My NCLEX Story

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I have posted a couple of times here and received positive feedback and met amazing people here also. I graduated May 2011 and took my boards August failed with 180 questions. I took it again December failed 265 questions. By this time I was discouraged and started to think that maybe I was not fit to be a nurse. The third time I received help from diana2050 i believe is her name here and Male Murse who wrote an amazing article here about his journey with the boards. He was very helpful to help guide me and encourage me. June 27 I sat for my boards do or die took my time, took my time, and read each question and answer like 3 to 4 times. I PASSED. I was so excited to see the pop up, paid for the quick result, and got the result saying I passed in the mail.

The moral of my story is DO NOT GIVE because I thought a couple of times, "Heck with this I'm going to be a Vegas show girl". My support system wouldn't let me. Do not worry about time because it would hurt you because it did that to me. I rushed every time to take my boards and I failed because I was not ready. I gave myself time in between because there was something I did not understand. Also, you can have all the study material in the world, but if you do not understand the question they are useless.

One thing you must remember: UNDERSTAND YOUR TOPIC AND WHAT IS IT ASKING YOU FOR? This doesn't make sense, but as your doing questions you begin to get things wrong and you're wondering why. Ask yourself "Did I get what the question was asking me?" That is the main objective of this exam. Pace yourself esp. on the exam that was my worst enemy I was racing during the exam and the third time around I just look at the questions and I thought to myself that's all it was. One more thing when you sit in front of that exam that when you doing SATA your doing well because isn't true to all people. I got a couple SATA but that is a weak thing for me, so I received a lot of priority questions, diagrams, exhibits, ecg strips. Bottom line it will vary and don't worry if you just the test and answer them the best way you know how. I used Kaplan mainly and must say Kaplan is harder. Studying is individualized and so is the test.... REMEMBER you decided what you get on the test so do your best make it shut off. I know I used Kaplan, but doesn't mean is going to work for everyone so be mindful of that. I hoped this helped and if any questions send me a PM.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

Thank you for sharing that. I still have a year to go but am already studying Kaplan. I want to be prepared by the time I graduated and don't want to feel like I'm only starting to study once I graduate. And congrats on passing! It's always good to hear that it's possible! :-)

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Congrats !! :yelclap:

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Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

How inspiring! Congrats! :w00t:

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Congrats!!! Very motivated story.. thank u for sharing it to us..

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Good idea to study ahead. I just took NCLEX this week but started studying in January. By studying I mean doing 50 practice questions a day and then looking up content I didn't know. Doing practice questions is essential. It teaches you how to look at and think about questions, which is really what that test is all about. Studying only gets you so far. The biggest thing I got from Kaplan is that it slowed me down big time on the questions. Also the Qbank has 1600 practice questions and multiple practice tests. I think I did most of them. One last thought...there are multiple audio tapes available free online if you take time to search. Many are outdated in terms of meds, but the nursing content is very solid. I listened to them every day, in the car, cooking dinner, walking the dog. They were very very helpful.

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I do agree that you must slow down and read the question, not just assume what they are getting at.

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i need this advice due you guys think i should due kaplin course and Saunders or just stick with kaplin this is my fourth time taking it i feel like such a looser but i know i can when i just have to try harder so what books should i use at first i did kaplin just the book and the question bank Saunder 4 edition and read my adult nursing book over from school now i have Saunders 5th edition but the kaplin nclex specialist said don't read it just due kaplin course so i just signed up for the course on the paper from the board of nursing they said everything near passing except for coordinated care what should i due:icon_roll

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Hi everyone! I just wanted to add a bit of encouragement for anyone who hasn't taken NCLEX. I used Kaplan...I am very grateful that I did. Kaplan seemed like the hardest questions ever and a lot of times I couldn't identify the topic. To me, Kaplan was the closest thing to NCLEX because of how tough the questions are presented. I took 150 Qbank questions everyday and the day before the test I did absolutely nothing. There is no way to prepare for NCLEX other than taking questions everyday up until the test date. The best of luck during your studies, sometimes you can get overwhelmed and feel like why am I doing this to myself but it will be over sooner than you know. I was told by an instructor to stick with one resource and that's it. Too many resources will have you confused :no:, especially if you read in one resource something different from another which will probably lead you to search another text to find out which of the 1st two is correct. Best wishes!:nurse:

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Dreaming88 I would do Kaplan and out of the book I would use their decision tree format. Just continue to take a bunch of questions (was told no more than 150/day) and read and go back over the rationale...see why you the correct answer is correct by looking back within the question to see if there is something that sticks out and makes that answer right. My problem on test was that I could narrow down to the 2 best answers but which was the best out of the two. I hope this helps.

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hi i try to reply ur pm plzz empty ur inbox ,so i can send u reply thanks dear...

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I cleared my inbox... you can send me a pm. Sorry took so long

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