My NCLEX Pass story

[magnoliophyte]

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd share my brief story on passing the NCLEX just this Monday. I'm surprised how fast I got official results!

After graduating nursing school I was very nervous about the boards, because all through school they told us that the HESI was a fairly good indicator of how you'd perform on the board exam. I always did horrendous on the HESI tests for some reason. I got B's or A's on all my class exams, including finals, but the HESI exams that we took as block exits would always murder me and were always a huge source of discouragement. All of my peers did excellent on the HESI and it really made me feel like I wasn't "getting" something that other people were.

Needless to say it remained a huge thorn in my side as I started preparing for the board. I kept hearing this nagging voice telling me that I had a high chance of failure since my track record on this sort of thing was so bad.

That was my biggest challenge, was overcoming my own doubts. It's harder than it sounds to do that, sometimes.

As far as what I studied; I actually used only the Saunders book and CD software. It was all I could afford since I completely ran out of money after paying those huge registration fees and then having my truck break down a couple weeks later. I thought this was really going to doom me since everyone else on here seemed to talk about using multiple books and almost always the Kaplan book or Q-bank thing.

I couldn't afford any of that stuff so I stuck with my one source. I read the chapters that the pre-exam said I should focus on, and then the last week and a half or so up to my exam I did nothing but questions in every content area. I think I wound up answering maybe 2,000 or so, possibly less. I tried to get myself to do more, but I honestly just got VERY sick of it at some point.

The night before I had trouble sleeping, and only managed to eat a banana before heading off.

As I sat down to take my test, though, I felt a really strange peace come over me. I was rested, relaxed...seeing as how the day before I did nothing but goof around on my X-box and watch basketball videos on youtube. As I started reading questions, I was getting very surprised just how much I was starting to recall from answering questions. I was recognizing rationales and spotting the strategies of the questions pretty fluidly.

I didn't really pay attention to my time, or anything else except each question as it came. I was actually surprised when it shut off at what seemed an abruptly short period of time, right at 80 questions. I answered what seemed to be a LOT of the dreaded SATA questions, and many more involving delegation, priorities, teaching...

I had mixed feelings about determining whether I thought I failed or not--I felt so confident in my answers, and didn't find myself guessing between 2 or anything like that. I knew what I was picking were good answers, somehow. I had people in the past tell me "Oh, usually if you think you aced it, that actually means you totally blew it!". I'm not usually one to believe in superstitions or blanket-statements, but it entered my mind and bothered me a little.

So today I find out I passed and that my confidence wasn't misplaced! Yay for that.

My advice to people getting ready is to, like I'm sure others say, do as many practice questions as you can possibly stomach ranging on a variety of subjects. I think the sheer exposure to high volumes of these things is what gets you feeling at-ease with doing it on the real McCoy. It really beefs up your mental game.

So that closes that chapter of my life, and now I have to find a job. Ohh boy...

[USRN2Be]

:ancong!:

[oztizz184]

wow congrats! gives me hope!

My school has to do the dreaded HESI too, and I don't do well on those at all!!! Reading this gave me so much hope! Thank you and congrats again!

[lvloverRN]

congratulations ! As you can see my user name says it all -- nursewannabe.. although i graduated this past may, and finished nursing school already, im still soo scared and im dreading this whole nclex thingy..ive been answering questions and im taking my nclex next week... wish me luck!! you gave me hope... goodluck to you too im sure you'll find a great job where you can make a difference out there..

[Iammblessed2011]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I pray i can write a post like this next month after i PASS my test!!

[suz201]

Congratulations, I took mine monday as well but do not know my results yet and its stressing me out, I am lost at what to think now.

[caliotter3]

:ancong!:

[Faithful Pau]

@ magnoliophyte

Congratulations!! Very inspiring indeed.. What really gave me hope is that we are using the same review material and the same perspective in studying, ANSWER QUESTIONS A LOT, but most important UNDERSTAND the RATIONALE.. :)

I'm still studying and my NCLEX-RN is coming very soon, in about 2 weeks.. So this post is definitely a boost of moral for us who study and stick to Saunders.. I left all my materials back at home in the Philippines, and I only have the Saunders book and CD to study on..

Thank you for your post, and hopefully in GOD's grace I will be able to inspire others too with my own story.. :)

[Yownyown, BSN, RN]

thank you for sharing your experience! =) GODbless!

[Anne36, LPN]

Wow, that made me feel a lot better since I used mostly the Saunders for my nclex-pn tommorow. I average about 75 % on the exams I have taken. Im burnt out and dont feel well, Im not doing anymore studying now.