2014 NCLEX-RN 2nd attempt

[za105]

I have my NCLEX-RN retake this Saturday. I took it a month and a half ago, after graduating with a BSN last December with a 90-something percent "chance of passing" according to ATI. I dilly-dallied the three months before I took it, working at my part-time job, taking the free time to finally release a debut album I'd been having to put on the back burner during nursing school (I'm a musician, www.mattbrownband.com/music). I studied some, went over some practice questions, but all-in-all, felt pretty confident. ATI said I'd pass, and everyone I talked to said I'd do great and that they passed at the 75 question mark. I was prepared to pass at 75 questions.

I went through all 265 questions and got a near-passing fail. Every question past 75 felt like torture and I completely lost my confidence. It was difficult to focus after question 75, and I was just waiting for it to shut off the whole time. It was a horrible day.

So since then, I've been studying about 20-25 hours a week (I have to work, I'm married), doing NCLEX Content Review. I flash carded the entire book, except meds which I've never really struggled with, and while I don't have all 1500 flashcards memorized entirely, I'm slowly reviewing them. Just the act of slowly going through the whole book intentionally helped me learn a lot of core content over again, or, sadly enough, for the first time.

This week, I've taken off work and am planning on going through all the QBank trainers. I've just finished one with around 60%. I'm further rehearsing content surrounding questions I'm not getting right, but I'm feeling much more confident. I'm also prepared to take 265 questions this time and not get overwhelmed when that happens, as I anticipate it likely happening.

Gripe: Kaplan is, like much of nursing, so self-contradicting it's incredible. One question will have an answer and rationale that says, "Norms are ___," and then I'll search the Kaplan content book and the norm is always significantly different. I understand that in healthcare norms are not consistent across the board. But what the heck is with Kaplan not being consistent within their own infrastructure?? Kind of humorous, kind of annoying. Sorry, had to get that rant off my chest.

So my question:

Any suggestions for this last week before the test?? I'm not sure what else to do besides practice questions and reviewing content.