.

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kec1281,

i'm sorry to hear that! you will definitely be in my prayers tonight. if you dont mind me asking, what books and reviews did you use? maybe you need new reviews to help you through this. god's hasn't brought you this far to let it all end now! keep your head up and keep trusting.

don't forget to let me know what you used, i may be able to offer you more advice.

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I did the Hurst review... and then attended 2 extra live reviews... I have Saunders, NCLEX Bullets and 3 of the new 2010 books... as well as the NCSBN website. I can honestly recite the book and I feel confident in what I know... which is why I am just so confused..

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I would suggest visiting the random facts page and the lacharity book. I took the test in September (failed 265q) and I was devastated. I stuck my head in the Lacharity book and reviewed over the random fact file before taking my test. I just took my test on the 3rd of December and most of my test was "Select All That Apply" questions. :mad: That lacharity book prepared me for my prioritization and delegation questions that I had such a hard time with on the first test. I highly recommend it to everyone I know in nursing school.

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Maybe it's test anxiety, you can go to your doctor and discuss with him antianxiety meds Also one thing I notice is that some people I know said the nclex was hard and that they think they failed. Then they find out they passed. Then some say they felt good about the test and then they find out they failed. I think the people who say it's hard, were passing more difficult questions. The people who said they felt good, were dropping down to easier questions because maybe they kept missing difficult one's. So maybe this is what happen with you. But it won't hurt to check your test. We fall down but we get back up. Just pray and ask god to lift you up.

May the lord be with you!:)

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