My NCLEX Story (started from the bottom)

Published Aug 10, 2014

2 Posts

I promised myself If I passed my NCLEX I would share my story in hope to inspire you guys!

Background

So I graduated May 2014 from William Paterson with a BSN. My first 2.5 years of college I studied really hard, but the last 1.5 years I was THE laziest nursing student ever. I managed to wiggle through nursing with minimal studying my last year. My last semester in preparing to graduated, I took the HESI and ATI Predictor exam. HESI which I failed, I believe I got a 58% and ATI Predictor Exam which gave me a 17% chance of passing NCLEX for the first time.

Knowing this after graduation, I knew I had to step my game up. A week and a half after graduation and just relaxing I got right into studying. I recently purchased Saunders and studied the Fundamental section. After about two weeks, I took Kaplan which I received a 42% on the Diagnostic test. Obviously I still had ways to go. After finishing Kaplan I took my Readiness test after two weeks and got a 49%, still more work to go. I prematurely took Question Trainer 1-4 scoring roughly 50% on the trainers. I then started Qbank for Kaplan and pretty much rushed through them! (Don't do this) After about finishing 50% of the questions, I read some tips to read all the rationales for the questions that you get wrong AND right. I really believe this is the secret to passing the NCLEX. Being able to understand the question and WHY the answer is the answer.

(Also to note, I studied mostly 6 days a week Mon-Sat, and if I did not feel like studying one day, I just skipped the day, you got to keep yourself sane. I loved listening to praise and worship and attended church and rested and hungout with friends every Sunday and Friday night. Give yourself sometime to enjoy! I'm not one of the people who can adhere strictly to a study schedule.)

I also purchased NCSBN 3 week course after scheduling my NCLEX. I started reading content from NCSBN which I believe was helpful but after about 4 sections, I stopped. Content was boring to me. So all I did were questions. I finished Kaplan Qbank and did about 60% of NCSBN questions. I also had the NCLEX-RN Mastery App Full version on my iPhone which helped tremendously as I was able to do questions on the go. What also helped me was the 34 pg study guide that is posted somewhere in allnurses, and also a study guide that I purchased from some guy on YouTube which I read through only once. All in all, the best way to study for NCLEX is to read rationales and understanding the question!

If interested my Question Trainer scores were:

QT1: 53 QT2: 52 QT3: 51 QT4: 59 QT5: 68 QT6: 56 QT7: 57

Averaged 55% on Qbank.

So as you can see not the best scores, but reading every question was very helpful.

The day before the NCLEX I maybe read a few pages from the study guide but that was all, I can't stress enough to do something to get your mind off the NCLEX the day before the exam. The day of the exam, I had breakfast, coffee, wore a bright color shirt (supposedly helps) and went off my way to take my exam. I arrived the testing center and completed my exam after 78 questions. After failing HESI and saying that I had minimal chance of passing NCLEX first time according to ATI, I conquered it! I had many SATA, Order Response and some images. After driving back home, I did the pearson vue trick and got the good popup. Two days later I purchased Quick Results and it said pass! Praise God!