My NCLEX Journey!

[Islandchick]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share my NCLEX journey hoping it can help others as many people in this site helped me.

Some background: I attended nursing school in Florida where they utilized Kaplan throughout our exams and Hesi as our final exit exam. I graduated in May, received my ATT early June and scheduled my exam for mid July.

How I studied: Since my school had Hesi for our exit exam on April, I really didn't know what type of questions they would ask, so I focused more on doing content than practicing questions in my yourbestgrade site. To study for that, I began reviewing content using my Saunders book and Hesi (green) book in January and by the time my Hesi was close, I already had a wonderful set of notes I compiled which I SWEAR helped me pass Hesi! I wanted to mention this part in my NCLEX journey because I used those notes I have compiled as my only content to study for the NCLEX.

After graduating in May, I admit that I was slacking for a bit. I added more notes in my Saunders/Hesi document to areas and subjects I grazed and I also bought and looked over my Kaplan strategies book which was wonderful in helping you breakdown questions. Once I received my ATT and chose a date for exactly one month, I started going hardcore with studying and began doing practice questions in the Kaplan site with the QBanks, trainers and sample exams. I also ended up buying UWorld. I would do 150-200 questions each day and read every single rationale. I was scoring 50-60s in Kaplan and was always a little below or above average in UWorld. In total, I did about 5,000 questions!

Right before the exam: Ok so I know that taking the NCLEX is a big deal for every nurse. I know it definitely was for me. A couple of days before my exam I have finished all my questions and wanted my remaining days just to review my notes. This was the toughest part because I have never experienced so much anxiety in my life. I couldn't concentrate on anything, I couldn't eat and I was crying all the time. I kept putting myself down if I couldn't remember a lab value or a symptom of a disease and would hate myself if I took a little mental break and thought that i was wasting time. To make it worst, I got a call from one of the best hospitals in my area to offer me a nursing position! NOW THE PRESSURE WAS REALLY GETTING TO ME. So much so that I didn't even tell anyone about my offer, thinking that if they knew and I ended up failing, not only did i lose my license but a wonderful job offer so I would double disappoint them lol! Anyways, I know you're suppose to relax the day before the exam but that's exactly the opposite of what I did where I reviewed notes from 7 am to 10 pm! I know, I'm crazy! I ended up with the worst headache, so please don't do what I did!

The NCLEX: My exam was on July 16 (Saturday). Once I sat down in my cubicle, the first thing I did was pray. Now I will not be sharing specific questions from my exam, so all that I can tell you was that it was one of the hardest exams I ever had to take in all my life. The NCLEX had the same screen format as UWorld but difficulty as Kaplan. There were questions with content I have never even heard about but I used educated guesses to answer them as best as I could. I also caught myself just staring at the monitor trying to process what the heck I just read for a while and when that happened, I tried to pick what I believed to be the most correct answer and moved on. I had a variety of question types such as SATA, hot spot, put in order and images. What I didn't have were questions of major nursing areas which I came in thinking I would definitely have. So its true in what they say that in NCLEX, you have no idea what you will get. But you know what? It should be a blessing that you are getting difficult questions because it just means that you are doing above level passing questions! Anyways, two hours later when I was on question 75 and was about to click the next button, I stopped and prayed again. I prayed that it would be my last question and that I passed and sure enough, once I clicked 'next' the screen went blue! HAAZAA! I thought. Finally done! I was so happy that I had no more questions left, but the feeling only lasted for 0.03 seconds when I began to think, "OMG what if I did so bad I failed in the minimum amount of questions?" Then my anxiety came back.

After the exam: I walked out of the testing center feeling awful. I honestly believed I failed which is pretty common for a lot of people. Now since I took my exam on a Saturday, i wouldn't know my results until Monday, so during all of Sunday, my mom was trying to get me to do the PVT trick with her card. I didn't want to. I know many people swear by the trick but to me, I didn't think it was reliable and I didn't want to risk it. Plus I was too anxious.

The result: So its Monday, 8:20 AM. My friends said they received their results at 9 AM but I had a feeling my results would be available already. My heart is pounding with every keystroke as I typed in my login information in the MQA site. I click on 'exam results' and their it was! It was so beautiful! The wonderful, capitalized, blue colored, underlined word of PASS next to my name! I have never been more happy in my life. All my hard work, all my sacrifices, everything was in there on that screen. I thought about all the late night studying, the 150+ questions everyday and the crying in the past month and told myself it was worth it all. I went to church straight after and thanked the Lord.

Final thoughts: This exam is going to break you down. Its tough and it should be. It tests your critical thinking skills, which is vital as a nurse. My advice in all this is the same as any other advice here, which is to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE questions! Do as much as you can and read every single rationale. The strategies I used when I was practicing doing questions is what I honestly believed helped me pass the exam. Content is important but you should have basic content already after graduating from nursing school. You have to get used to how they ask you questions and how to answer them.

If you study hard and dedicate yourself to this exam, then you will PASS! It's definitely worth it! I wish all of you taking the exam a good luck!