I graduated nursing school in 2022, and I immediately started studying for the NCLEX. I bought UWorld and did half the Q Bank but was scoring 30-40%, I didn't want to reschedule the exam at the time (pride maybe?) so I ended up just taking the exam. Of course, I failed in 85 questions. Then, I tried doing Mark K Lectures and UWorld together (I was still getting 30-40%), and I failed again in 86 questions! I rescheduled it a third time and I guess you can say test anxiety + fear led me to pay and never show up to the exam site. So, my record was 2 fail and 1 no-show on Pearson. And, I am 100% sure I failed miserably the first two times (they were both pre-NGN).
Fast forward, it's been almost 2 years since I graduated nursing school. And I am pretty sure my content is not good (I would say I forgot most of it because I truly would cram a week before exams in nursing school... not really wise for my long term memory). And, doing well in Nursing school wasn't hard for me since it was based on a couple things:
show up to class
do all the homework, assignments, and projects
go to teacher's office hours and they'll literally spoon feed you a couple answers or at the very least guide you in the right path to study (which I was always grateful for)
100% memorization, I applied some critical thinking like ABC's, Maslow's, etc. but it was mostly memorization which after a couple of sessions of repetition stuck to my head
Study guides my fellow classmates made came in super clutch, or even the ones my teachers gave (which we had to fill out)
So anyways, the NCLEX is just a different beast to me. One that I am scared I cannot tackle. It's definitely a lot more critical thinking. People say it's a safety exam but I am not even sure where to start when looking at the question. I always used to say in my head, "what is the safest thing I can do" and still nothing gets my brain going, I just look at the question and I am still confused! I am convinced I am dumb (the noggin' just don't have the brain power) or I did not utilize the true purpose of nursing school (using it to pass NCLEX). The NCLEX appears to have a random topic every time, and sometimes you might get questions you never even heard of before. I know many people are passing and I am just amazed as to how they are.
Which leads me to understand I am severely lacking content, yes, but I am also lacking test taking strategies. Or, I'm not doing something else right. I do not want to give up because I paid for nursing school and the job market right now is really shitty (I can't even get a hospital job) (every time I do apply, they reject me and advise me to get the NCLEX for an immediate nursing hire), so I really really need this otherwise I am not sure how I am going to survive in the future (without my parent's support).
I currently have Archer review to help me with the content and practice questions. I have been taking notes and watching the lecture videos but I keep going back to my old ways of just memorizing. Understanding the content seems so foreign to me. And, on top of that, there's so much content to catch up on that when I do finish the videos and get my notes down, I do not have time for practice questions or any time to reread my notes -- My brain is already so fried consuming the video and writing.
If anyone can guide me to a good content-based review, tutor, ANYTHING to literally help me pass (thankfully I got my parents help in payment). Perhaps some study tips? Like, how do you study, etc. Because my current method of just memorizing never worked with the NCLEX (it may have worked in nursing school though). And I seem to have a problem retaining information and not sure if it's because of my new medication (I recently started taking Lamotrigine for a diagnosis of BP2).
I seriously am lost. I do not want the years to go by and I am still not yet a nurse (at this rate, if I cannot pass, I have to either beg on the streets or do something nasty just to survive and get food and/or get shelter because my parents may give up on me too).
