Horrible anxiety before taking nclex

Published Apr 6, 2016

johnjohn1981, LPN, RN, EMT-I

51 Posts

Hi :) I just wanted to share my nclex story with y'all and what helped me pass the nclex first time in 80 questions. Okay so first, I must admit that although I got good grades in college (mainly As and less Bs), I was weak in content once I graduated with my BSN. My school did ATI to help us prepare for nclex, but I don't feel that answering thousands of questions helped me too much because I was getting them wrong since I was weak on the content. So I signed up for the hurst review and it was great! It's expensive but it's easy and it has all the info you need to pass. Anyhow, i attended the 3 day live review and I felt that I was definitely weak in some basic content. The next 2 months after graduation were spent studying (Monday-Sunday) anywhere between 4-9hours of intense studying, taking 10 minute breaks every hour, temporarily getting rid of social media, and avoiding distractions. Furthermore, I would answer questions from ATI and would also memorize hurst. It took me about 3-4 weeks to memorize 85 percent of the content on hurst.. I wish I would have memorized everything but I ran out of time since I had scheduled my nclex like 1 month in advance. Anyhow, I was barely doing the Q reviews like 2 days before my nclex and I wasn't scoring good. All my scores were in the 70s and they recommend 85. Anyhow, knowing that I was not even making 80s gave me so much anxiety. Horrible. I never get anxiety before tests.. If anything, I'll get mild anxiety the day of a test and it helps me study better! But I got severe aniety before the NCLEX. Horrible and I honestly feel so bad for my poor momma cause she had to deal with me when I was being so negative and hard on myself. She had to calm me down and talk me out of rescheduling cause I felt that I wasn't ready. By the way, I truly recommend talking to someone who truly has your best interest at heart if you are experiencing anxiety. I found that my mom was so helpful in trying to calm me down and making me realize that getting anxiety before a huge test is completely normal. Anyhow, the night before my test.. I did not get more than 2 hours of sleep from the anxiety.. This has never happened to me before! I have never experienced this much anxiety in my life! So I was freaking out thinking that I was going to fail from not knowing content, not sleeping, and from my anxiety! Furthermore,I am also going to add that I scheduled my exam early in the morning (it was the only time available if not I had to wait another week) and I am NOT a morning person. I don't function before 10 AM. I hate waking up early so taking this test at the crack of dawn was horrid. I felt like a zombie Driving 45 mins to take my test.

Furthermore, my anxiety was so horrible that I couldnt even follow simple verbal commands once I was in the testing center. Anyhow, once my test had already started (which means that the time was running) I had to leave the room to empty my bladder! I believe that at this point, the ladies at the center were probably annoyed by me because i couldn't follow commands and they are really strict! Like you have to follow the rules as they are or they think you are cheating. Anyhow, once in the RR, I splashed my face with water, did push ups, sit ups, and jumping jacks! Anything to wake me up and get my blood flowing! So I went back with a horrible and negative mentality (which I normally don't have). All I was thinking was, "Well, I am just going to go in there and answer questions. If I fail, at least I'll get a feel for the test and start studying after I get some rest." Anyway, it took me an average of 2 minutes to answer each question.. Not because it was hard but because I felt that my brain was working half the speed of which it normally works. Anyhow, When I was taking the test, I was fully focused and I treated each question like if it was my first. As I would read each new question, I would jot down everything I could remember on the subject, then I would answer the question. I believe that this test was 1000X easier than hurst and ATI. My test was 1/3 select all that apply and like a lot of management and delegation (which is one of my strongest subjects). I only got 1 med question and like 8 questions over women's health which is also one of my strong subjects. Anyhow, I was so glad when my test did not stop at 75 because I was worried that if it stopped, I had failed! My last question was one of the most difficult. And I narrowed it down to 2 answers and basically picked the answer I thought was best.. Then my screen turned off like at question 80. And my heart skipped a beat, but I was relieved!! I was like, "well, failed or not at least today is over for me! I am going to go home, watch Netflix, eat, and sleep!" The drive home was quite bad though, I definitely felt like I had failed because although I didn't think the content of the exam was hard, I did have a lot of SATA questions and I never do good on those.

After 2 days of suffering with MORE anxiety from not knowing if I had passed, I checked the fast results and saw PASSED next to my name :) it was definitely one of the best moments of my life, definitely better than graduation! I felt so proud and just felt silly for doubting myself so much. Although it is always good to be humble, it is also important to have self confidence and remember that this test does not define how smart we are or how good of a nurse we will be.. It's just a test! So please try not to get horrible anxiety cause it's not worth it :)

ALl in all, I want to give hope to those who are taking their tests and did not do everything that "experts reccomend" like eating a healthy breakfast, not studying the day before, relaxing the day before, being positive, and getting good sleep cause I literally did the opposite (not on purpose) and passed in 80 questions!

By the way, I also tried the Pearson vue trick and it worked for me :)

Anyhow, good luck y'all. And please have confidence in yourself. you can do it. Just study A LOT. Every day, make a routine, and follow it! :)