Going out of my mind.....

Melinurse · Oct 13, 2008

First off, hear is a big :wlcmggrp:. Sorry to hear you have have not passed yet. But, you will. You can do this. Have you read some of the threads here regarding Suzanne's Plan? There is a sticky thread at the top with the info.

Secondly, the clinical nurse specialist at my facility failed her boards twice before passing. She is an amazng, smart, caring nurse who provided excellent bedside care and did an awesome job. She is very well respected.

Remember, it is just a test. Good luck! You can do this. :up:

BettyBoo706 · Oct 13, 2008

Sorry to hear about this try to practice as much ques as possible. Kaplan is a good review course. It is a good sign that you are not giving up. Best of luck

smartypant · Oct 13, 2008

let me encourage you i have taken the exam 8times so do not feel discourage i am a license lpn trying to get my rn so i have decided to do suzannes plan i thnik you should try it do not give up also try to do the lpn exam you might pass ,i took it once and passed becos i could not pass the rn and needed to work

jewel100 · Oct 14, 2008

Sorry this may be a little winded... but I have to get these thoughts out of my head....I'm new to the site, and have found many of the posts here encouraging... so I'm hoping for a little moral support!
I graduated nursing school in June and took my first stab at the NCLEX in July... had 265 questions and failed. I had studied quite a bit, but I also had a lot of other things going on in my life at the time to distract me. I took it upon myself to find some new study materials.. and studied religiously for the next 45 days....I was SO SO SO nervous going into the test the second time, my job was riding on my results. Guess what? Five grueling hours of pain staking question answering led me to 265 questions again!!!!!!! I was horrified.. started crying at 200 and knew I had failed again....and it turned out to be true. I got my results back and just as the first time, I was "near passing standard" across the board... now how the heck am I supposed to know what to study based on that?
I am so frustrated.. and down that I seriously don't know what to do anymore. I took a few weeks off to regroup, and signed up for the Kaplan course. I've been a nervous wreck for three months now. Had to turn down a position at a hospital of my choice...got knocked down from a PCAII to a PCA at my job (which hapens to be a $7 pay cut)...all on top of feeling like a complete failure at life....
Its just so hard for me because I worked my butt off for a four year degree that I can't do anything with....I think God is punishing me....
Anyway...I havent scheduled yet.. but I'll take my test again sometime in mid- November.. I don't think I can stand to fail again....any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated... or if any of you has used the online Kaplan course.. let me know how you liked it and how you did! Thanks guys!

Hi,

First of all, you are not a failure! Like I've said in a previous post, a test does not and cannot determine what kind of nurse you'll be. But, unfortunately, it is something we have to go through and is horribly, horribly stressful.

I did Kaplan, and I liked it. What I did to get the most out of it, besides going to the classes, is I did the entire Qbank first, and read every single rationale, regardless if I got the question right. I also made flash cards while I studied to help me with material I was unfamiliar with. Then, after I finished the bank, I tackled the trainers. I did each trainer is succession, and in between went back and did questions from the bank that I got incorrect. I got at least a 65% on trainers 4-7, which is the recommended score to have at least a 98% chance of passing the boards, which improved my confidence.

It took me about two months to do this, along with reviewing content from Saunders, a book that I like too. All in all, I probably did around 4000 questions.

I took my boards on 10/3 in 75 questions, and while Kaplan doesn't make the NCLEX completely easy or anything, the questions are hard enough to compete with the NCLEX's passing range questions.

You'll see where people have written that they don't like Kaplan etc., for various reasons. I did what Kaplan told me to do and passed my boards, which is all I can ask. I thought it was worth the money. I do believe they have a money back guarantee.

I can relate to the stress. I was stressed for the two months that I devoted to studying for the boards. Do what you have to do to break up some of that stress! Hanging out with non-nursing school students/friends at least once a week to get away from it may help. I found that the gym helped me the most.

A lot of nurses on this forum have taken multiple attempts at the NCLEX before they passed. You can do it! I don't think God is punishing you-I found that prayer helped a lot too. I'll keep you in mine.

Good luck and keep us posted! :redpinkhe