My name just appeared on the website now its official! As promised I will share my experience and materials along my journey.
I grew up in CA and went to pi to finish my RN then graduated in 2009. To be honest after graduation I got distracted with alot of stuff exgf in pi and being active in competition at my sport. But a soon as I got back probably late 2009 I filed my application and started waiting. 6 months have pass and I know CA bon delays foreign graduate application so I decided to call and I found out that they could not find my application and is marked incomplete so I have to send them a new one. I got my first eligibility on 2010, scheduled within a week just browsing some notes and ofcourse failed at 75. Applied for a retake on late 2010 enrolled at Excell review center and studied for 3 months but still failed at 75. I got frustrated and took a break then I started to be more active in my sport. By the time I decided that Im ready again and applied on 2011 but CA Bon asked me some additional requirements so I got bummed. I just complied and sent the letter from BON to my school which my school said that they will just send the cases immediately. They also asked for my previous us passport so I had to do a general cleaning in my apt and storage just to look for it but it took me a while. Then after reading to some post here in the website I thought that CA was a lost cause so I applied to whatever state my brother is based currently on that time it was on CO but he moved recently to HI so I changed my CGFNS app from CO to HI and got eligible in HI. Nov 2012 CA BON replied and they granted me another eligibility so I decided to start self studying some of my notes and books (Information below) I scheduled my exam last friday in CA hoping that I would not need to to register and exam under HI anymore. During those times I studied after work 7pm-1am everyday I stopped in any other things that I was doing like training and going out with friends I tried to isolate myself to just my books. On the last 4 days I just finished the Mary Ann Hogan read it cover to cover and applied to NCSBN for the questions and boy I got discouraged because I scored 45-58 on those practice questions but decided to still go thru with it. On the day before my exam date I was talking to myself like a crazy person telling myself those scores cant stop me from passing this exam and I prayed the whole time for the last 2 weeks. On the day of my exam I prayed and sat on infront of my computer and wrote "Believe!" which my coach Kurt Osiander always remind me everytime I train. I got 13 SATA, 2 computation, 1 EKG, and ton of prioritization and meds like 70%. I stopped at 75 and left the building knowing that I failed again cause the exam was hard af. Got home did the pvt and passed! :)
Books/reviews:
1. Mary Ann Hogan - the book best book as a refresher.
2. PDA - Helped me learn how to deal with prioritization effectively.
3. Excell - I just like how they explain the endo system thats it.
4. 35-page review - I read this on my last day of review (very helpful too)
Tips:
1. Pray and Believe!
2. Make sure you answer the the first 30 questions on nclex the best you can do not rush this cause if you do good this means that you're already in the high level questions.
