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Discussion

Failed NCLEX

I've failed NCLEX three times. The first time I took it I will admit, I didn't study and went to take it anyway. The second time I studied but was dealing with some problems at home and I felt like that took away from me believing in myself. This last time I studied and of the 8 categories I got above passing on one subject 4 near the passing and 3 below. I feel like I will never pass and Im starting to lose hope.

Has anyone every taken it this many times? Im also starting to feel like I'm incompetent to be a nurse. Just looking for motivation or situations for those that have taken it many times and ended up passing. 

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    • Featured Replies

    • Experts

    If you use test question books, be sure to use ones that give you the right answers and ALSO give you the reasons why the wrong answers are wrong. We learn from errors better than we learn from successes sometimes.

    Agree with the recs to do something different. I taught live NCLEX prep for a few years and there's nothing like being able to hear an instructor explain things three different ways to get something that works for you.

    IMPORTANT: If you are an LPN, forget what you think you know there. You are being tested to see if you are minimally competent to function in the RN role. Do not project what you think of RNs from the LPN perspective. That is behind you now.

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    @V.E.03 I agree 1000%! Too many sources did not work for me either! I have decided to try NCLEX Mastery RN for practice questions and for content review I am referring to the Mark Klemik review! So far I am really liking these materials! I know we can do this! Let's just hang in there and push through! We conquered nursing school and I feel like that should give us enough confidence to know that we can pass NCLEX! I have been writing my name daily and putting RN by it! I am telling myself everyday that I will be an RN and we are going to look back once we become a nurse and see that this is was not a set back and we are only going to be stronger because of this! Just like you said we will appreciate it so much more! Thank you for the encouragement and motivation! It means so much to me! Keep me posted! 

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    Thanks everyone for the encouragement. Now I have another question I have to take the ATI comprehensive predictor and get a 92% probability  of passing to get a green light to test any advice on what to study.

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    @Future RN 2020 

    when I studied for my RN NCLEX. I utilized NCLEX mastery app RN. I did 50-75 questions a day reviewing content the ones I got wrong. I was averaging around 59 % on the app. I also used Hurst review. I mostly watched the content videos. Hurst review helps understand content and how to answer NCLEX questions. Hurst also uses simulator exam that suggest 77/125. Doing questions everyday helps with content and critical thinking through questions. And watching content videos such as lab values, major meds, disease processes and delegation and priority. I hope this helps 

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    Saunders book is great.  Sailed thru in 75 questions.

    Saunders book is $50.  You can go on-line or use the app to have access to more than 5000 questions!   UWorld is $200 and only 2000 questions.  Take one system at a time and quiz yourself on that content only.  

    Good luck!

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    For anyone interested, I studied using U-World.  I did not care for NCLEX Mastery.  I passed the NCLEX on my first try and received my license last week.

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    maybe I could help and we study together if you don’t mind. we crack this together. I failed six times 

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    I feel confident in myself and my knowledge. I really think my biggest struggle is test anxiety and just doubting myself during the test. like I said I am confident in my knowledge at this point, but it's like as soon as I sit down in front of that computer my confidence goes down. I am just so burnt out on studying (I know you feel my pain), but I have reapplied to re-test and I just received my ATT! I am just trying to figure out where to go from here! ..... The biggest thing is that we are not giving up! And that is something we should be proud of! We will get through it!

    This resonates down to my core. I graduated ASN in may of 2020, right smack in the center of my final semester of nursing school and Covid robbed my entire graduating class of pinning, grad ceremony, and just genuinely enjoying each of our cohort-mates and the crazy impossible hurdles we jumped to still get through the year and just finish... just graduate. . . I didn't even get to say goodbye.... we just went home one day after classes and didn't go back.... I Took ATI and HESI three day intense reviews to tackle boards for the first time right after new grad status in July of 2020... THE moment I sat down at that blue and white torture monitor, every ounce of confidence in myself disappeared, I forgot everything I learned as a new baby nurse, and I became so anxious I don't even remember weighing the test question's answers against one another or eliminating the ones we could probably 86...I maxed out at 145 questions and failed the exam.. That was the most terrifying duration of time leading to that point in my life.... I froze in fear, and I didn't even consider touching another attempt for almost an entire year.... Crushed was an understatement...

    April 2021, I decide to try again... This time, to prepare,  I HAMMER Mark Klimek's audio reviews religiously and take notes on them all..... I take scores of Saunders practice questions via Skyscape and all of its content...I spend four days of 9hr reviewing MK to gear up for this thing again.... And again, I maxed out at 145, and again I failed it.... To add insult to injury, they shot me the whole kit and kabootle for the 2023 revisions and new formatting after I already knew I failed this thing again....That particular research experiment took like an hour all on its own due to the anxiety and hopelessness yet again..... I am so exhausted and feel so defeated and at my wit's end with this panic level anxiety that happens ONLY when it seems to matter for me on this CAT-astrophe... 

    I wanted to give up in school... like every other week... but I didn't... We finished and we hurdled over covid on our way... 

    Today... all day I have been feeling like giving up is my only option left.. But, I'm so glad I came to this thread, and so comforted in knowing I'm not alone over here. . . 

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    On 2/18/2021 at 3:23 PM, Future RN 2020 said:

    Thanks everyone for the encouragement. Now I have another question I have to take the ATI comprehensive predictor and get a 92% probability  of passing to get a green light to test any advice on what to study.

    I do not recommend this for all of the ATI exams, and never would I say to do it for all of the ATI exams that assign you a proficiency level 1,2, or 3... with that being said; Quizlet is notorious for flash cards sets on these ATI heavy hitters...

    however, they will not title them as such on the Set, because It would get reported, flagged, and and taken down due to copyright infringement, etc.. 

    The best way I learned how to search these out was to pick a question over the course of the semester or the year in which almost ALL of us missed that question on a class test.... That one question was always word for word pulled off the pages of the ATI end of chapter assessment questions, and it was always later placed into the comp predictor... 

    I winged it my final semester and still nailed a 96% probability of passing on first attempt... yet I STILL did not pass the boards first try... I don’t think it is a fair predictor because it is not a CAT test with all the same ability to provide the student with the necessary algorithmic question generation.... that’s what makes CAT tick... and there’s no way to both standardize it AND tailor it to you... LOL 

    My best advice to you, in all honesty and with all the love I can express?? 
    just take the ATI comp predictor the best you can without trying to nail down what to expect beforehand... I believe this bad habit is largely in part to blame for reasons why I did not learn the things I NEEDED to learn on my own as a nursing student.... and by lacking that recall on my own terms in my own time-  - I’m consistently screwed on boards. 
     

    I hope that while this may not have been the easy way out recommendation from somebody, I sincerely hope you can see why you deserve so much better in the satisfaction of knowing the content- and your patients deserve better from you as their Nurse. 
    At the end of the day, the pt is all it should be about anyway. 
    ❤️ much love and respect. ?

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    • Experts

    Everybody stop and exhale here. 
    Think: what is the BON’s objective in using a test for licensure? If you don’t say, ”Identifying people who would have the judgment to be minimally competent new practitioners,” you’re looking at it from an unhelpful perspective. That’s what NCLEX is supposed to provide to the nursing profession: beginning nurses who can think.
    There are three types of learning tasks, all of which your faculty strives to provide you: The two that students tend to focus on the most are  “facts to be memorized,” and “manipulative skills to master.”
    But, just as in the scripture of most religious and ethical structures, there is a third factor that is always called, “the greatest of these.” 

    That is judgment, also called critical thinking, or, as I like to characterize it, the “Why do we care?” bit. It’s the hardest to teach, but in part that’s due to how students focus so hard in the other two. Students so often think the other stuff (assessment, analysis, looking at planning actions, all that NANDA-I practice) is just fluff to be endured and then put aside ASAP. Well, I’m here to tell you you’d be really, really wrong about that. 

    THAT is what the BON cares most about, and therefore emphasizes in each version of NCLEX. Sure, there are straight memory questions, like what’s a normal range for serum potassium or arterial oxygen, and how do you know that Salem sump is placed properly. But if you think carefully (which is what they want to discover if you can do) the questions are asking, “Do you know why this matters?” “Why do we care?” “What should I consider this in the context of this patient situation?” 

    Everybody learns tasks eventually; nobody, and I mean nobody whose opinion matters, expects a new grad to be proficient at them. We know you might not have had a clinical situation where you placed some invasive gadget or something, ever saw a complex something else. We do want you to know how to think,  to ask questions if there are missing puzzle pieces, and not just barge ahead on your inadequate data set. 

    So when you prepare for these kinds of tests, choose study materials that don’t just give you the right answer in the back-page key. Choose the one that tells you why the wrong ones are wrong, too. These will me helpful in building your judgment muscles...and that IS the whole point. 

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    I promised myself once I passed I would come back here and let you guys know! I tested on March 23rd and finally, on my 4th attempt I am officially an RN! Thank you all so much for the encouragement, advice, and positivity. I just wanted to share what helped me this 4th time. On my first 3 attempts I was so overwhelmed with the amount of materials I was using. I was studying 6-8 hours Monday-Friday. I was miserable and couldn't wrap my head around the fact I was still failing after I had studied so hard. After I failed the 3rd time I had come to the conclusion I was overdoing it. This time I studied only 2 hours a day Monday-Friday and took the weekends to rest my brain. This was so much more effective for me and I did not feel overwhelmed. As far as materials I used, I utilized Archer review & Mark K free audios. I had already bought UWorld 3 times and I refused to go through it again. I highly recommend using Archer Review. I found it so helpful, because it is more vague like NCLEX and I didn't feel like the rationales were overbearing. It is so similar to Uwolrd for so much cheaper. I would do 75 questions a day and then go back and write out the rationales that I didn't understand. This was so beneficial. And when I say I utilized the Mark K audio I literally only listened to a couple of them, but if you take anything from the post- please please please listen to his prioritization and delegation audio. I truly believe that helped me pass more than anything! I went into the exam this time and I was so relaxed and confident. I told myself this is the last time I will sit down at this computer and take this test. I told myself everyday prior to the exam that I will be an RN. I even wrote down my name with RN beside of it everyday. I felt nuts, but I needed to remind myself daily I didn't come this far to fail. With all of this being said, please do not loose hope and do not give up. I felt so defeated, but you haven't failed until you give up! I have faith in all of you. I know if I can do ANYONE can. Goodluck to all of you and I can't wait for each of you to get through this and I look forward to reading all of your alls success stories! ?

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