How do you determine that you passed the NCLEX?

[IVqueen23]

Hi Everbody!

I am very new to this site but I was doing some research one day and I came across some posts made here about failing the NCLEX. I have taken it twice and failed both times! although i was so upset the second time, I have picked myself up and I am trying to study really hard.

BUT

I was trying to determine what I did wrong the first two times and I have questions perhaps you can help me with?

When you fail your nclex you recieve a letter in the mail and it has on the back either 3 things to describe how you did in certain areas of the test, below average, near the passing, and above passing.

It says on all of them i was near the passing, and one of them i was below the passing standard.

If I get near the passing standard for everything, does that allow me to pass? because if so, I was so close both times!

if not, i have a lottt of work to do!!! lol (ouchh):crying2:

some one please explain this to me? THank you! and happy holidays!

[IVqueen23]

I have been doing mostly questions but when I read the rationale and I dont understand, I switch to content. I've realized i may have to do more disease process review, i am able to recognize a lot of signs and symptoms that are from specific Dx, that I am decent at, the medications i am currently trying to work on but I never know which ones I am going to be tested on during the NCLEX. I try to do around 90 NCLEX questions a day, sometimes I do double on the weekends, Id say about 1 hour a day Mon-Fri and usually more than 2 on the weekends (thats when I have time to catch up usually). I do feel tired when i get off of work but I drink coffee lol

I feel like I have all the information inside of me but when it comes to recognizing it sometimes I get scared or double guess myself.. and I wish I didnt do that but Im not sure how to stop doing that. I dont think I have test anxiety, because I'm always calm until an hour before the test, I pray everyday haha but I wouldnt say I pray fast.

Thank you for the post!

[sheila0313]

You need to understand the rationales! After you read the rationale write it down on an index card, don't write every rationale for every questioned, who has time to do that anyway. But especially the one's you don't understand. Review the index cards, go back in the chapters and read over the content of this rationale. Lookup words you do't understand, watch videos on youtube to get an idea of the disease or disorders. Or look online google whatever you don't understand, look at pictures. Listen to some nursing review audio, while you're driving, cooking, cleaning, or working. If you don't learn anything else in your nursing books learn the disease process in Med-Surg. Learn and know what's going on in the body so you can use your critical thinking while testing. Are you foreign? Sometimes foreign students have a harder time because of the way things on the test are worded. Practice at least, 3,000 nclex questions, that's the minimum. Nclex is also not about how smart you are it's about how good of a test taker you are. So practicing the different test taking strategies are also important. I don't think 1 hour of studying a day is good enough. It's okay to study in 20 min or 1 hour increments but at the least 3 hrs a day of studying. If you can get up extra early and do 1hr before work, do flash cards on your lunch break, do 1hr after you get home and had your coffee and take a break come back do 20mins - 1hr of more studying. When you're testing think positive don't double guess yourself or get scared. God don't give you a spirit of fear. Fear not, write down a scripture on your paper they give you and keep saying to yourself you are doing good. Do a spiritual fast a few weeks before you test and keep on praying. When you do a fast you get an answered prayer. I have many testimonies on that. So keep studying more and keep faith. I hope this helped you, may God bless you!

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I know what works for me won't work for everyone else, and I'll probably be slammed for "bragging" but I passed NCLEX in 75 questions/30 minutes. My prep was questions, questions, questions. I probably did 10,000 practice questions. I started studying months beforehand, doing at least 100 questions a day for many days. I also reviewed 5 meds.

I read the Kaplan book about test taking, but I did not take any NCLEX courses (except the required ATI).

I don't want to even think about how many hours I put in preparing (over 200+). Truthfully, I probably didn't need all that preparation, but for me failing was not an option I would consider. I told myself that everytime I was exhausted, needed to clean house, wanted to play facebook, etc.

Best of Luck.

Yeah, I have to agree with Praise on this one...it was TOTAL bragging. The OP is looking for additional/different study methods to help her pass. Reading this post probably didn't help her much.

[caliotter3]

You can't expect the same questions again, so the letter can only be considered a general idea of whether or not you are near the parking lot of the ball park. Hope you are in the ball park hitting a home run next time!