My Story of Passing the NCLEX the 2nd Time Around

Laila26

MY STORY

I finished my undergraduate degree from Penn State in May 2014. In January 2015, I went back to an accelerated 15 month (4 semesters) accelerated nursing program at Rutgers University, which is a new program at Rutgers bought out UMDNJ (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey). With the merging of curriculum and teachers, it was most definitely a little unorganized and difficult to keep track of things as we were the first year of students.

I graduated my Nursing Program in May 2016 and took it easy that month. I had family parties and went to Ireland end of May/early June. Living life! When I came back, I started to study, but still didn't have my ATI number. By the time I got my ATI number it was Mid July.

STUDY PLAN

During this time, I was using the 1) Saunders book to study. At first, I was reading each chapter and doing the questions, but many of my friends said that was a waste of time. So after doing that for about half the book, I started just doing the questions at the end of every chapter then going back and reading what needed clarification. I also checked out books from the Library: 2) LaCharity Prioritization, Delegation, and Management---which I did a few questions from each chapter and the exam at the end. 3) Kaplan---I did the practice exam at the end of the book. And Lastly, 4) Lippincott book that had 6 Practice exams. I also used my NCLEX mastery app and made Index cards for labs and various mnemonics. I did questions every day, and then about 1-2 weeks before my test date, I did a practice exam a day.

During this time while I studied, I secured a job on a Med Surg/Telemetry floor. HR at this hospital wanted me to take my exam ASAP so it was scheduled for 8/17

DAY OF THE EXAM

I was nervous and tired. I was working up till my exam and volunteering. I also received news from one of my friends she failed before I took my exam, which made me a little more nervous. After 5 and half hours, my exam shut off at 265 questions and I was DRAINED!!

OUTCOME

I finished my exam around 7pm, I tried the PVT at 12am, and it took my money, I was devastated. :cry: I kept thinking maybe it was a mistake? I read and read all day on allnurses.com about how some people passed even though their credit card was charged. Well, much to my disbelief I really did fail. I found out via quick results and I thought my life was over. I had to call my job and tell them I failed... I couldn't imagine feeling worse.

After going through the stages of grief, I did my research on allnurses.com again. I bought NCBSN course, and after about 2 weeks I found it to be to content based. So After more research, I decided to use UWORLD. UWORLD was the best thing that has ever happened to me!! UWORLD has an educational objective with rationales for each question; and why each multiple-choice answer is incorrect. I also quit my current job and spent all my time focused on the exam with no distractions.

STUDY PLAN/Take 2

I used UWORLD and even learned things I never learned in my accelerated program. At first, I had a hard time figuring out how many questions to do every day. I found that with the rationales being more in depth, I couldn't do 265 questions a day as I would be too drained. Instead, I did three 25 question exams and read the rationales for each question whether it be right or wrong. I set it to where I would get the rationale after answering each question, as opposed to getting all the rationales after taking the exam. It is completely preference based. I would go to the library and do 75 questions a day total, in three intervals of 25 questions. I would also research some procedures I was unfamiliar with and take notes on things I knew I would forget. As my date 10/11, got closer, I would read my notes and index cards and started redoing some of my wrong questions on UWORLD in addition to my 75 questions a day. 2 days before the exam I read the 35-page study guide that has been floating around on all nurses.com. I read half on 10/9 and half on 10/10. I also DID do some questions the day before the exam, but that's only because my friend was late to meet me for lunch. I was happy I read the guide right before the exam because there were about 2-3 questions from it. At the end of UWORLD, I had about 615 questions left and I think my average was around a 50-51%. I mostly made sure my exam scores were within 5% of the average score. The closer I got to my exam, my scores increased tremendously, and I believe a large part of that Is NERVES.

DAY OF THE EXAM/Take 2

I woke up, got my wawa coffee and was well on my way to the testing center. I got there early and they weren't opened yet. So I sat in the hallway thinking... OMG I FORGOT EVERYTHING! I FORGOT MY ACID-BASE IMBALANCES! As I was googling it, I realized there is NO turning back now. I checked in, waited my turn... got sat in my station and began my exam. I felt SO CALM compared to last time. I didn't even use my earplugs. I sat there and I took my exam as if I were taking another UWORLD exam...whispering the rationales to myself, still anxious that it may turn off at 75. AND IT DID! IT TURNED OFF AT 75 QUESTIONS!

POST 2ND EXAM

I walked out of the testing center after about an hour and 40 minutes, and I had no idea how to feel. In my mind, I thought it was easy but almost too easy. I got mostly priority, ~6-7 SATA questions. No strips, hardly any meds, no ABGS (my arch enemy), no Fetal Monitoring strips. I thought I must've failed! But then I thought, could I REALLY fail at 265 with "near passing standard" in every category, and then fail AGAIN at 75 questions? There's no way. So I carried on my day as per usual, I went to the gym around 3:30pm and around 5pm I decided to check the NJ License Verification website... I put in my info and THERE IT WAS! MY LICENSE NUMBER AND THE WORD "ACTIVE". :up:

I could not have been happier.

I took out the time to type this because even in my darkest times, I came to this forum to lift my spirits and give me hope. I was starting to feel like a failure. But now I realize, it's all mental. There really is no way you could know everything. You need to go into that exam confident and calm. I also believe it isn't HOW many questions you answer a day, it's about understanding the rationales for all right and wrong answers.

I hope that this post helps someone else in need and brightens his or her day ?