Failed nclex for the 1st time

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Hello everyone. So I want to talk a little bit of my nclex experience. It shut off at 95 and I walked out of there knowing I completely bombed it. I felt like I knew most of the content that was given to me but was lacking test taking strategies. The nclex is not black and white and it's not going to give you what you're looking for. During the exam, I would either narrow it down to 2 answers or could not for the life of me choose the best answer at all. It could also have been anxiety/nerves as I couldn't sleep the night before and felt like my heart was about to pop out of my chest, plus I had no appetite before I took the exam. I only used Uworld and Mark Klimek. Although I should of went over Mark K.'s audios twice as I started forgetting his tips. I was averaging around a 56% on Uworld and had a very high/high chance of passing on both assessments. I have done all the Uworld questions. Maybe I need to try another program like Kaplan? What are your suggestions?

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So sorry to hear this. But since you said you got very high chance of passing nclex on Uworld, I think that nerves got to you and that you actually know the material. I would suggest that you continue to do practice questions, and to go back over the questions that you struggled with on Uworld. And definitely relax your brain a day or 2 before you take it again! You'll be ok.

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I would consider Hurst for content, strategies, and questions there's a reason why Hurst is a popular NCLEX Prep Course. When I was studying I began to understand "why" I was selecting an answer. The NCLEX itself is going to appear like it's all over the place and it did my first two attempts at my NCLEX PN but the third attempt even though going the whole 205 questions I felt like doing Hurst paid off greatly. I was doing questions until the day before and even the morning of my exam so that I can get into exam taking mode not the right way to do it or even spike up the anxiety/nerves but I wanted it to be my final attempt taking the NCLEX PN. Several factors went into why I failed the first two attempts mostly because I didn't bother to review core content and was just answering practice questions and reading rationales.

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@ Bevy8733: Sorry to hear, but don't be discouraged, it happens. Now that you were exposed to the exam, you know exactly how to approach it the next time. Don't wait too long to retake it, but at the same token, make sure you're ready as well.

It takes a lot of strength to go back and study, but you can do it...the longer you wait the more you lose information that you studied and have to start all over again. You are closer than you think, hang in there, and go over Uworld again. Also, if you have trouble understanding something, youtube is great in explanation. Take care...you got this @ Bevy8733

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Specializes in Psychiatric Nurse.

It was definitely NERVES! You know your content. Just need to breath through the exam and take your time with the questions. How many questions in total did you do?

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Hello to everyone again,

I just wanted to come back here and to let ya'll know that I took the the test for the 2nd time and I can officially say that I PASSED on 3/18. Before I took the test, I gave myself about a 2 month break (only studied here and there) and didn't start studying seriously until Feb. At first I didn't know what resource was going to work for me this time around so I used every resource there was. Uworld, Kaplan, NCSBN, Hurst, Mark K, Nclex mastery. What helped me out this time around was going back and re-reading the Uworld rationales and writing stuff down. Kaplan (I was averaging around a 55%) helped in knowing how to answer questions and I thought their satas were way harder than the nclex. NCSBN was similar to the nclex as well. I only looked at the Hurst content videos once, did nclex mastery when I wasn't studying seriously in the beginning, and looked over Mark K's notes instead of his audios as I didn't have time to go over them. All of these resources helped me out in some way and I learned a lot more than before. I'm actually glad I exhausted my date and gave myself time to go over content/questions and not rush into taking it again. The day before the test, I just went over my notes and tried stopping at a certain time to relax. Still couldn't hardly sleep the night before and was nervous but I wasn't freaking out like last time. I think last time I was so burnt out and put way too much pressure on myself and didn't feel confident. This time going in I felt more confident. I tried to keep myself calm, deep breaths, and nonchalantly told myself if I pass I pass and if I don't I don't but nonetheless you got this! I was in shock when the test stopped at 75. I was fully expecting to go 150-265. In my head, I thought okay I either did really bad or really good but I felt good walking out of there. Unlike last time, the test just felt more easier and different this time around. Hours after that, I did the pvt trick and it was giving me the good pop up.

For anyone who failed and is taking it again or even multiple times, never give up. Just get back up and do it again. There were times where I felt discouraged and didn't even know if I could pass this test. But here I am and still can't believe that I passed it.

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congratulations girl

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Specializes in CCRN, Geriatrics.

Thanks for sharing your study this is definitely motivating

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