i graduated year 2007 and passed our local board that same year....enjoyed my hospital work and didnt bother to take any other exam... until i decided for nclex this 2013... i passed on my 1st try on jan 3...thru self review for a month... i was very surprised because i answered 221 questions with around 50 plus of SATA... didnt expect to pass.... :-)... since its a total self review i used six books the lipincott's Q & A tenth edition, Mosby's 20th edition, Kaplan 2012-2013, Exam-Cram 3 books ( my old books)... studied for 6-8 hours per day... just purely reading and practicing on questions... i answered 150-300 questions per day then i stopped my review by dec. 15, 2012 which is about a month after i started my it... my advice is that just study as much as you want... until u will feel fed up with all the questions... and then wait for ur exam date... dont bombard yourself too much of it coz you will not wind up retaining all the information... dont memomorize just do scanning and familiarize each topic... as long as you have the basic information... it will serve as the basis on analyzing each question... nclex will gauge your critical thinking skills... and most of all pray.... :-)