NCLEX PVT Passed 2017

MNVikings · Feb 12, 2017

I want to share my NCLEX experience from the beginning to end to give an idea for those who still need to take it, this will be a lengthy post so stay with me here. I graduated in December of 2016 from an ADN program. The program itself was vigorous, but they did not help much in preparing for NCLEX; I was not the best nursing student, I usually struggled every semester to pass the classes in the theory portions. Like most schools, they had a theory portion and clinical portion where each was graded separately and you needed 78% in each. I could not afford the Kaplan program, so I decided to utilize Uworld for all of my NCLEX studying. I have to admit, I procrastinated a ton on studying for the NCLEX and only really began about 3 weeks prior to the exam. I would do about 100-150 questions a day, and really focused on the rationales. My scores were not that great...around the 50-60% mark for every practice test.

I did not listen to the advice of others and crammed the night before by taking about 4 tests on Uworld. I DO NOT recommend doing that since it only increased my nervousness.

The next day was my test day, February 10th, and I was full of nervous energy. I loaded up on benadryl the night before so I could sleep, and woke up feeling nauseous from nerves. I forced down a tuna sandwich and off I went to take the exam. When I got there, everyone was extremely nice, but I felt like I was in a different world. Also, I forgot to go the bathroom before the exam....and found that by the first hour I really had to go!.

The test started with a tutorial, and then the exam began. My first question was a drug calc question, which I was comfortable with. The questions became increasingly harder with some SATA, pharm, and OB questions. At the 75 question mark I took deep breath, answered the question, and the test kept going! OH boy did that make me nervous. I made it all the way to 180-something questions, and the last question I did I was unsure of the answer so I took an educated guess. By the end of the exam I figured I had about 25 SATA, 15 Pharm, 10-15OB, 5 exhibit, and a bunch of priority questions ( not exactly sure on numbers since I was focusing more on just answering the questions as they came).

I walked out of the testing center feeling completely defeated, I sat in my car for about 15 minutes before even driving out of the lot. I immediately looked up the answer to the last questions and found I got it wrong. I wanted to puke. I started texting my s/o and parents saying there was no way I passed, I just knew I failed.

Once I made it home, I began frantically checking different websites for information on the PVT. I knew I was suppose to wait 24hours, but I just couldn't bare it. In all actuality, I decided to have myself a couple alcoholic beverages until 4 hours had passed to check PVT. Once I checked PVT I got the good pop-up, but I still wasn't convinced. I then checked after 24hours and still got the good pop-up...still wasn't convinced!

Since I took my test on a Friday, I utilized the quick results from Pearson about twenty minutes ago. Thankfully, the words on the screen told me I passed the NCLEX!! I still don't know how I passed, it seemed like I didn't know the answers to more than 10 questions, but somehow I made it!

What I learned from this experience:

1. Do yourself a favor and start studying right away, even if this means watching some Youtube videos for refresher or starting with questions immediately.

2. Don't take practice exams the night before, if you must do something just review some lab values and patho of some diseases.

3. GO TO THE BATHROOM BEFORE YOU TAKE YOUR EXAM, I had to go so badly before the first break that I think it affected me answering the questions

4. Don't pay attention to how many SATA, exhibit, delegation, etc. questions you have...just take the test question by question.

5. If you do the PVT, wait the 24hours and use a prepaid gift card.

6. PVT is a great way to ease some minds, but REMEMBER that it is not 100% accurate. Don't celebrate too early, and don't fall into a deep depression because it said you failed...it can be wrong and has been wrong

7. Just because you got the last questions wrong does NOT mean you failed. They have 15 throw-away questions which I believe mine was.

8. Relax, the hard part is over, you passed nursing school! Now all you have to do is refresh that brain and go into the testing center with confidence.....easier said than done, I know, since I was the biggest ball of nerves the entire time.

9. Most people walk out feeling like they failed due to the way the test is designed for each student. Don't let that get you down too much, try to find something to ease your mind whether it is adorable puppies on Youtube, or binge-watching your favorite Netflix show.