My 1st NCLEX experience, Kaplan, tips and questions

Published

Hey guys,

This is going to be a long post.. I just took the NCLEX-RN yest...and anxiously waiting for results! and I had promised myself to return back to this forum and let u guys know what I did to study - pass or fail...

As an intro, I passed in October, got my ATT November and scheduled exam for December. Throughout nursing school, I was an avg-skimming down to below avg student, depending on the semester. Med surg and pharm were my weak points. But I made it through school and mind you-it was a fast track 12 month program!

I passed in October and started studying mid October. Was really unsure of where to begin. So I began reading the Saunders comprehensive book and I felt like it was just too much info. After a few days, a friend of mine loaned me their Kaplan online review. I had only 2 weeks to finish the entire kaplan, because my friend just passed the exam and had only 2 weeks remaining on kaplan until it expired. So I made a tight schedule realizing that I wont be able to listen to all videos on kaplan. So I skipped the content review videos, and began doing QBank questions about 150-200 a day. I also did their question review videos! If you have problems figuring out questions, those videos r helpful.. I think there were 5 videos consisiting of about 300 questions!

After finishing all those in 2 weeks, I began reading the Kaplan content review which I downloaded for free from amazon to my kindle. It took me like 2 weeks to go through that becoz I was noting down stuff as well... In between reading this, I also was doing questions. I tried to do Mosbys, Davis questions etc but felt like they were not such high level questions. So I researched and found 4 amazing sources which U probably know:

1. Lippincott alternate format questions

2. PDA- LaCharity

3. Nclex RN Mastery app

4. The group called NCLEX SATA questions only (on facebook)

I alternated doing questions from all these sources. So I never got to finish all of them. But I would highly recommend all these 4 sources to everyone + Kaplan qbank if you have the money for it. The QBank questions are very close to how NCLEX looks like, but I definitely felt that NCLEX was harder than the Kaplan questions. I also want to mention that I never used the kaplan strategy they teach U to answer the higher level questions, bcoz I felt like it dint apply to the questions I got for my exam. I really had to think thru the answer choices by myself. But Kaplan questions really gv me a practice on wht higher level questions are so I think that matters the most than their "strategy".

I also did question trainers 1-4 on kaplan mayb 2 weeks before the exam, tried to do 6&7 but ended up just skimming thru some questions for both. If anyone wants to know my scores:

Q-bank : 56% ( I had to calculate this myself bcoz my friend did all the questions and had like a percentage up dere)

QT1: 55, QT2 : 54 QT3 : 48, QT 4: 56

For my exam - had a lot of SATA, teaching questions,some priority and also got a good amount of wht I think were basic level questions- and I say I "think" because answering these felt more difficult than answering some priority questions- which is kinda weird. I felt like I got a pharm question after every 2-3 questions and pharm is my weak point! Not much OB or psych - maybe like 5 or 6. Think the exam ended either at 104 or 105. But yeah, overall I felt like it ws a 50:50 kinda exam.

With regards to time, I took 3 hours to finish that much questions. I felt like time was running away! While I only took 60-90 secs on the Kaplan questions, for the nclex I ws taking close to 2-3 mins for some questions! oops...U gotta pace urself. If you feel like u r taking forever to come up with an answer, just make an educated guess. Because when I got the pop up for the 2 hr break I was on question 55 sumthing and I freaked out a bit bcoz I ws kinda thinking I might go upto 265 and mayb wont gt enuf tym to finish everything. So try to pace urself but dnt let the anxiety in! The NCLEX is almost like a simulation of an emergency situation, where u hv to time everything and at the same time try to get things right. Think actual nursing!

I did the PVT on my phone as soon as I got in the car coz I ws on high nerves! Got the good pop up but I know the NCLEX is scored twice. Just looked up the Pearson vue site right now and under exam history it says "results not available". Should I wait for it to say "delivery successful" before I try the trick again? Also I used an old expired debit card (with no funds obviously) for the trick. Does that work?

Thanks for reading ! Hope all of us pass! Keep studying and keep sharing your experiences !! :)

P.S :- I also want to share a prayer with all of you which I did for everyday 1 week before the exam and also on the day. This is a prayer to St. Joseph of Cupertino, who is the saint of all students and exam takers. I heard the prayer is powerful. Promised I will share this as well- so here it is:

"This powerful prayer is very effective in examinations. It has to be said before appearing in the examination. There are two variants to this prayer. Both the prayers are equally effective. You can choose any one of these:

First Prayer

O Great St. Joseph of Cupertino who while on earth did obtain from God the grace to be asked at your examination only the questions you knew, obtain for me a like favour in the examinations for which I am now preparing. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.

Through Christ our Lord.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, Pray for us.

Amen.

Second Prayer

O St. Joseph of Cupertino who by your prayer obtained from God to be asked at your examination, the only preposition you knew. Grant that I may like you succeed in the (here mention the name of Examination eg. History paper I ) examination. In return I promise to make you known and cause you to be invoked.

O St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me

O Holy Ghost enlighten me

Our Lady of Good Studies pray for me

Sacred Head of Jesus, Seat of divine wisdom, enlighten me.

Remember, when you succeed in the exams then you should thank St. Joseph of Cupertino."

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm not taking my NCLEX any time soon. I enjoy reading the NCLEX posts because it reminds me what I have to work for. On another post I read, someone said that "patience was key". I don't know what all these tricks are. But I hear you get your score in 24-48 hours. I can assume you are very anxious. I would wait instead of doing all of these tricks. Just know you did the best you could and all is done now. You can't turn back and correct yourself. The only thing you can do is the best you have always done. You will know soon enough. :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I'm not taking my NCLEX any time soon. I enjoy reading the NCLEX posts because it reminds me what I have to work for. On another post I read, someone said that "patience was key". I don't know what all these tricks are. But I hear you get your score in 24-48 hours. I can assume you are very anxious. I would wait instead of doing all of these tricks. Just know you did the best you could and all is done now. You can't turn back and correct yourself. The only thing you can do is the best you have always done. You will know soon enough. :)

Thankyou! I passed the exam! I hope whenever u take it, u be well prepared for it! gluck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion