Just took my NCLEX-PN today

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Just finished my NCLEX-PN today, one step on the road to eventually becoming an RN w/BSN. Will not know if I for sure passed for a while I guess.... I really don't see why on a computerized exam why they cannot let you know immediately if you pass or fail. I don't get that. I fully understand why for back in the day when all these test were old fashioned number two pencil bubble in the correct answer on the scantron sheet - those things take a while to tally and process. I am not willing to pay extra to get early results either because I figured I've already paid enough to register with the Board of Nursing and exam fee to Pearson Ed. The computer did shut off at the minimum amount of questions so maybe that's a good thing. From what I understand if it does shut off at 86 questions either you passed, or you failed big time, and although I wasn't rock solid sure of EVERY answer, I don't feel like I failed it bigtime. There were a lot of questions that I feel confident that I got correct - even the dreaded "pick all that apply" questions. And there were actually quite a few of those. So I will just play the waiting game like everyone else and in a few days check the Board of Nursing website to see if I passed and got my LPN license. It feels like a two ton weight has been lifted off of me, believe me :dead:

Hi congrats! Did u feel as though the select all that apply were difficult? I'm a lil worried about content so I'm just wondering if it was easy or common sense questions to pick and choose what would be the correct answer or not.

I think (my own opinion anyway) that they are harder because you have more than one potential correct answer in the question so instead of just eliminating say two potential answers and then thinking your way through the remaining two, you have to go through this entire process with maybe like six potentially correct or incorrect answers, so for me they take longer to really think through properly than the standard four multiple choice - pick one type of question. And they are quizzing you on more than one aspect of the original question, so yes I believe that they are harder, and of course if you miss any part of it the whole thing is wrong, they don't give partial credit for a 90% correct answer. My advice is to on your practice CD practice specifically the alternative format "pick all that apply" questions so that you become better and more confident with them. I surprisingly feel like I did alright with them but again I thought that they were among the harder and more time consuming questions offered. You would use the same tactics and strategies as for the regular questions, but in a more intense and time consuming way because there are more potential correct answers, not just one.

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YOU PASSED ! CONGRATS !!!

PVT trick worked for me :) I took mine on the 10th ...wooohoooo

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YOU PASSED ! CONGRATS !!!

PVT trick worked for me :) I took mine on the 10th ...wooohoooo

Thanks and congrats! Just to update here - I've been busy at work for the past several days now so haven't been able to get back to allnurses till now, but I found out through my state board of nursing's website on the following Monday that I had my license (took the NCLEX on a Saturday afternoon). I passed it on the first try - most of my studying and reviewing was from the 4th Edition Saunders NCLEX-PN review book (the one with the green cover). I see on Amazon.com that they now have a 5th Edition out. If you are just beginning your studies you should probably get that one but the 4th Ed. worked for me. I actually took PTO time off of work for the prior couple of weeks in advance of the test so I would not be distracted by work or pooped out from that. I deliberately scheduled my test for 1 PM because studies have shown that even if you consider yourself a "morning person" your biorythyms and cognitive abilities aren't really at their peak until mid-day - and I really believe this. Don't ever schedule an exam for like 8 in the morning. Sometimes we have to take tests then and have no choice but if you do have a choice schedule it for later in the day. Give yourself about two months between registering with your BON and taking the exam. That's what I did. You actually will have a window of about two and a half months time wise to schedule it. Most people who are successful on the first attempt report that they gave themselves a month and a half to two months. Consider thoughtfully that you probably know more than you are giving yourself credit for, and that many others have taken and passed this, so yes you too should be able to. Make sure you use the CD that comes with the Saunders book as its the CD that has all of the thousands of practice questions, including the alternative format questions. There are some very good videos on YouTube that can help you prepare - avoid the ones that are just basically advertisments for more books or study programs. An example of an excellent lecture series is the John Campbell nursing videos on YouTube. The guy is a Brit so don't be put off by his British accent or expressions - he lectures in a professional way that makes things easy to understand, I wish I'd had more instructors in nursing school like him. Another is Anneliese Garrison RN. She's a nurse who has been helping people over YouTube and Skype to pass NCLEX now since 1995. She has some free vids on YouTube that you don't have to pay for - especially pharmacology vids. She actually charges for the real time Skype video conferences though. I didn't do that (I may when it comes time to study for the RN NCLEX) but I did watch her free vids on YouTube. These were just some of my study strategies......

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Thanks and congrats! Just to update here - I've been busy at work for the past several days now so haven't been able to get back to allnurses till now, but I found out through my state board of nursing's website on the following Monday that I had my license (took the NCLEX on a Saturday afternoon). I passed it on the first try - most of my studying and reviewing was from the 4th Edition Saunders NCLEX-PN review book (the one with the green cover). I see on Amazon.com that they now have a 5th Edition out. If you are just beginning your studies you should probably get that one but the 4th Ed. worked for me. I actually took PTO time off of work for the prior couple of weeks in advance of the test so I would not be distracted by work or pooped out from that. I deliberately scheduled my test for 1 PM because studies have shown that even if you consider yourself a "morning person" your biorythyms and cognitive abilities aren't really at their peak until mid-day - and I really believe this. Don't ever schedule an exam for like 8 in the morning. Sometimes we have to take tests then and have no choice but if you do have a choice schedule it for later in the day. Give yourself about two months between registering with your BON and taking the exam. That's what I did. You actually will have a window of about two and a half months time wise to schedule it. Most people who are successful on the first attempt report that they gave themselves a month and a half to two months. Consider thoughtfully that you probably know more than you are giving yourself credit for, and that many others have taken and passed this, so yes you too should be able to. Make sure you use the CD that comes with the Saunders book as its the CD that has all of the thousands of practice questions, including the alternative format questions. There are some very good videos on YouTube that can help you prepare - avoid the ones that are just basically advertisments for more books or study programs. An example of an excellent lecture series is the John Campbell nursing videos on YouTube. The guy is a Brit so don't be put off by his British accent or expressions - he lectures in a professional way that makes things easy to understand, I wish I'd had more instructors in nursing school like him. Another is Anneliese Garrison RN. She's a nurse who has been helping people over YouTube and Skype to pass NCLEX now since 1995. She has some free vids on YouTube that you don't have to pay for - especially pharmacology vids. She actually charges for the real time Skype video conferences though. I didn't do that (I may when it comes time to study for the RN NCLEX) but I did watch her free vids on YouTube. These were just some of my study strategies......

Thanx a lot! Congrats! I am using the cd from 4th edition Saunders right now. I feel like its not enough. I'm not sure tho. Ik that the drag and drop are some procedures and was wondering if ud be willing to talk about those at all? I'm kinda scared of those too. Did u feel at all that the Saunders cd 4th was helpful?? Did u use anything else? Are the questions on the nclex similar to Saunders???!!! Thanx!!!

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Thanx a lot! Congrats! I am using the cd from 4th edition Saunders right now. I feel like its not enough. I'm not sure tho. Ik that the drag and drop are some procedures and was wondering if ud be willing to talk about those at all? I'm kinda scared of those too. Did u feel at all that the Saunders cd 4th was helpful?? Did u use anything else? Are the questions on the nclex similar to Saunders???!!! Thanx!!!

By "drag and drop" I am assuming you mean the ones where you have to take a list of things on the left and put them in the correct order on the right, either in order of seriousness or maybe the order in which you would do what first, second, third etc. Yes there are those also. Here again you would use your critical/analytical thinking to determine what to do first and what is most immediate. Remember your ABC's (airway, breathing, circulation) in that order of importance and immediacy. Remember your nursing process - ADPIE - Assessment, Documentation, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation - in that order. Carefully and thoughtfully consider what you need to do first and what category it fits into. Remember Maslow's Pyramid hierarchy of human needs and wants, with the most basic physiological needs being at the base of the pyramid and being the needs you have to address first in a patient. Do specifically study the general classes of drugs, what their suffix endings are (-ide, -olol, sulfa-, -myacin, etc) and what these classes do and are given for, what the common contraindications for giving them are etc. Also keep in mind that these are not absolute - example = Vancomyacin - despite the name it's not a -myacin related drug. You will never be able to remember and memorize each individual drug and all it's characteristics, so take the approach I've mentioned here. The Saunders CD is really a must IMO - It has thousands of questions that the book itself does not have and you are practicing them in the same format as you will be taking the exam with - via computer, and it times you just like the real test. Don't worry if you don't get a lot of them right at first - It's the process and reading the rationales even for the wrong answers - you should study and read all of those also, even if you got that particular question correct. You thereby learn about other things as well as the correct answer. I used mostly the Saunders 4th Ed. book and CD, I'd say about like 80 percent of my final studying and the other 20 percent video lectures from Dr. Campbell and RN MSN Garrison. This is what worked for me - one thing you must remember is that everyone's style of learning is different - it's what works best for you and you have to find out what that is. For example a lot of my classmates were big into flash cards - but I myself am not really a "flash card person". I can look at a flash card a hundred times, then put it away for an hour, and still forget the answer, so they just don't work for me, but that's just me - maybe they work for you. I am more of a lecture viewer and visual aids type of person and maybe some book reading tied into what I see and hear in a lecture format. Basically a visual learner. I've never been much of a group studier either - I know that they push that in nursing school and if being in a study group helps and works for you great - go for it. I've never really gotten much out of that style of studying though - again that's just me and my style of learning. I've always been the type where I need to be in a quiet room by myself with no potential distractions and a total focus on areas that I believe that I'm weak in. I don't spend a lot of time on areas that I feel confident that I already know, because my study time is limited. So make sure you have an awareness of what areas are your weak areas and focus on building those areas up. This turned out to be a longer response than I'd planned:nailbiting: but I hope that it has helped you somewhat. Best wishes to you and best of luck in your studying. Just remember the prize at the end. You pass this and you will be a state-certified :nurse:

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congrats . how did you study for it

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