Just took the nclex- good pop up!!!?

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Specializes in ED RN, PEDS RN, IV NURSE.

Oh, my, my last thread outlines my journey to this moment and it has indeed been a long one. After studying my butt off for 3 weeks, 6 days a week, 9 hours a day, 200+ question p/day....it took everything in my power to NOT study yesterday. But with my amazing family, they made it easy and pulled me all over town to get my mind off things. Last night was hell. I took sleepytime tea, got a massage (couretesy of the love) to try and calm me down...and though I felt a sense of peace....I was wide awake, and just ready to go. No better way to put it. I wasn't stressed, I was just ready to go. Which says alot because up until yesterday I was stressed....

This morning, my test was at 8am. I prayed so hard, talked to myself in the shower to give myself confidence and went to the testing center with more butterflies than the rainforest. I sat down in front of my cubicle and just tried to center myself through the tutorial. I thought I would dump all my info onto the white board....but when the test started all I wrote was:

It's just another test.

It's between you and God. You got this.

And so, I began. The test was no where near as bad as I had anticiapted it to be...not sure WHAT I expected. But...the truth is, though it was not easy by any means, if you finished nursing school and had even looked at an NCLEX style question, you would know what to expect....now, KNOWING how to answer? That comes with Thousands of questions under your belt...and I don't downplay THAT part....AT ALL.

My second question was a SATA. I had about 10 SATA, 5 Put in order, 1 exhibit and the rest rest were prioritization (who would you see first, what would you do first), a couple pharm, some pt teaching (SATA), 2-4 OB/PEDS, 2-3 infection control (proper PPE, cohorting) and ONLY 2-3 Knowledge based questions (which symptoms go to this disease). No math. When I found myself tweaking out because of the whole situation, the difficulty of the question...I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and wrote on my board.

YOU DESERVE THIS. DO THIS FOR YOUR FAMILY.

When I saw my question number at 60, my heart started to pound.....62...65....70...72....By the time I got to 74 I had to truly try to read the question in its entirety because f how anxious I was to be at 75... but I managed, pulled through and even got a SATA right before I hit the dreaded 75. I answered 75 and about jumped out of my seat when the screen turned blue...I couldn't get through the questionnaire at the end FAST enough!!!

I felt confident, and that scared me....should i BE this confident? But I was, i saw people walking out almost in tears....shrugging off my goodlucks....but in the end, for me, I knew i had done all I could. I honestly don't know how I could've prepared better.... and thats my advice, work hard...bc when does work hard NOT pay off?

I had no life for 3 weeks. My family misses me, I miss my family, Im tired of being a student and ready to be an RN.

So, I got home....did the PVT trick and got the good pop up---- I hope this is true....bc than my confidence was warranted!!

My advice whether I passed or not is this. Study your a$$ off, whats 3 weeks compared to the rest of your life, be confident

Alot of people I have read will say Study this....study that....focus this and focus on that.... all I can say is answer as MANY question as possible. Because the more you see the more you know....

Good luck everyone, I hope this helped you the way you all have helped me....

Heres to hoping the good PVT is true!! :)

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Woooohooo! Congratulations! :nurse::up:

Oh I can definitely relate to having no life :banghead:

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Yeah I took it yesterday but I had the whole 265 questions. I took my time.....4.5 hours. My last question was a SATA and I felt really confident with it. I didn't get upset when it didn't cut off at 75 though. After finishing I did the PVT in the parking lot and got the good popup.....did it at home an hour later to make sure, and did it about 5 more times yesterday and this morning, still getting the good popup. So lets hope it stays that way. Congrats! to you! Also, I noticed runs of 8-9 SATA questions and after those (I would apparently miss the question) and get bumped to a memorization question and the process started over again.

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Congratulations! I too can relate. Preparing mine for feb, been studying and working since oct but I requested to take time off work 3 weeks before my exam!! yes hard work does pay off!

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What did you use to study?

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great story..congrats!!! 7 more days till my nclex anxity level is way beyond it's peak but keeping my faith alive and kicking :)

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Congrats!!! The PVT is true. I took mine in August and got the good pop up and passed, a friend of mine took it around the same time and got the bad pop up (credit card screen) and she indeed didn't pass. Crazy the amount of studying/stress for one test but SO worth the results :):geek:

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Hi, I took mine this morning and I got the good pop up 10 min later in the parking lot:) I hope it works because otherwise I will be devastated:(. It stopped at 82 and I had a lot of prioritization questions. Thank you God if this is really true and I passed it! And Thanks to all of you who shared your experiencies here! Good luck to all of us!

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Congratulations!! And thanks for sharing all your experiences about the NCLEX. I have two weeks to take the nclex but my scores with kaplan Qbank is not encouraging me, am going from high 60s to low 50s.I dont know if am ready for the exam. I am using PDA, Kaplan and Saunders to study. please i need any advice!

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Congrats!!!!!!

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CONGRATS!!!!!!! :up::nurse:

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Specializes in ED RN, PEDS RN, IV NURSE.

I used Prep-U (lippincott software) for the majority of answering questions. About 2000 questions were answered using prep-u. But, in conjunction with prep-u I purchased the NCSBN 3 week course and just answered all of the programs questions. Whenever I took a test on Saunders or Prep-U I would look at my weakest points and then spend some time reviewing it on the NCSBN course... I like the NCSBN course alot, but it was super wordy. So since i cant sit and read, I just used it like I mentioned before for questions and only to review my weakest points. Finally to guage out where I was I would take Kaplan Qustion Trainers. If I felt like I was getting somehwere I would use a question trainer to see if I was coming up in scores. I only did QT1, QT2, QT3 and QT6 right before the exam. I also left the day before the exam free. Lastly, my school, who also provided me with the materials I used to study (with the exception of the 3 week course), provided me with an audio NCLEX review course and I popped in my ipod whenever I couldn't be on the computer. Hope this helps.

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