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 :)
did you by any chance took remedial classes for nursing? i heard after 3 attempts you need to take a class, like here in Florida. i took nclex-rn 2x already and i'm afraid of taking it again because if i fail they might or require me to attend classes which is very costly for me.
did you by any chance took remedial classes for nursing? i heard after 3 attempts you need to take a class, like here in Florida. i took nclex-rn 2x already and i'm afraid of taking it again because if i fail they might or require me to attend classes which is very costly for me.
congratulations!
no, I'm in New York and they didn't require me to take a remedial class although that could have been helpful. I took a review course on my own. Lots of luck!
Hey Hope can I please email you as well? I am going on my 4th attempt. I just took my exam last Thursday and I am sick of using Kaplan. I used it three times and I feel it didn't really help me, and now i am seeing that uWorld seems to be the better way for those of us who are not great at taking exams? I also have a little anxiety, and sometimes I find myself sitting in the exam room thinking "here we go again."
I would love your input, and how long you wait in between you 5th and 6th exam.
Also any tips for reading, or what not to read again. Any books you really loved or hated?
MissyNik
491 Posts
Yea that 35 page study guide on here is that deal................I used it to study for NCLEX and the mnemonics were outstanding for memorization.