Finished Nursing school 5 years ago! Passed the NCLEX RN in 75!

3 Posts

Finished Nursing School 5 years ago in a foreign country and passed the NCLEX-RN last November 16, 2015!!!!

So I graduated March 2010, worked in my country for sometime and decided to take the NCLEX RN a few days ago. and thankfully, I passed!

As I was a graduate for already 5 years, I didn't know how to start studying again. I consulted this site in order for me to find the best tools to use in studying for the examination. I ended up deciding that I would need a good book to refresh my studies and a material that would help me be familiarized with the style of testing. After reading a lot of forums, I decided to purchase the Saunders comprehensive review of the NCLEX-RN, and applied for the In-person review of KAPLAN.

Started to read the Saunders 2 months and 2 weeks before I took the test, I tried to read a few chapters everyday in the morning then try to answer Kaplan Qbanks in the afternoon and review the rationales at night. Ended up finishing the book a week before my test.

As for the Kaplan in class review, I attended 4 days of classes 6 hours a day. I can say that it was very helpful because it gave me insights on how to analyze and answer nclex type of questions using the decision tree. The professor also taught us on how to analyze and set up our studies depending on how you score on the practice tests. (Kaplan classes was from Sept 21-24)

After finishing the classes, I decided to continue my routine of reading in the morning and answering questions in the afternoon (150/day); reviewing rationales at night. Ended up finishing the whole kaplan question banks, Qtrainers, readines exam and qbank samples a week before the test.

As for my scores:

Diagnostic exam: 56%

Qtrainers 1: 53%

Qtrainers 2: 45%

Qtrainers 3: 51%

Qtrainers 4: 57%

Qtrainers 5: 63%

Qtrainers 6: 56 %

Qtrainers 7: 61%

Readiness: 56% (took this before qtrainers 4,5,6,7)

qbank sample 1:48%

qbank sample 2: 60%

qbnak sample 3: 85%

qbank sample 4: 24% (you all know what this is. haha)

Qbank average: 55% to 62%

as you can see, my scores was not that good, but by answering questions everyday my scores SLIGHTLY improved and that was enough for me to pass the dreaded test.

almost forgot, I read a 36 paged nclex guide/summary I found in a forum here and answered 105 La charity type questions I found in quizlet 2 days before the test.

keep it simple, don't use too much resources.

put in the work, PRAY everyday and have faith.

walk by faith not by sight!