I passed!!!

A2008

35 Posts

Hello Everyone! I just want to than you for all the kind words and help studying for the NCLEX. I got all 265 questions and passed. I had taken the NCLEX in the past and failed. This time I had a lot of SATA questions and that was the big difference in the tests for me. Before, when I failed, I had only gotten a few SATA questions, but this time I had at least 20.

Advice for those who are studying to take the NCLEX, this is what worked for me:

I used Kaplan. The strategy they teach you is ok, but to be honest, you won't use it on that many questions. Many of the questions you get will just require you to select the best answer. However, the information in the book was helpful to study, and most importantly, the practice online exam q's. What I did was study each section of the book, make note cards and study the notecards until I knew them well. Then I would take several practice test q's over that specific material. Do that through the entire book, then at the end, or closer to your test date, take several tests that test you over ALL the material at once. I can't say enough about doing the practice questions. I know that is what helped me pass this time. Even if you are running out of time to stuy, just do the questions and review the answers. It will help you the MOST!!

Another very good book to have is the book that suzanne's plan recommends. It is way more thorough than Kaplan, and I often used it as a secondary resource to get more in-depth info on areas that were confusing to me. If you have time, study that book and you will pass, but if not, use kaplan and use it as a secondary resource. It is very thorough with the information it provides and it is organized nicely. Going through that book actually helped me learn my meds much better than other books. At the end of each section ,for example post-parum, it gives you the meds that go along with post-partum. It was easier for me to learn and remember the meds by breaking them up that way versus studying a whole section over all the meds combined. And as I was taking my test, if there was a post-parutm question, even if i didn't remember the med exactly, I knew which ones belonged and which didn't. And the NCLEX is a lot of that. Many times you may not know the correct answer, but as long as you can recognize which answers to eliminate, you can still get the question right, without knowing the answer.

To summarize: notecards, practice tests, practice tests, practice tests!!

I know how emotionally straining this can be, and now that I have passed I just want to encourage everyone to NOT GIVE UP!! I know i felt like giving up many times, and many times I did. I would get so overwhelmed and frustrated I would just stop studying for weeks. But mostly thanks to the support of this website, I was able to pick my self back up and keep going and not give up, and I FINALLY PASSED!!

Thanks and good luck to everyone!