Okay, I promised myself to post this if I passed the NCLEX and I did, with flying colors. In fact, I finished in 45 mins total and passed with only 75q's.
I took the exam before several of my classmates and they asked me for advice so I told them what I am about to tell you .. and they said it helped them, so hopefully it will help you as well. Okay, here goes .. please PM me or respond to this thread if you have any questions/concerns/comments. This is a really long post, my apologies in advance.
NCLEX tips:
Before the test:
First - breath. Yeah, I know thats stupid, but your poor brain needs the oxygen.
Sign up for a review course. I really liked the online review course available through Kaplan because I felt it was better than the in class one (which I dropped after three classes). It also was nice to be able to pause, take notes, and replay the video. If you don't have the money for the review course its okay - get a review book, but just promise that you will actually review it.
Go over the material. A lot. There's really no easy way to bypass this - you do need to know your information. I made a billion flash cards and it really helped me.
Do a million review questions - I know Kaplan has their qbank and practice tests but in my opinion the Kaplan questions seemed more convoluted than the actual NCLEX. I never scored higher than a 64% on any of the practice tests (and i only took six out of the seven tests). I also used the book "NCLEX made incredibly easy" which was just a giant book containing thousands of NCLEX questions. I scored better on those questions and I believe that book is more true to the NCLEX style than kaplan. This is not to say one is better than the other since both are beneficial in their own ways.
Don't bother hardcore studying the drugs section - just study the drugs that come up during any of the practice questions you do. That is - there are a MILLION drugs out there. You'll never ever memorize every single one. NCLEX knows that. It would be way too mean for the to expect you to know EVERY. SINGLE. DRUG. out there, you know. However - it IS important to know drugs in general (ie a drug ending in -lol is usually a beta blocker, etc) and how they work. If you are short on time (or brain space) just remember to focus on the drugs that can save/kill a life (insulin/heart meds etc) because the bottom line of the NCLEX? You need to have MINIMUM competency - meaning you need to know what will kill or save your patient. Erectile dysfunction drugs might be fun to learn about, and may be tested on the NCLEX but i am pretty sure if you fail those you will not fail the nclex - because you're not likely to kill your patient if you forgot to give him his viagra. You know what i mean? Also, instead of trying to memorize each drug, try to visualize and understand their mechanisms and how they affect the body. I realize this quite a bit of critical thinking, but as nurses, we must be able to think critically anyway, so why not get started now, if you havent already?
About the test in general:
Remember what I said above - the NCLEX wants you to be minimally competent. Thus, it is really important to always remember that patient safety is your top priority - this is true in real life too. I mean, I would NOT want to be your patient if you didnt care about my safety at all times, right? Would you want to be my patient if i didnt care for your safety?
Remember your ABC's - Airway Breathing Circulation. Sometimes you get stuck on a question - just remember your priorities: patient safety and ABC's and it can help you find the right answer.
If you get stuck on a question where you absolutely have no idea what the question is even asking (yes, I think I got a few of those) dont worry. Now, I dont know if what I am about to say is true or not but I really feel that the people who create the NCLEX are not "out to get the test takers." They are not evil testwriters sitting in a room thinking up ways to torture the poor test taker (although there were plenty of times I thought that during my studying.. and im sure you might be thinking that now too). The test writers are also RN's who have been in the same boat - they too had to take the NCLEX before. I think they are fair - if you absolutely bomb a question, I really feel that they will give you a chance to make it up. I know that through my Kaplan course they told me that if you fail a question, the next question is easier so you can pick yourself up again. When they analyze your test scores, I am sure they will take into consideration the questions you got right, so in the long run, one question wrong means nothing. Just dont let it get you down, and keep going onto the next question. whatever you do, just dont kill your patient! :)
Getting 265 q's does not mean you failed. Getting a random number of questions does not mean you failed. One of my classmates had 141q's. His test results did not show up on the date it was supposed to, so he assumed he failed (because isnt 141 an odd number of questions?) .. except he passed! My friend got 76 questions, and she passed! However, she was very distraught when her screen went to 76q's because she thought she was going to be there for the full 265. In fact, she was so distraught that she had no idea what question 76 was - she just randomly answered it.. and the computer shut off. Imagine her shock/horror! Did she fail the test bc of that last question? did she pass? My point is - if you get to question 76, dont freak out. You never know if that is going to be your last question, so do as well on it as you would have on your first.
I remember reading this in a previous post so I'm going to reiterate it: If you have more than 75 questions: only the last 75 questions count. That is, if you had 265 questions, the first 190 do not matter, so if you're at question 210 do not mess up your mindframe by thinking "oh no, all the answers in the questions 30's to 40's were totally wrong! I'm so dumb!" Because those ones dont matter anyway at this point.
Don't EVER think you're dumb. Even if you get a question you cant answer. At the test site, when you're taking the test, pretend you are a nurse. I mean, you are only one short test away from being a nurse anyway, right? When I sat down, I put in the earplugs they gave me, closed my eyes for a few mins before starting the test and pretended that i was walking into the hospital and I was the number one super awesome nurse and that I knew everything, and each question was going to be my patient for the day. I think this helped a lot in calming my nerves/anxiety (although trust me, a beta blocker would have been nice during the test.. my heart would not stop pounding!) which let me focus on the test, and not my nerves.
After the test
To be honest - right after i finished the test I felt good. When the screen went blank at 75q's, i felt SUPER EXTRA good. But then I remembered how everyone kept saying that if you feel good when you leave the exam, that means you failed. Not true!! Several of my friends also felt good after they took the NCLEX, and they passed as well. Herein lies the problem though - I am not sure if it is because i thought I did good that I started thinking maybe I did bad... because then I started freaking out and thinking maybe I actually failed and that good feeling went away immediately and did not come back until I found out I passed. I know this may not make sense now - but those of you who have taken the NCLEX and passed (which is EVERYONE after reading this, right? hehe) will know what I mean.
Being hit by a big rig truck. You know those giant 18wheelers on the road? Taking the NCLEX was like being hit by one of those. You have no idea what happened - you woke up early that morning, went to the test site, took the test, came home, fell asleep (almost everyone I know fell asleep after they took the test.. it was quite an exhausting/grueling experience), and then suddenly there is no more NCLEX. But you dont even remember the NCLEX - it was just one big scary blur, and suddenly, you were in your car driving home. At home you hesitate to put your books away because heaven forbid you failed and will need those books again. You might try to think back about some of the questions you werent sure of and furiously research the answer but for the most part you will have no idea what just happened. I have taken LOTS of tests in my lifetime (SAT, ACT, midterms, exams, MCAT) and nothing could compare. In case you didnt know, the MCAT is the test you take to get into medical school... and even that was far different than the NCLEX. I dont really know how to explain this .. but those of you who are about to take the NCLEX, just be aware that this is the feeling you get afterwards.
Try not to think about your results until they come in. HAHA YEAH RIGHT! Everyone says to not think about it but COME ON, how could you not? I know i did, constantly. So i did what I do best to pass time - I caught up on all my beauty sleep. I also made sure to schedule lots of activities for the next two days until my results were in. If you are able to, try and do this as well. You know that spa treatment you always wanted to do but couldnt find the time? GO. Now is the time! Or maybe you have been meaning to go to that new park three cities over with your kids? GO. How about that friend you want to catch up with but never had the time? Now is the time! I know it sounds silly, but it helped. It also helped that I scheduled some of these fun activities before I took the NCLEX so I had something to look forward to, instead of a dreaded "omg im taking the nclex" date. In fact, sometimes the NCLEX was just something I had to get over so I could spend a day at the mall with my bestest friend that I had not seen in a few months.
Okay, so thats it, I think. I'm sorry for the length - i just want to help everyone out there. I think that the most important bottom line throughout all of this is to always remember - the NCLEX does not want you to be that experienced nurse who has worked over 50 years and knows the answer to everything. THe NCLEX wants you to be minimally competent which means knowing what will and wont kill your patient.
Get a review book/review course and start studying! Good luck!
