Hey guys!!!!! I'm so happy and proud to inform you all that i just killed the Monster. So do you wanna hear the story? haha..ok good.
But first of all, i wanna give a little background about myself,I am a foreign graduate nurse who's dreaming to work as a registered nurse abroad. I graduated last March 2010 and i'm not gonna say that I graduated in the Phillippines (ops i just did it lol haha:uhoh3: ).I took my local examination last july 2010. I had my self-review (actually my mom gave me money for review but i chose not to use it and put it in my account haha lol) but luckily i passed. After receiving my license, I started surfing the net to find the requirements in processing my NCLEX examination. Since my mom is situated in Hawaii so I applied to there BON. This would be very beneficial for those foreign grad nurses who plan to practice nursing in Hawaii .I downloaded and sent the "permission to take" papers in Hawaii BON and along with the 50$ check payment.They required me to have CES report. Finishing these feels like FOREVER haha. It is a report that analyzes the credentials of multiple levels of nursing professionals who are educated outside of the United States and who wish to pursue licensure or academic admission in the United States. CES report includes the need for me to finish some ces documentation and to send my:
1.High school diploma (yay! i was shocked that..it is the needed document and not my college diploma and i had to go to my school to get another copy since my copy was eaten by termites haha lol)
2. 2x2 picture
3. summary of your duty hours and transcript (your school will be the one to send it to your chosen board not you)
4.local license (your licensing office will be the one to send it again..so basically,you need to pass local exam for you to be an RN in Hawaii)
NOTE : you must have to create an account to CGFNS int'l for you to become updated to the papers they need and be notified about the papers they had received
heres the link http://www.cgfns.org/sections/programs/ces/:cool:
After finishing all of these,one morning I received mail from my BON allowing me to take nclex. So 1st week of October. I received my ATT. and scheduled my exam December 22, 2011 and i paid 350$ (150$ for the tax..argh so expensive ya). I started reviewing SAUNDERS ,4th edition i think. I didn't finish the book especially the last chapters i am quite lax hihi practice answering questions like 300 in all wahahahaha (you can say that i am one hell lazy boy haha)... that book was too thick ahahahaha ...argh..So the exam date came, all priority question,drugs that i haven't heard in my entire life and who to see first. I am so OVERWHELMED :eek:with how the questions were formulated and i can say that i really don't know how to approach it right. I left the exam site and i was like so DUMB experiencing "catatonia"(ahahahah) flushed skin,and it is as if my spirit was not in me ahahah then come a time that i knew "I FAILED" .but i think i'm not too bad test taker since i finished it at 265th and got all near and two above passing standard. It is just that my effort in studying was not good enough. I don't know the PVT yet but i remembered the CC page before I made my registration again. I just started to laugh at myself and saying that " you really didn't study well enough" (OFCOURSE, MY RATIONALIZATION HAHAHAHA LOL)
So going back in killing that MONSTER.....
While having the feeling of being the "dumbest person in the world" I had my US visa ready and my sister booked a flight for me last december 30 2011. So i arrived in hawaii feeling so devastated ahahaha i didn't cry perhaps i laughed at myself (going crazy stage haha). So what i did, i composed myself and tried to regain the energy. The ADVANTAGE of failing the first time is that it taught me how to approach it correctly and kill that MONSTER (metaphor i used pertaining to NCLEX)
These are my plans,techniques and strategies that i did in killing that monster:
PRE-EXAM PHASE
>I surf the net for me to have an in depth study research on how to kill the monster and luckily it leads me to " ALLNURSES.COM" where i've read lots of testimonies and also diff. approaches. I've found the famous pdf study guide file (i didn't read this coz it is too much memo for me)...spiderman.. how to do pvt...diff experiences etc..
> I gathered all my sources and cluster the threads the i've read. Since i failed the first time i know what's the closest possible material for q and a and content which will be most appropriate.for my review:smokin:
exam cram- too broad and it is as if it is as if the treatments are focus on medical tx not on nsg tx
saunders- has easy questions,too detailed that your mind tend to be bombarded by too much info which results to forgetting the most impt. ones hihi
> MY SOURCES that worked for me:
1. kaplan videos - i find this so helpful in striking priority questions,also good for content and strategies and infos about the exam perse. try to study most especially the q and a portion. I studied my content here,and i usually study content before doing the CD- ROM Q and A
2.i have a small notebooks where i wrote all the "MUST MEMORIZE" nursing content. the ff. were. immunization,lab values,drug therapeutic level,ecg changes about electrolytes imbalances e.g presence of U wave in hypokalemia,erikson stages,DM insulin peak duration onset and examples of each,reflexes SPIDERMAN (must have):redlight:. i made this so handy that i was reading it whenever my mom and i go to the mall,watching tv or going outdoors hehe
3. La Charity (must have) :redlight:- this is also one of the book that helped me. what i did here was, i separated each responsibility that a nurse,physician,uap,cna,lpn can do.
4.NCLEX 3500 -In all of my CD-ROM Q&A the closest nclex drill for me is this material...this is the last source that i did while waiting for my ATT to the day before my exam. my strategy here is to ans. all of the 3500 questions (yeah the lazy boy gone so diligent lol) you need to be discipline in following your things to do list so that your day will be much productive. I used the nclex 3500 setting it up to "review mode" classifying it into:
content # of items
management of care 322
safety and infection control 298
health promotion and maintenance 492
psychosocial integrity 444
basic care and comfort 284
pharma and parenteral therapies 649
reduction risk potential 535
physiological adaptation 589
i'm doing 300q per day.. in review mode..don't forget to read the rationale :redlight:even you've got the ans right.I finished it for 8 days i think...i just did 123 questions in pharma ahahah coz i am relying to the content that the kaplan video had taught me
NOTE : if you feel that you had enough..take a rest... ask for me ,i jog when i am so stressed already and play some groovy music in youtube and also eat my favorite foods (don't starve because your brain needs glucose and you need that while reviewing)
night before exam,i can't really sleep because of my hightened anxiety...but i played some music of mymp to fall asleep. (mymp is a duo wherein the female vocalist has a soothing voice that can make you fall asleep haha lol)
EXAM PHASE (at 8am feb18,2012)
I woke up 6am. Do some DBE to calm my nerves. My mom prepared pressure-cooked fried chicken for my breakfast.(yum!).:) my two siblings accompanied me to the testing center. Before i took the exam,i am reminded of the bloom's taxonomy learning domains which is currently used by the nclex in categorizing their level of questioning such as knowledge,comprehension,application and analysis in order. The SATA (select all that apply) and drag and drop questions for me are ANALYSIS or the highest level kind of question which symbolizes the heart of the MONSTER such that getting the heart of the monster will weaken the monster and killing the MONSTER as well. So the more drag and drop and SATA you'll see or have in your exam means that your KILLING it hehehehe....my computer shut off at 75 question in 1hr and 34 mins duration getting 10 SATA,2 drag and drop,2 exhibit,10 meds, and almost all PRIORITY questions:idea:. The feeling is so diff. i feel so blessed and just whispered the words "thank you oh Lord"
EXAM POST PHASE
i txted my lil bro and big sis to fetch me. My big sister asked me "so how was it?" i just said,fine..(poker face haha lol) we are rooming around the mall then suddenly i remembered the PVT trick and i really wanna go home for me to do it. Then we saw a shopping center for laptops wherein you can go online for free. But first i went to allnurses.com for them to understand what pvt means. My big sis was the one who did the pvt, my lil bro was holding a camera recording the scene and i'm at their back anxious ahahahaha ... then POP! paraPOP! POP! a good POP UP!!!!!!! :w00t: "our records...etc" wew i fell so relieved..i didnt notice that we are celebrating in a mall.. my sister begun to shout so all eyes on us(what a shame ahahaah)then i realized , finally i can move on with my life now. I finally killed the MONSTER........
Failing the monster test will not tell you of what kind of person you are but it will TEACH you a lesson to have self-discipline, faith in God and most especially, to have that trust within yourself.
" Failure will just be a failure if you will not do something about it" this was the learning that i inculcated in my mind.
God is always there to guide you, so never lose hope. Keep your heads up!!! So move your feet now and be ready for your big fight. If i can kill a MONSTER and so can you. Godbless...:cheers:
