If I passed, you can pass!

11 Posts

I told myself that if I passed the NCLEX on my first try, I would post here. Reading how other people did on reviews like Kaplan and Hurst really calmed my anxiety when I was studying, so I hope I can calm some people's nerves too!

I graduated in December 2014, and it took me FOREVER to get my ATT. I took my exam March 18, did the PVT trick that night and got the good popup (and continued to get the good popup 24 hours later), and found out today through the quick results that I passed!

My school enrolled us in Kaplan live review, where my diagnostic score was a 48% and I never did the readiness test. I completed all the q-bank questions with an average of 59% and completed the question trainers and sample tests with the following scores:

Q-Trainer 1: 58%

Q-Trainer 2: 65%

Q-Trainer 3: 57%

Q-Trainer 4: 56%

Q-Trainer 5: 68.7%

Q-Trainer 6: 60.5%

Q-Trainer 7: 58.5% (I did this one 2 days before my test and read the rationales the day before)

Sample Test 1: 42% (I was hungover and obviously not focused haha)

Sample Test 2: 66% (Had to do this one right after the first to boost my confidence)

Sample Test 3, Priorities: 83.3%

Sample Test 4, Alternative Format: 32%

I also did Hurst live review, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They encourage you to go back and listen to the core videos, which I only did for a couple. I listened to the speciality videos, but after filling in all the pages, I didn't really go back and read my student manual. I preferred to answer Kaplan questions since I found them to be more difficult than the Q-Reviews. My Q-Review scores were:

Q Review 1: 85/125 = 68%

Q Review 2: 73/125 = 58.4%

Q Review 3: 89/125 = 71.22%

Q Review 4: 83/125 = 64.8%

Q Review 5: 81/125 = 64.8%

Q Review 6: 82/125 64.1%

So you can see my scores weren't that great, but that was essentially all I did!

In school I was nowhere near an A student but I finished the NCLEX in one hour with ~79 questions. I got about 15 SATA, 3-4 exhibits, and 3-4 place in the correct order. I also got more meds than I expected to, which I felt like I got every one of those questions wrong. After the test, I was so hopped up on caffeine and thought I did well, but as my caffeine buzz faded so did my confidence. I thought I had gotten too many knowledge/comprehension questions and not enough analysis/application.

If I can do it, so can you! I read that 85% of people pass on the first try, and if you do Kaplan and are scoring between 50-60% you are ready to test. I believe that it is important to read EVERY rationale, and not just focus on what your score was. For some of the Kaplan questions I would write down facts in a little notebook, but I only read through that the night before the test. Definitely know your normal lab values and vitals!! You can do it! :)