My NCLEXam story

Published

For starters, I'm an international graduate nurse who moved here in the US from the Philippines in 2009. I earned my BSN in 2006. I'm an average student in terms of my academics/scholastics.

I moved here with my wife and kids with a depended visa (meaning I'm not allowed to work (H4), wife has the H1B). I haven't had any advanced reading nor preparation for the NCLEX RN exam from 2007 - 2014.

March 2014 when I got my SSN and my visa status was changed to working (Yehey! after 5 years). Around 2nd week of April 2014 I have applied for an ATT in NYS BON through CGFNS and took them almost 7 months to process all the documents that were required. Third week of October when I have finally have my ATT. It's Christmas season and we're busy, so I decided not to schedule my exam for the rest of 2014. During that time also, we moved out and bought a new house. I was really quite busy to sit and start my review for my NCLEX.

I think around 2nd week of February 2015 when I started to plan on my review and started lurking here. This site helped me a lot on how to prepare and tailored my self-made course review.

"Just do it! or Just do(n't) over do it!"

I have choosen Kaplan, Hurst, and Saunder's 6th Edition as my resource materials. I decided in the end to have Q-Bank (Kaplan), Hurst Online Review Course, Saunder's 6th Edition (PDF) and Lacharity PDA 3rd edition.

I skipped the first chapters of Saunder's and went straight to Unit III up to Unit XVIII. I've decided not to go on anymore with Saunder's after this chapter since I wanted to start Hurst online review. I

did the usual thing after each chapter, took the chapter exam and read rationales. I think I spent around 3 weeks reading this book.

I started with Lacharity PDA 3rd edition and finished all the book's chapter 2 exam in 3 days. This is a very nice book and It's a must to have.

I moved on to Hurst review, but honestly if you don't have an idea what they're saying then it's going to be hard. Hurst Online Review course is designed for those nurses who is planning to take the NCLEX RN exam in 6 months after graduation. They say that on the introduction as far as I can remember.

Then the Kaplan Q-bank, I do not know what to say, I did not purchase the whole online course. I have watched one of their video online on decision tree/critical thinking which kinda weird for me. I'll

explain later. I failed terribly on Q-bank exam averaging 30%-51%. It is so depressing that I have only used 19% of my Q-bank. I didn't even bother reading the rationale because it lacks explanation. I think

if you are a masochist and okay to be deppressed with 30%-51% of the exam results and loves to think you are worthless after 4 years in college and earing your diploma in BSN then by all mean, lol (sarcasm here). Again Kaplan Q-bank is not for the faint-hearted, it's brutal.

After trying all these I was lost. The Kaplan Q-bank test results were so deppressing that I began to have an anxiety/doubt about passing the exam.

I started lurking back here again looking for guidance, and I stumbled on Suzane's exam strategy for NCLEX exam. I made my research online but don't have the exact info. They say that it was copyrighted of some sorth. I have modified my self-made review course nearly match to it in a way how the review should go. I know time is running out, and I don't want to reschedule my exam date. It emphasizes on CORE CONTENT and using only one review material. As I have mentioned, I have almost finished reading Saunder's 6th edition and for consistency, I purchased the Saunder's Q&A review at Evolve. I started doing adult per system (sub category) 100 question a day, core content only exams and if I am getting below 75%, I would repeat the test with new questions only and will not stop until I get 75%. Yes, most of the time, I would run out of new questions and would recycle questions making sure that I would always do each session with 100 straight question, no breaks. On the average, I am doing 200 to 300 new and recycled questions per system per day.

After the practice exam, I would only read through right answers and would tell myself, "I got this one and I don't want to mess with what I know about it!" and move on. I would read and spend time on questions that I was wrong and would try to understand the rationales, and why I answered it wrong. Overall, I repeated most of the systems getting only 61-68% on the first attempt and have recycled most of the questions because I keep on getting below 75%. I would repeat the exam up to the point that I would get an above 75%+ and moved on to the next system. At this stage during the practice exam, I am answering the question and explaining the answer w/o even glancing at the choices. This here I think, was the magic of this whole thing.

It took me 15 straight days to finish all the core content adult practice exam from cardio to respiratory sub categories (total of 14 systems). I have an average score of 85%-91% (last exam score on each system).

Typically, I rest on weekends on my review. I studied on weekdays from 10am to 3pm with an hour break around 12noon to 1pm. I have scheduled my exam at 11am. I felt that this is the time during my review that everything seems easy to understand.

Overall, I spent around 6 weeks preparing for the NCLEX exam.

Exam Day May 19, 2015. I Woke up around 7am have breakfast. Anxiety level low. Did some things to helped me relax but to no avail. At 9am prepared myself and left the house at around 9:45am. I arrived at the vicinity of the testing center at 10:13am and decided to review nursing nutrition and pediatrics developmental growth inside the car. Anxiety level medium. Around 10:55am, I went inside the testing center and did the screening and at 11:35am, I'm infront of the computer screen ready to start the exam. After answering the first 10 questions I was in full throttle. Though I took too much time answering each question, I was so confident aswering them all. I didn't pay much attention on the total number of questions and the time remaining.

I finished the exam at around 2:17pm. I ended up with 75 questions. I have gotten 46 SATAs (including 7 D&D), 9 drug questions, 1 ecg strip question, and the rest is prioritization and negative/positive querry questions. After 75 questions and my computer screen went blue. I paused, I told myself I did good and I can't believe it. After reading all the feedbacks here, on how hard this exam was, I felt the opposite. I'm saying to myself I nailed this damn thing inspite of having 46 SATAs questions and all that I needed was Saunder's and Suzane's testing strategy.

You cannot apply the Kaplan's decision tree skill in 46 SATAs questions. There is no way as far as I'm concern but again, I didn't enroll in their whole program.

For those of you who were like me and have been out of school and practice for quite sometime, I hope you find my story inspirational especially to those who are struggling with the NCLEX exam. I will pray for you to make and pass this exam.

Hurst and Kaplan review programs are good, but IN MY OPINION, these programs were made for those who will take their exam within 6 months after graduation.

Lastly, I would like to thank God, my wife, family, and Suzanne and all the wonderful nurses here at Allnurses.

I just have my quick result, and I pass the exam and PVT works.

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Hi ikabud.. wow congratulations.. thats very inspiring.. like you i graduated nursing in the philippines but due to my fear i decided to just take the LPN.. well i just took it last may 15 stopped at 85 and got the good pop up... i am still waiting for the result since california does not participate in quick results... i graduated 2008 yes 2008 long time lol but my cousins motivated me to just take the nclex... if i passed the lpn i will go for RN but california is very strict now they are requiring all the major and minor cases as well as the clinical rotations.. i have them all since i didnt took local board exam in the philippines.. i hope it will turn out right... i am inspired by you.. i have 2 kids and yeah i am ready to go up for RN..

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Congrats. I am so proud of you. I also graduated in 2008 and continue to tackle the beast. I couldn't do the boards then because of situations like yours. However, I will not give up. Please tell me more about Suzane' test strategy.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Congrats. I am so proud of you. I also graduated in 2008 and continue to tackle the beast. I couldn't do the boards then because of situations like yours. However, I will not give up. Please tell me more about Suzane' test strategy.

Suzanne's plan is no longer available on this site and hasn't been for several years. The plan is proprietary and copyrighted to Suzanne a longtime member of all nurses not active at this time.

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Congratulations! :nurse:

Wow.....very inspiring! Guess I have no excuse to feel like throwing in the towel just cause it seems so hard!

Thanks for sharing and best of luck in all your endeavors!

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