Finally passed nclex (sept.2015)

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

so let me start off by saying that my journey to become a nurse has not been easy or short! I recently passed on my 6th attempt, yup my SIXTH attempt with 75 questions!

I graduated in May 2014 and have been struggling to pass ever since. It has been a long and hard year and a half but I finally made it and I promised myself that I would write a post giving advice and words of encouragement to repeat test takers.

I have used Kaplan, Hurst, Saunders, Feuer and a bunch of other books that I probably have all of barnes and noble on my own bookshelf! I began to have severe test taking anxiety and a fear of disappointment which overwhelmed me and took over my life. I did not realize why I kept failing or where I was going wrong.

This time around I used UWorld which, let me tell you, has THE BEST q-bank I've done thus far. The rationales are so in detail and it really helped me begin to see which content areas I was lacking in. On top of that I took a review course called Ready to Pass, and this review course was by far the greatest thing. It was a 5 day course and I took my exam the day after the course was over and 75 questions later I am officially an RN!! I believe they offer course all in the NY/NJ area but they also offer online lectures. This class really taught me how to think through questions as well as brush up on the knowledge that I seemed to have forgotten since graduating.

Now, I am not the best test taker. But when they say that confidence is key, confidence is key. I went into the test feeling very calm and ready to pass. I walked out of the test also feeling very calm and I felt good, which I never felt all of the other times I have taken it. I had about 7-10 sata, 1 dosage, infection control and priority were a majority. The last question was a sata and I looked it up when I got home and I don't think I got it right so the myth about that must be wrong! When I got up to question 74 my heart started to race a little and then after the 75th question I felt a sense of relief. It took me about 2 hrs. to finish the exam from the time I sat down.

Sorry that this is long!! And if you decided to read it, please feel free to ask for advice. And to all of the retakers, please do NOT give up. I wanted to give up and quit but I pushed through and I worked very hard and now here I am! You can do it, you just have to have faith in yourself :)

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Congrats. Very inspiring story.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

That is amazing! Congratulations and you truly deserved it.

I have graduated on May 2014 as well and have taken the NCLEX RN twice

and Failed :/ I've used Kaplan and Saunders and it didn't help me besides content.

I am now doing Uworld and NCSBN and so far it helped me train on answering questions better. im just a bit worried because I am scoring low 50s-60s% on Uworld does that mean anything?

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
That is amazing! Congratulations and you truly deserved it.

I have graduated on May 2014 as well and have taken the NCLEX RN twice

and Failed :/ I've used Kaplan and Saunders and it didn't help me besides content.

I am now doing Uworld and NCSBN and so far it helped me train on answering questions better. im just a bit worried because I am scoring low 50s-60s% on Uworld does that mean anything?

Thank you! And please do not give up, you can do this! My scores on UWorld were all ranging from 60's-80's. Keep practicing and you will get it! Don't just use those questions to study though. Make sure you review the content areas that will be tested, especially infection control (precautions, etc). I also used NCSBN. They have good descriptions on categories that you may be struggling with. Hope this helped a little bit, let me know if you need anything else and I wish you the best of luck :)

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Wow congratulations! Super exciting! I feel like I'm in your same boat when reading your post! I actually just heard about UWorld and am a little skeptical about using it but reading your experience is making it more confident for me to use it. I have Kaplan and Saunders right now and was seeing about hurst review be I have taken it prior and it might be dumb to retake it but I know I learned a lot so I really need to just narrow down my material and really put my studying into high gear! If you have any other tips it would be greatly appreciated! Congrats again RN! I hope to join your success soon!

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Wow congratulations! Super exciting! I feel like I'm in your same boat when reading your post! I actually just heard about UWorld and am a little skeptical about using it but reading your experience is making it more confident for me to use it. I have Kaplan and Saunders right now and was seeing about hurst review be I have taken it prior and it might be dumb to retake it but I know I learned a lot so I really need to just narrow down my material and really put my studying into high gear! If you have any other tips it would be greatly appreciated! Congrats again RN! I hope to join your success soon!

Thank you so much! I was skeptical about UWorld also so I tried a free trial and I loved it so I purchased the 1 week subscription for $20 because I stared using it only a week or two before my exam. It is definitely worth it, give it a shot! I used Hurst as well but the course I just recently took absolutely took precedent over any other course. Kaplan is good, but it is more of test taking strategies than content. I needed to review content and figure out how to read through the questions. Do not second guess yourself and have confidence, which is something that I lacked previously. Think about what the question is asking and what you as a nurse can do to help your patient. Use strategies and learn how to eliminate answer choices that you know are 100% wrong. Once you do that try to think in your head what the difference between the last options are. Take your time and read the question carefully! Wishing you lots of luck, you can do this!! Let me know if I can help you any further :)

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Specializes in LTC, Med-surg.

Congrats! NCLEX-RN is scary but you slain the beast. Welcome to nursing world!

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Congrats! I'm on my 5th attempt next month and am using uworld this time for the one month. Hoping to get it this time!!! It's definately discouraging to test so many times, especially trying to explain to friends and family, it's just not understandable unless you're going through it too. Great job on sticking with the hard work, it paid off! Hope I have good news next month!

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Congrats on your success. Do you have notes you have taken in regards of precautions?

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Congrats! NCLEX-RN is scary but you slain the beast. Welcome to nursing world!

Thank you so much!!!

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Congrats! I'm on my 5th attempt next month and am using uworld this time for the one month. Hoping to get it this time!!! It's definately discouraging to test so many times, especially trying to explain to friends and family, it's just not understandable unless you're going through it too. Great job on sticking with the hard work, it paid off! Hope I have good news next month!

Thank you! And yes I know exactly how you feel. I let the fear of disappointment take a toll on me, so please take my advice when I tell you that you are NOT alone! And just because you failed does not mean you will not succeed and be a great nurse! Wishing you lots of luck :)

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.
Congrats on your success. Do you have notes you have taken in regards of precautions?

Thank you! I read up about the precautions on the CDC's website. They are very informative. Also there was a review floating around on here. If you type it into google you can probably find it! Just know what precautions to take with certain diseases.

Airborne: private room, n95 respirator mask, mask for patient while transporting, gloves, keeping the door closed..

Droplet: private room, surgical mask, mask for patient, gloves, you do not need to keep the door closed

Contact: all equipment for the patient only to be kept in the room, gown, gloves (Etc)

Know which diseases require each precaution. Also keep in mind that you can cohort patients if they have the same organism. Example: a patient with bacterial pneumonia can be in a room with a patient with bacterial pneumonia but not a patient with a different pneumonia (if that makes sense)

Hope this helps!! :)

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