NCLEX PN - Study Aides Review - Pearson Vue Trick - 85 Questions

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I just took the NCLEX PN yesterday [10/1/2015]. My exam cut off at 85 questions (the minimum for a PN). I walked out of the exam just KNOWING I failed. I felt like I recognized/was familiar with all the terms and questions on the exam.. but I just was not able to narrow down the answers and feel CERTAIN I knew the correct answer! I genuinely, even now, feel like it was just a process of elimination and I narrowed down each test answer and made a guess on at least half of the exam. It was brutal. Brutal as it was – it was nowhere near as brutal as my actual nursing school exams.

I graduated 2 months ago.. and my instructors STRESSED that we should not wait to take our exam. Most of my classmates took their exams within 2ish weeks and everyone passed (my school has a 100% NCLEX pass rate on the first try for the past 10 years!). I decided I needed some time with my kids before they went back to school.. so we went on a month long vacation before I even started studying for the exam and stressing over it. For 2 weeks before the exam, daily I would use the NCLEX Mastery App and also the NCLEX-PN Q&A Plus online questions (buy the book and it gives you access code to thousands of online questions/answers/rationales). I never answered more than 50 Q's at a time because then you get burned out and don't retain any of the rationales. After 2 weeks of studying with these (on TV commercial breaks/before bed).. I went from averaging a 40-50 to averaging about a 70-80.

  • NCLEX Mastery App: It was okay. I liked it because it allows you to be able to study anywhere. The questions were (especially the select all questions) a bit harder than the actual NCLEX questions. However, it helps you because if you can get through these.. you can hopefully get through the NCLEX questions. Con: It was $29.99. Pro: You can access it through MULTIPLE devices using the username/password you create. So, essentially you and a few fellow nursing school classmates can throw in together and buy it.. and all be able to use it. However, I would not spend $29.99 on it again if I had to go back.
  • NCLEX-PN Q&A Plus: I liked the online version of this because you could choose how many questions you did… and also whether you wanted it to be a test or just Q&A. I normally got a 60-75 on the tests. The questions were comparable to the ones on the NCLEX, in my opinion. Definitely worth the money. No Con's! I loved this study method. I would stress the importance of buying this to everyone.
  • NLN Online Testing: My school used this organization to test us before we graduated to see if we were ready for the NCLEX. I also paid $6 out of pocket to get a mock NCLEX exam and made a 78 on it the night before the NCLEX. I did not take it too serious, I didn't feel like doing the math calculations so I just picked an answer on those, so I probably would have done better had I tried. It was a good booster to see where I was. These questions were set up identically to NCLEX questions in my opinion. I would purchase it again if I had to go back.

45 minutes after my test completed I tried the Pearson Vue trick to see if I got the good pop up”. I did! While it eases my mind a little bit, I am still leery. I have 24 more hours to wait until I get my unofficial results. I pray I passed! I have 3 job offers already, and I would hate to miss the opportunity to actually get to CHOOSE a job for the first time in my life!

Anywho - I will update this thread with my exam results tomorrow! ::fingers crossed::

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Congrats on your job offers!! I took my RN yesterday as well and mine shut off at 75, the minimum for the RN. I was scared when I left too, but be at ease. It's nervous waiting the next 24 hours for both of us, but I'm sure we did awesome :D Best of luck to you

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