How a foreign educated nurse passed nclex

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Here is my story on how I passed NCLEX, I guess why not...LOL:blink:. I graduated from a BSN program from a university outside of the US long time ago when most of you nurses were probably still in high school, 5yrs ago. I always thought about doing the Nclex but after graduation I got married and started working. Long story short since I'm already getting bored:bored: with my story:oldman:. Let me cut the cheese and get to the good stuff!

STUDY MATERIALS I USED AND IN THIS EXACT ORDER:

1. SAUNDERS COMPREHENSIVE AND REVIEW- I read all the chapters and did all the questions on the cd except pharmacology. I felt I needed to start with this since I graduated long time ago and needed to brush up on content. To celebrate for having finished reading this book I was planning on burning this book lol jk it was just a thought.

2. HURSTREVIEW- I did all the videos, I printed the notes and made a manual. I even printed the 5th day materials.I LOVE LOVE LOVE this review, I understood things better than with just reading the saunders which was long and a little boring (I don't know how I managed to read all of saunders)

These were my test scores for hurstreview: I didn't have time to do test #5 and #6

Test#1- 88/125

Test#2- 85/125

Test#3- 85/125

Test#4- 87/125

3. Kaplan online review- This program I only did the lessons 1-8(explains how to use the decision tree), I didn't do the content videos since I felt good after doing hurstreview, I had started to watch them but they are so boring, they haven't updated these videos since 2009(I know because that yr I got motivated to study for nclex and a friend let me borrow her account but that time I only saw the first video and thought the same things as I thought now, THAT I WAS HAVING A HARD TIME TO STAY AWAKE. OK back to the good stuff... I did all the question trainers, since everybody on here says that's where the money is AND IT SURE IS! Now I didn't have enough time to do all the questions on the question bank, I only had time to do about 300questions, averaged 60%.

These were my scores for the question trainers:

trainer 1- 55%

trainer 2- 60%

trainer 3- 57%

trainer 4- 56%

trainer 5- 64%

trainer 6- 43%

trainer 7- 58%

4. PDA La charity- I also love this book, after doing chapter one and got a 52%, I realized I must keep pushing! I used to panick when I'd get a delegation question and after reading a few chapters these questions started to get very easy! I love this book! I made a list of what the UAP, LVN/LPN and RN duties were using the rationales of this book. Sadly I didn't have time to finish all this book but I learned many concepts.

These were my scores:

ch1-52%

ch2-43%

ch3-60%

ch4-82%

ch5-57%

ch6-63%

ch7-75%

ch8-69%

ch9-76%

5. STRATEGIES, PRACTICE AND REVIEW 2010-2011 FROM KAPLAN: I did all the questions in this book I beleive they are about 250 questions, I did the old version book, I read they are the same questions as the newer editions, but this was all I can get my hands on, didn't want to buy another expensive book.

6. Heyronas charts: read these right before the test, here is a link to her youtube channel you can email her and she will mail them to you for free.

7. I saw a video on youtube about a wk before my test, it helped me alot with concepts, and it is free, I didn't do the tutoring with her in my opinion it is so expensive and since I had already spent so much on kaplan and hurst

8. The allnurses guide on here, learned the first and second page very well and skimmed through the rest.

9. Prayed and asked God for help... "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think" Ephesians 3:30

I started studying since july of this year, took the exam on november 21st and when I came out of the exam I felt like I didn't pass because I kept thinking the computer wasn't giving me difficult passing level questions, I wrote down on the board they gave me s for sata, p for priority and d for drag and drop, and I had 22 SATA, 11 priority, 1 drag and drop the rest were regular questions, I took 75 questions and waited for my quick results during the 48hr wait I had already told everybody that I hadn't passed lol I really did believe I failed, but was jumping and praising God when I saw that I passed it was unbelievable:woot:!!! I mean maybe I over did it with the studying but I don't regret it!!! Hope this helps someone out there!

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry/Covid19.

Hope this helps someone out there!

Wow! Thank you so much for the detail and information you have provided. I hope to start nursing school in May and your post has really enlightened me. Thank you for being so detailed and honest, it really helps and motivates me! :)

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Congrats on starting nursing school! I'd say if I were you I'd get the saunders book starting from now! You can use that book to study for your nursing classes it is to the point on what is important!

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COnGRATS...:nurse:

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Wow this is SUPER helpful! Thank you so much for posting this!

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SwtRainbowbrite You are very welcome! :woot:
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How long did you study

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