NCLEX-RN Experience

Published Jul 18, 2015

135 Posts

Hi, everyone! I'm here to tell people about my experience and what I used to study.

I arrived at the testing center at 11:55am. I walked inside, wanting to throw up and shaking so bad from my nerves. I didn't exactly feel unprepared, but by no means was I super confident. Luckily, the ladies that worked there were very friendly- which eased my nerves a little bit. As I sat down to take my exam, I thought to myself, "This is it. I'm actually about to take the NCLEX"...something every nursing student dreads throughout their program. I began the tutorial which shows you what the test will be like. And before I knew it, I started the actual exam. Every question felt like I was taking an eternity to answer. There were some that I had to re-read 3 or 4 times. I honestly felt like I was making my best guess on almost every question. Around question 70 was when my heart started pounding. I was almost certain it would shut off at 75 because I truly believed I was doing THAT bad. When I passed 75, I calmed down a little because I thought, "Well, I must not be doing as bad as I thought since the computer is still giving me questions". I tried to mentally prepare myself to sit there for probably 4 more hours to take all 265. But when my screen went blue at 85/86... I had no words. I left the testing center thinking I failed miserably. The tears didn't set in until approximately 20 minutes later. I was 99.9% sure I failed. Most of the questions I felt like were "below passing" level.

48 long hours later, I payed for quick results even though I just knew I was wasting $7.95. When I saw the word PASS, I could NOT believe it. I hit refresh a couple times just to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I was ecstatic, and wasn't embarrassed when I shouted, "I passed the NCLEX!!" in the store I was shopping at.

Study materials: I did NOT pay for a review course. I purchased the Kaplan 2015-2016 Strategies book for around $30 bucks. I read almost the whole book. Looking back, I don't really think this source helped me very much.

I also purchased the Kaplan Qbank and Ebook for 1 month for $70... You can find this on the Kaplan website. I believe the questions (and the Qbank screen) were similar to NCLEX. I read more than half of the Ebook and did every single Qbank question (around 1,300). I think all the questions that I did helped me the most. I studied for probably 35-40 days, anywhere from 1-8 hrs a day (averaging 2-4 hrs).

I hope this post helped, and good luck to future test-takers!! You can do this!

---Doxielover304 :nurse: