Failed nclex

mingK · Jul 9, 2012

When did you take the exam? Was it today?

cdagradi · Jul 9, 2012

I also just took my NCLEX today and tried the PVT trick and found out that I passed. This has worked for all my friends so I am hoping the trick is right lol. But I went to BOCES for nursing and was also an A/B student and failed on my first time with 85 questions with from the sound of it means that I failed horrifically. It put a huge damper in my confidence as well as my self esteem and everything else. I was so embarrassed I couldn't tell my friends or family or anyone that asked me. I basically was very depressed for the whole 45 days that it took me to take my nclex again and literally thought I was never going to be a nurse. I was so depressed that it was even hard for me to study because I had no motivation, I thought that failing with 85 q's meant I knew nothing and there was no way I could re-learn everything. But somehow, I found the strength to really get a grip on things and study. For my first NCLEX all I did were the couple of ATI exams that were given to me from a review class. That was pretty much it. I thought since i got a 90% on my predictor of passing the boards that I would be fine. This time around I went through the ATI review book and made flash cards of the diseases, s/s, medications, nursing interventions, etc. Did the whole book. It did not take as long as you think and I did not study hours a day for months like it sounds like everyone else is doing. I focused, I had to remember all of the values (electrolytes, and also drug values are important) and focused mostly on those. I also have the Saunders disk that was lent to me by a teacher at school and got it for free on my computer. It has thousands and thousands of questions. It was overwhelming but I did some of the questions in each section. (no where near over a thousand but a couple hundred). I would read the rationales and also write them on index cards if they didn't make much sense to me or if I couldn't remember them. I stayed away from the ATI questions on the website because they were intimidating and much harder then the boards and it put me down a lot knowing how many I was getting wrong. To me, saunders had the best rationales that made sense to me and was easier to access and study with. I didn't feel like I had to sit down and take the whole exam, instead I would do it when I could and come back to it and not feel timed or pressured. I hope that you don't feel too bad about failing it and don't give up. I was in such a stupor when I found out I failed I didn't even want to leave my house, go to work, do anything. I had everything lying on passing those boards But 45 days came and went and before you knew it I was back at that desk taking the NCLEX. I was so much more nervous this time and had to stop every couple of questions to take a deep breath and remind myself to go slow and concentrate and take my time. ( I was always the first one done with tests back in school). Advice for you would be to remember ABC then safety. I was never good with drugs so I didn't focus too much on them. Just on the main couple (digoxin, heparin, coumadin, flagyl, antibiotics, allopurinol, etc..) Ones that came up a lot in school were the ones I studied. Other then that there is no way you could remember all of them so I wasn't going to give myself a hard time doing so. Also what was cool was I got the message in the mail saying where I was below the passing standard, near, and above. Where i was below i could find the section on Saunders and just do questions that I were weak in which helped a lot because it focused my studying and made me learn what I had to instead of what I already knew. I was googleing all over the internet if anyone failed with 85 q's and it would say things along the lines of basicaally you only fail with 85 if you are mentally challenged. I never thought I would pass but it seems I finally did. Second time around it seemed a bit harder because my whole test was select all that apply and I am so terrible at those and were so bummed to find out that it was my whole test. But I heard if you get a lot of those that it is a good sign because the harder your questions the better you seem to be doing. Everyone walks out thinking like they failed. You will do better the second time. You have worked so hard in school to become a nurse and keep your sets on that. You will be a nurse sooner then you know and the only thing holding you back is that test. I can now say officially that I am a nurse, and I have worked damn hard for it. By the way, passed my second test with 85 questions. Good luck and if you need any help then feel free to get back to me. :nurse:

jenni_jcsm · Jul 10, 2012

It was nclex-RN and I took it a few weeks ago and was devastated up until now I'm starting to study again. I also did the pvt and hoped it was someone wrong haha I don't think it's ever wrong.