My NCLEX experience

I recently passed my PA boards July 5th and wanted to share my experiences with all who are stressing out just like I did. I didn't take a Kaplan or ATI course or anything, because I've heard they pretty much are a waste of time. I sat down and went through every page of every binder of notes from day 1 of nursing school, and wrote out a mini-book of everything I had either forgot about, or things I wanted to brush up on. However, once I got into my test, I realized that only 3 of the questions I had were actual knowledge-based questions (and meds that I have never seen before). The other 72, to be completely honest, were critical thinking questions. Every single question I came across, I thought 3 things:

1) ABC's

2) Maslow

3) Safety

I went through, found out exactly what the question was asking, and applied each one of these to the question. About 70 of them or so fit into one of these categories. If you all have passed nursing school and graduated, its not that you don't know the material, its all in how you answer the question. It really is important to read each question and find out exactly what the question is asking.

Also: the day before my test, I pampered myself, didn't look at a single nursing thing, and it really helped me calm down and go into the test level-headed. I did find myself very anxious on a few questions, and just closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and then took another look at it.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but that was pretty much how I passed my NCLEX. Good luck to all!!!!