Took the nclex today and got the good pop up! Here's my story~

First off I would like to thank God, my family, friends, everyone that believed in me and allnurses.com! I also want to tell everyone an important quote that the nurse at my work told me days before my test,

"You never fail until you stop trying." -Albert Einstein

I engraved this quote into my heart and throughout the test. Thank you.

Here's my story~

I graduated April 2012 and didn't get my acceptance letter to take the test till 3 months later. I rescheduled my test 4 times! Yes.... 4 times lol. Then finally I scheduled it and gave my self a whole month to study. The reason I kept rescheduling was either because a.) I wasn't ready b.) I didn't study enough c.) I didn't want to fail my first time. Passing this test was really important for me and my family. I mean who doesn't want to pass their first time, right? We all have our goals and dreams.

This was my agenda for a whole month- Wake up, go to work, come home, study. I studied for 5+ to 7+ hours daily. I stopped all my leisure activities and focused on studying and answering questions. I wanted to get in the mind set of nclex and didn't want to be distracted. IT WAS TOUGH! I had no life all over again ahah just like nursing school!

Last week of my test = not easy. I almost rescheduled lol. I felt all the pressure weighing in on me- stress, anxiety, and fear had all set in. To top it off I had food poisoning at in-n-out on the weekend And nope, I didn't relax like some people the day before the test. I used all my time to study haha. My mom always said, "Pay now, play later."

Day of test experience- Woke up at 6am = horrible. I couldn't sleep all night. And my stomach was upset the minute I woke up . Why me? ON MY TEST DAY!? I thought ahha. My test was at 1pm and I was planning on leaving at 11-11:30, but didn't leave till 11:45pm. It took 20ish minutes to get there. I was panicked a bit and rushing on the freeway. And luckily I slowed down right before my exit because there was a cop pointing his radar gun I finally made it to the testing center, checked in, and met nice people. The testing center was pretty nice and fancy!

Thoughts during the test- Half of it was really easy, maybe too easy, and I thought "Am I failing?" And the other half was- I dont know the answer! lol or I was indifferent about it. As I reached 60 so questions, I guess 2 hours had lapsed a pop up surfaced asking if I wanted a break. MY HEART STOPPED LOL. I said NO and continued the test. When I reached 70ish questions I was saying to myself- Is it going to stop is it going to stop? It didn't and I kept going. Then I got to question #84. DUN-DUN-DUN SUSPENSE I took a breath and said please please let it end at #85 and if it doesn't that's okay I just need to take my time and answer each one to my best ability because I still have a chance. #85 afterwards - POP UP! I smile and I'm happy and rejoicing! I walk out happy and call my husband. The day before I trained my husband how to do the pvt trick. I'm driving home and he gets the good pop up! And when I get home I check for myself and get the good pop up again! No credit card page! So I'm really happy and I hope the pvt trick works lol. It worked for my friends and one of them already got her passing letter in the mail already. So I hope it's right!?

Testing time: 2.5 hours

#SATA- Around 20 (I HATED THESE)

Material I used to study~

1. Nclex-pn 2013-2014 (Kaplan Nclex-Pn Exam) - read the whole thing
   
2. ATI- online and books - practiced online questions, read the materinity book
   
3. Saunders - green book - 4th edition and CD - read 75% of this book and practiced questions from the cd
   
4. Lippincott 9th edition -practiced a few chapters from this
   
5. LaCharity Priority, delegation, and assignment -practiced a few chapters from this
   
6. Exam cram - Skimmed, didn't really like it
   
7. Free Kaplan nclex style questions - Did 2 practice tests scored around 70s
   
8. Nclex 3500 - google - Did one practice question
   
9. That online notes/study guide someone made - posted somewhere on the forums
   

Other school books/notes

Tips~

You don't need to pay a lot of money to pass this test! I almost paid for Kaplan and Hurst (online 200-300$), but thank god I didn't it was really expensive! I almost bought them several times.

-Study your weak areas

-Be confident of yourself!

-"Stay calm and relaxed and use all the time you can" -what my cousin told me -this helped me soo much!

-Make sure to read the whole question and then do it again and read ALL the answers

-If you know it, don't second guess yourself

-If you don't know it, don't stay stuck on it, use your strengths and move on

Few funny things~

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ELSE! AND HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY STORY OR IT HELPED OTHERS OUT THERE

Ps. I jumped on my bed and cried tears of joy after I got my results.