I passed! I'm an RN. My NCLEX journey, advice

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Hello all, I took the NCLEX Friday. Did the PV trick that afternoon and got the good pop up. Got my quick results Sunday morning. I am writing to give u my thoughts about the process etc so that maybe it will some of you who are about to take it. I worked part-time through the last half of nursing school and studied about 3-4 hours a day most days. My school uses the ATI; on the exit test it said I had a 99% chance of passing first time. I had about 7 weeks after graduation to take the test. I studied about 5 hours a day in that time, using my own notes, a Med Surg success questions book, the yellow Saunders review/questions book and two different sets of NCLEX question index cards.

On Friday I showed up early with about 7 others. We were logged on to the comps and began. I knew that the nclex is a computer adaptive test that finds your weaknesses and if you answer "easier" questions correctly you get medium and then difficult questions. But boy oh boy, I did not know that meant all the difficult ones would be select all that apply. 15 of my first 20 were SATA. One after another after another, I felt awful. I wanted to quit because I thought the computer was being unreasonable giving me SATAs literally every other question. It turned off at 75 and I had about 40 SATAs. I felt sick. I had a stress ball in my stomach. I called friends who recently took it. They left feeling the same way. I tried the PV trick and it didn't let me register, so I prayed for the best. Sunday morning I was soooooo nervous to check my quick results. When I saw passed, my soul rejoiced! A long, long road and thousands of hours of studying had come to an end. I was now an RN!

My thoughts: The test is like no other I've taken. Nobody can really tell you how to do it, because it is very different for everbody how the computer chooses to torture you, lol. My friends had several questions about obscure pedi conditions and only about 10 SATAs and passed in 75. I had no dosage, no diagrams, no audible questions. But I had 40 SATAs! Overall, I would say get the Kaplan questions online if you can. I looked at it once with my friend who had subscribed; they were much harder and more like what you will see on D-Day than Saunders. I could get almost all the Saunders questions right from front to back. It's not that easy on test day. Get Kaplan, review Saunders, and get question cards if you want. Do about 100-200 questions a day and really learn the rationales for right and wrong answers. I wouldn't get too worked about knowing every med ever discovered. I was only asked about 3-4 in total. Good luck all. Just stay focused, and realize that even if you think you failed, there's a good chance you passed no matter how bad you feel! Just put in the work beforehand. :)

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congrats im so happy for you!

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Specializes in med surge.

I agree. Kaplan sets you up for the more difficult questions. It is nerve-racking because you don't know how you are doing. Well I got a few recall questions which made me more nervous. To top it all off, my last question was a SATA. Really, I knew that I failed. But I didn't, somehow God blessed me to pass this exam and you all will too!!! Now I can proudly say I am an RN :yes:

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Congrats! im so happy for you. Ill be taking my 2nd attempt but i will take my time. My first 80 questions was 50% sata like it just pops in every other number.

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Specializes in Cardiac.

exactly, everyone's test is different! I started bawling in the car when I shut off at 75 qs with only about 8 SATA. Still passed in 75. So many people think that getting a ton of SATA means you're passing. While it's great that you're getting those questions....always remember that SATA's can be either above or below passing level.

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Specializes in med surge.

I got 75?questions and the first 50 took me 2 hours. I agree take your time. Work at your own pace.

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