My NCLEX strategy

MismatchRN · Sep 12, 2014

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to post my journey because reading the testimony of others kept me on the somewhat sane.

I graduated early August and took my nclex 9/9. My school offers the Kaplan review free of charge so I figured I'd take advantage of it. Along with that I listened to Hurst recordings but not too often because I listened through out nursing school so I felt pretty solid on content. I used the cd that came with the yellow Saunders book as well as the qbank. On the qbank, I had a 66 average and I managed to complete all the questions. For my diagnostic test, I had 65. Readiness was a 68, and I only completed question trainer 7 since I'd already went through the entire qbank. On that I scored a 74. Even if your scores aren't that great just make sure you read the rationale like everyone preaches on here. It fills in the gaps that Hurst misses during the review. I had a notebook dedicated to writing the rationale or newly attained knowledge on any concept/medication that I'd missed. I would skim through that whenever I had downtime.

Fast forward to 9/9/14 I took the nclex at 8am after only sleeping for a total of 3 hours, if that because I was so nervous. I go sit down to take the text and I just knew it would cut off at 75. It felt "easy". I began to wonder if I was getting lower level questions. Of course, I left feeling like I just bombed it because I'd always heard that if you walk out feeling like you did well you probably failed. I honestly felt like I knew almost everything that was thrown at me. I can say that half of my test were alternate format ie SATA, ordering, pictures in multiple choice form. I spent the day with my stomach in knots.

I decided to do the new PVT trick where you enter your cc and I got the new "good pop-up" where it will not let you register/charge your cc. I did this around 9 pm the same night. The next morning I woke up and found that I PASSED!! I'm a believer in the new trick and although its a trick, it allowed me to somewhat relax. Best of luck!! Don't doubt yourself, you made it far enough to take it so you can do it!!