NCLEX and Kaplan and Passing

1 Post

Hey everyone! Like many before I vowed to come back and post my experience with NCLEX after using this forum religiously during my studying/NCLEX period.

To start off, I graduated from a BSN program back in mid May. Our school provided Kaplan with the whole 9 yards as a study material. The week of finals we had a Kaplan review session instead with a Kaplan instructor. I did not touch study material from the first week of May until around May 18th-ish. I spent 3-4 hours a day doing practice tests with the qbank and trainers. I got my ATT on June 5th and scheduled my exam on June 18th (was the next available).

My scores were

T1: 55%

T2:56%

T3:52%

T4:51%

T5:58%

T6:54%

T7:64%

I averaged anywhere from 50-65% on the q bank and I switched between tutor and timed mode. I recommend using timed mode when you have at least an hour and a half where you can really sit without disruptions and tutor mode when you have less time and can only get a few questions in or are in a distracting environment. I also did both practice tests and the alternate formatting test and who do you see first test.

Exactly a week before my exam I found out that my friend who graduated magna cum laude had failed in 75. I was devastated because I knew she was way smarter than me. I spent the next two days studying practically all day but I was so discouraged. My Q bank scores were hanging out in the low 50's which was a huge drop from my recent scores in the 60's. I decided I needed a content refresher so I used the study guide that floats around on here. I spent a whole day just reviewing content and the next day (5 days before my exam) I took the readiness exam and scored a 72% which I was shocked by. The next day I took Trainer 7 which was a doozie. My last two days of studying I spent doing as much of the Q bank as a could. The day before was father's day so I spent the day with my family and took my dad to dinner and kept discussion of the exam to a minimum.

On that Monday I took 75 questions. The questions looked extremely similar to Kaplan--even the formatting of the test (colors, etc.) were essentially the same. During the test I honestly had no idea how I was doing. I got around 15 select all that apply and 3 where the answer choices were all pictures (hadn't seen these before). I got some questions that were very straight forward (i.e. what is a symptom of (insert) disease. I got some questions that were priority and seemed impossible. When my test shut off I was surprised, I had fully expected it to go to question 76. I did the research section and survey half-heartedly because my heart was beating out of my chest. I left the testing center not sure how to feel so I did the PVT even though I swore I wouldn't. I got the good pop-up so that put my mind at ease for the next two days of agony waiting for the quick results. The Wednesday after I found out I passed!

All this to say I think Kaplan prepared me very well for NCLEX. The topics I got on NCLEX weren't as off the wall as the questions I got on Kaplan. I was somewhat familiar with every topic I encountered on NCLEX not so much on Kaplan. Above all though I truly believe that I couldn't have done this without prayer. Y'all like I prayed so much. I prayed before I studied, I prayed before I took practice tests, I prayed before I took the exam, I prayed when I got to a question I was stuck on, I prayed after the exam. And I had many other people praying for me as well. For most of you the Lord has brought you to this place for a reason. YOU ARE MEANT TO BE A NURSE. You have gotten into nursing school, passed nursing school and now you going to pass the NCLEX. I still don't know why my friend didn't pass but I sincerely believe there is a purpose for it. You may not pass the first time, but if you have prayed and believe that you are meant to be a nurse, the Lord is faithful and you will pass.

Thanks for reading everyone!