NCLEX RN Exam in 2018 Canada - 203 Questions and passed

[SarahJamms, BSN, RN]

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to personally thank this website for being a supportive community throughout my nursing school journey. Although initially stalking hundreds of threads through the past four years, I wanted to give back to this enriching community of nursing students by describing my experience with writing the NCLEX exam here in Canada.

The resources that I mainly used was U world and Hurst (BOTH VERY GOOD RESOURCES- if i had to choose between the two if i was strapped for cash - I would opt for uworld though). I initially purchased Saunders and upon reading through it, decided that it was too much information to look over. It was a very enriching textbook however, as an auditory and visual learner, I felt that just reading over a textbook wouldnt work with how I absorbed information if that makes sense. I also purchased Lippincott Q&A Review and used it occasionally from time to time after studying to test my knowledge and build upon what i didnt know. The most important tip that i can give is to understand the disease processess. Also try to make time to understand the rationales to all answers whether right or wrong. I would initially get discouraged because after completing all my uworld questions, my score was 45%. But I realized that your score doesnt really matter - what matters is that you understand why you may get a question right or wrong. Uworld is just perfect for that and I loved using it for its detailed answers! I did around 50- 60 questions a day in increments of 5 per test. I felt like I could focus on the rationales in this manner and didnt see the need to hand write every rationale that Uworld had to offer. I read every single question's rationales and found that is what stuck when i wrote my nclex.

Taking my exam in Canada, we don't have access to Quick Results and specifically in Ontario (not sure about other provinces) typically a week is what we wait for our results. I took my exam on August 15th and received my results on August 23rd. I didn't trust the PVT trick so i decided to wait agonizingly for my results. I originally set my date for July 18th , but kept pushing my exam due to mainly fear.It took me a total of 2 months to study for this exam. I soon realized that no matter how much you study, you'll never feel fully prepared. So I settled on a final date and trudged to the exam to slay this mighty NCLEX beast. As the saying goes : You can Try and Fail but don't Fail to Try. After 4 hours and 203 questions later, I felt like I completely bombed that exam (and not in a good way). But I eventually accepted my fate and was ready to plan my studying all over again. Until I got my passing result today, I really was convinced that I had failed the NCLEX.

If you have any questions at all, or if you would like to add to this thread by giving some advice to future NCLEX takers/nursing students on what helped you in studying for the NCLEX, feel free to add it down below!

[SarahJamms, BSN, RN]

Also, just one more tip when studying for NCLEX. Be sure to take breaks as needed when you feel yourself getting stressed out. Doing so really allows you to recharge and look at the material with an open mindset. I also found that studying with a small group of friends from time to time really helped me out because they could reteach material in a different perspective that I definitely didn't think of. Thus in turn, it helped consolidate it into memory :).