NCLEX in 75 questions

[tayp1991]

Hello! I have been kind of silently using this site for support while preparing for my NCLEX, and now that I have been successful I thought I would share a bit about my experience!

First of all, preparation. I went to a private, 4-year University which incorporates clinicals beginning the Sophomore year and continuing throughout. We took HESI's every semester including the RN Exit HESI. Throughout nursing school, I had all A's except for a B+ in OB. I consistently scored between 900-1100 on all of my HESI's. Our school had an actual class taught by an adjunct professor that met once a week for six weeks our last semester of school. I did not find this class particularly helpful because all we did was do review questions as a group, we didn't really review content.

Our institution has a contract with Evolve-Elsevier, and we had access to the Elsevier Adaptive Quizzing via the evolve website. Note the word adaptive, similar to CAT!!! I used this thing religiously, at least 1 twelve question quiz/day for my entire last year of nursing school. If you have access to this, use it, it is a great resource with excellent rationales. It actually identifies your weak areas for you, and you "level up," its kind of like a fun game!

I was also required to purchase the LaCharity book I am sure you all have heard about...Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment, for school. I completed every single question in it and reviewed rationales. At this point, I felt I still needed content review. Late in our last semester, we had a HESI-Saunders Live Review Course, which was helpful, a brief brush up on all content areas, nothing too in-depth, helped me know what to focus on. This was included in our tuition, so it was no direct cost to us. I secured a position with a local hospital that reimburses for one review course as well as the cost of registering to take the NCLEX. At this point I was faced with a choice, take HURST review, which I had heard marvelous things about at $350, or take the NCSBN online review, which I had only recently been introduced to by the HESI-Saunders Live Review Instructor. Although the money would be repaid upon becoming an RN, I simply didn't want to shell out the cash up front, so I went with NCSBN. The content review was fairly thorough, with additional links widely available throughout. The questions were WONDERFUL...and there were like 1200 of them. If you need a source for questions, I highly recommend it. I also received review notecards at the HESI review "Mosby's Review Cards for the NCLEX-RN Exam" and completed all of those. The questions seemed "too easy" at the beginning, but got harder as they went. Finally, I had also purchased the Kaplan Premiere 2014-2015 book, and read through it (not helpful at all) and did the practice test at the back. (Got 77% on 265 questions...they were tough questions, Kaplan recommends 70%) I studied consistently for about a month before my exam, but really buckled down 5 days prior, studying and doing questions. I dd not study the day before or the day of my exam. In total I did 1500 questions from Evolve EAQ, 1200 from the Mosby's Review Cards, The entire Kaplan book, 300+, the Entire LaCharity Book (?), and the entire NSCBN review, 1200.

EXAM DAY: I woke up and my husband made me biscuits and gravy =). I looked over electrolyte imbalances for 15 minutes and went to take my test. Once I got signed in and seated, I opted to use the noise-cancelling headphones. I had never used headphones/earplugs when testing before, but I highly recommend it! Once I got used to hearing my tachycardic heartbeat pounding in my ears, I felt that it really helped me focus. As I was taking the test, I HONESTLY thought the questions were EASIER than NCSBN review's, Kaplan's, and definitely easier than LaCharity. This made me nervous because I have heard that if you think the questions are easy, you're not doing well. I did not get any calculations, which made me sad because I can do calculations for days. =) My second question was SATA, and I started tallying. In total, I got 31 of them! However, I found that they were pretty straight forward in comparison to some other SATA's that I had seen in preparation. I had a lot of psych, infection control, and a few meds. My last question was incredibly easy and I know I got it right. When the screen shut off at 75, I felt CONFIDENT. Then the TA came to escort me out, we got outside of the room and he said, "how are you guys doing this, this is a HARD test." (A few others had left just before me), and that really freaked me out. I started analyzing the difficulty of my questions, and it literally did not stop until 8:23 this morning when I saw a license number, registered nurse, and the word "active" next to my name on my BON's website. (By the way, INDIANA...posts super fast. I took the test at 1400 yesterday and my license number was posted on IPLA at 0823 today (maybe sooner, that's the first time I checked). When I saw it, I jumped out of bed, ran through my house, screaming, smiling, crying, I have never been so happy! Called my parents, my husband, and my boss! I can't believe I passed in 75 questions in less than an hour!!! I could not be happier to be an RN!

The questions I searched this site for answers before the test included:

Do you really have to feel like you failed to pass? - NO, Absolutely not, don't second guess yourself.

How are the questions in comparison to my study resources? - Easier and at the same level, not harder.

GENERIC NAMES FOR MEDS...OMG! - I, at the very least, recognized each of the meds I was tested on, and I did not memorize every single med in the world, don't stress over meds!

How fast will I find out in Indiana? - VERY fast. A friend of mine took it on a Friday afternoon and didn't find out until Monday at 8ish, but I took it yesterday (Monday at 2:00 pm) and found out this morning at 8ish! (Tuesday)

My NCELX Tips:

Do do lots of practice questions, but don't forget to brush up on content, especially the basics...common sense things that you would never think they would test you on, and your weak areas. (Identify what your weak areas are first!)

Have confidence in yourself. When I left the house I told my husband, I will never be more ready than I am right now.

Eat and go to the bathroom before you enter the testing facility.

Take each question as it comes. Don't try to analyze the "difficulty" of the question, just answer it and move on. As difficult as it is, try not to analyze the questions you had and the answers you selected afterwards! Stay positive and try to fill your time doing something you enjoy between the time you take it and the time you find out!

THIS TEST IS DESIGNED TO BE PASSED, NOT FAILED, IT IS TOTALLY DOABLE, YOU GOT THIS!