Finally an RN on my second time!

Ok so it was a long bumpy journey for me. I graduated from nursing school in May of this year. I was by no means at the top of my class. I worked 2 jobs all through out school. When I graduated I took a week off to celebrate making it through school and then started my review course on June 1st. It was the ATI review which had a 99% chance of passing on the first try when the review course is done properly (please note I said properly ) The goal to moving on in this course was to score 65% or above on every test. We were told by our director we would not receive our ATT until we finished the course. So I franticaly tried to finish the course not paying attention to the questions or the rationales. I studied no content just ATI. Well I finished the review course July 5 and waited anxiously for my ATT. Not studying at all :imbar. Finally got the ATT and scheduled my first test for the 8th of August and then proceeded to cram. I did question after question not even reading rationales. In my mind as long as I did questions I would pass. Well I went in and had 265 questions and failed. I had hit the brick wall:banghead:. I went in knowing I was going to fail at least thinking I was so in hindsight I should have rescheduled. Cryed the entire weekend into monday when I got the official FAIL. At that point I had two choices I could continue to wallow in my misery or get up and start over. I chose to start over. I resubmited all of my paperwork to the board on August 11th and had my ATT by the 20th. I knew I needed to review content and to really focus this time. So I contacted my ATI coach and started the coorifice again. I started studying again on the 17th while I was waiting for the ATT but really kicked into gear once I got it. I knew from this site that people had recomended Lacharity and exam cram. I already had Saunders which was my bible in nursing school. Why I didnt use it the first time I have no idea. I also purchased NCSBN. I set myself up in a seperate room of the house and alternated between all of these sources doing a different one each day. Areas I was weak on I reviewed the content. I did about 75 note cards with drug endings and pneumonics and carried them around everywhere. I did not study more than 3-4 hours a day and some days it was less if I couldnt focus. There was a reason... my brain needed a rest. I also tried to take at least one day a week off. So I resat for my boards the second time on the 25th of September. I thought about rescheduling but with the support of everyone in this forum I went ahead and took it. I printed out all the good luck messages from my fellow forum members and took them with me to the testing center and read them right before I went in. I also prayed alot and went to church. I went in that day saying I was going to be a nurse and came out as one officially as of Sunday.

I know this has been long but I wanted to share my story. Im not the most confident person at times but with everyones help here and the few people who I told I was retesting, plus god, I was able to make my dream as an RN come true.:redpinkhe:heartbeat

I wish those of you testing for the first time, second, third, etc all the best and I will be praying for each and every one of you to pass. Thanks for reading my NCLEX journey