My NCLEX RN story

Hey guys. Just wanted to tell you guys my story and how I passed the NCLEX. More for my personal use but maybe someone else can benefit from this as well. I liked reading about other's so here is mine.

Background: I've been an LPN for about 4 years. Graduated the RN program in end of April 2018. Got ATT in beginning of May.

Test date: Scheduled my NCLEX for June 19th, 2018 but ended up rescheduling for Saturday, June 23rd at 2pm. I prayed for a sign from God to tell me if I was ready or not. Two days before the 19th, I started to get bad anxiety and something told me that i was not ready. I took that as a sign. The next morning, I rescheduled for the 23rd.

How I studied: only thing I used was UWorld. I had the Hurst live review during school and there was some content they wanted us to review on our own. I did some of it but never finished. One of my classmates bought UWorld and we shared that. I didnt get to do the assessment part of it bc if that but on the 75 question tests I created, I was scoring 50 to about 64% on each one. I tried to do 75 questions a day, about one month before NCLEX day but about 1.5 weeks before, I started to do 75 question twice a day. Towards the end, I started to carefully read the rationales. When I would answer each question, I would make my own rationale on why I picked that answer. Also I bought the pretest and posttest of NCLEX RN Mastery. It was $20 for both. I took the pretest a few days before my exam day. I got 71% chance of passing. The postest I took a day before the NCLEX and I got 82% chance of passing.

Exam day: my exam was scheduled for 2pm (I am no way a morning person). It was downtown so I was concern about traffic and parking. I wore nursing scrub pants and a fitted t-shirt. Did my makeup really nice (I wanted to feel good about myself). I ate a yogurt and drank some water...thats all I had bc I did not want to feel nauseous from the anxiety. I left my house about 1245pm and headed downtown. During the drive, I took deep breathes, thought positive thoughts, prayed for guidance, listened to music and just tried to have good vibes all around. I parked my car at my former college and walked from there to the center. Before I got into the testing office, I went to the bathroom and told myself wow this is it. I went into the office and the lady greeted me and asked me what test I was taking. She gave me a set of rules to read. After I read the rules, she asked me for my ID and to spell my name. Then she asked me to scan my palm and she took my picture. She then asked if I had a cell phone and told me to turn it off and put it in a sealable bag provided. All of my keys and belongings went into a locker that was provided. I took only my ID and my locker key with me. She told me to sit at the chairs in the hallway until someone called for me. I estimate that I started go take my exam around 1:35pm. If you arrive early, they will take you in early.

I sat down on the chairs and took more deep breathes. The other lady came over and took me back to the monitoring area. I scanned my palm again and told them what exam i was taking. She reminded me of the rules and gave me a dry erase board and marker. She walked me to the computer and signed in. Then I sat down and it was time to get started.

Exam itself: theres a section thats just the tutorial. It is a part of your timed exam. Then NCLEX itself is just scary. Not one question made complete sense to me. Only three questions that I could think of I was like yep ok I know this. The rest of them, I have no idea...nothing like what I studied in school or on UWorld. I got a lot of prioritizing and delegating, 2 put these in order, disease and medications that ive never heard of, some OB and peds. I got to 75 questions and the exam shut off. Took me an hour and 16 minutes. There were some question that do not court towards your exam but NCLEX wanted you to answer. Then a survey as well. After that, I raised my hand and another lady came to get me. She collected my things. We walked back to the monitoring area and she scanned my palm again. Then I was allow to leave that area. I got my things out of my locker and the other lady opened up the sealable bag so i could obtain my phone. Then i left.

Feelings; the NCLEX is hard. It was hard the time I took it for my LPN and it was hard this time around. I really felt like I failed. I walked back to my car. I did the PVT an hour later and got the good pop up but I still was not convinced.

Waiting: since I took my exam in a Saturday, I figured I would have to wait until Monday to get my results. Many of my classmates took theirs on a weekday at 8am and found out around 430pm the same day, that they passed.

The waiting period was torture.

Monday came around and I worked the night before until Monday morning. I could not sleep at all and I have to turn back around and work second shift that same day. I slept for about 2 hours and then I was stuck to my email, refreshing it every 2 minutes. But nothing. I started to get worried. I went to work and kept looking at the clock. Maybe the licenses will be released at 430pm. around 403pm, I refreshed my email and there was an email from our state's licensing board. I have officially passed the NCLEX and received my RN license!!! I couldnt breathe and I was so happy. One of my nurse coworkers came over to see why i was freaking out. She congratulated me and gave me a hug.

Advice: study and do as many questions as you can. Read the rationales slowly and understand them. You will get questions that you have no idea about. Do you best and take an educated guess if you need to. You know more than you think. Take deep breathes. Be calm. You got this. Pray always and often.

If you do not pass, don't be discourage. You passed nursing school which has 100s of nursing questions. That difficult stuff is over. You got one more thing to encounter. Don't give up.