NCLEX-RN questions...Doing progressively worse?

optimism08 · Sep 27, 2016

Hi Regan,

I was in your shoes until about a day ago. You're clearly in the right path but for future reference i recommend you stick to one or two study sources. I personally used Uworld & LaCharity with a little bit of RNMastery. Its totally normal to be anxious & feel like you're doing poorly especially since your date is very soon. I just took my test today & so far i'm getting a good "pop up" from the PVT trick. FYI, this was my fourth time taking it. I did and used all resources out there. You're gonna do great! You know more than you think. I would also recommend that you give your brain some rest now. My brain was fried 5 days prior to testing and i decided to just let it be. Now that i look back i couldn't be much happier because i walked into testing feeling rested and Sharp. Last but not least, you gotta have confidence! I can't stress that enough.Also if you're religious i would ask that you pray. It does wonders. Good luck. You got this!

gizahon · Sep 27, 2016

Stay positive and believe in yourself!!!! I agree with the above post, pray, pray, pray.....

You will do great!!! I used Kaplan, Uworld,Saunders and PDA Lacharity.

rccronin10, BSN · Sep 27, 2016

Thank you both!! Yeah I definitely had way too many resources to choose from, which is why I ended up using 3. I took a little bit of a break last night and I'm taking a bit of a break now and we'll see how it goes! Thanks again!

MurseJJ · Sep 27, 2016

So I have a puzzle for you all... To start off, my name is Regan, I am a chronic lurker of this website and will be taking my NCLEX for the first time this Thursday (9/29). I am super nervous (shocker, I know lol) and I have been doing progressively worse on my practice questions. I have been studying for about a month now. I have been primarily using the Kaplan q-bank, NCLEX RN Mastery App, and UWORLD, and sprinkled a bit of content studying in between all of this. I felt kind of confident until I recently noticed my scores in all of these study banks have been slowly decreasing. I don't know if this means I am overdoing it, and maybe need to take a break for a day? I have been studying pretty much every day for a month, anywhere from 2-8 hours a day. My main concern is that I have screwed myself over by putting the test off for too long (got my ATT on Sep. 3rd, graduated in mid-August and traveled abroad in between) and now I won't pass because I've completely fried myself. But at the same time, maybe in some twisted way it means I'm ready and I'm just at the point where I can't wait to be done?? Any and all advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

Stay positive! Honestly sometimes the QBank scores just depend on the difficulty level of the questions randomly put into the quiz. It sounds like you've been doing a lot of preparation. Just remember your test-taking strategies (Maslow's, ABCs, etc), remember to read the question carefully, and you will do well!

I used about 6 resources. My opinion is while you should limit your resources, the more questions you do, the better. I did all of UWorld, 1000 from NCLEX Mastery, around 600 from Kaplan QBank, the PDA LaCharity book (up to the case studies), and Virtual ATI review. I passed last week with 75. You can do this too!

If anything at this point, I would review your lab values and isolation precautions.

Good luck :)

rccronin10, BSN · Sep 27, 2016

Stay positive! Honestly sometimes the QBank scores just depend on the difficulty level of the questions randomly put into the quiz. It sounds like you've been doing a lot of preparation. Just remember your test-taking strategies (Maslow's, ABCs, etc), remember to read the question carefully, and you will do well!
I used about 6 resources. My opinion is while you should limit your resources, the more questions you do, the better. I did all of UWorld, 1000 from NCLEX Mastery, around 600 from Kaplan QBank, the PDA LaCharity book (up to the case studies), and Virtual ATI review. I passed last week with 75. You can do this too!
If anything at this point, I would review your lab values and isolation precautions.
Good luck :)

Thank you! I will definitely go over lab values and iso precautions. Congrats on passing! I always forget about the LaCharity book but maybe I'll try a few questions tonight :)

MurseJJ · Sep 27, 2016

Thank you! I will definitely go over lab values and iso precautions. Congrats on passing! I always forget about the LaCharity book but maybe I'll try a few questions tonight :)

Sounds good!

rccronin10, BSN · Sep 30, 2016

UPDATE: Just took my NCLEX today, a couple of hours ago! I realize in this post I had said I was taking it Thursday but I actually meant Friday :whistling: oops! Anyway, had 20+ select alls, about 15 of them in a row (yes I counted), at least 3 ekg questions, some priority and infection control, and a little bit of everything in terms of topics. It shut off at 75, and my literal reaction (the woman watching me on the camera must've thought I was nuts) was "But I'm not done yet!?!?" So I don't know how to feel; I feel like I should be crying and I don't know if the reason I'm not is because I'm still in shock and still super stressed or if it's because in the very back of my mind I think I did ok. I really feel like it could have gone either way. But I did feel prepared walking into it; I took a break around question 53 to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water which definitely helped. 46 more hours to go, hopefully I can distract the hell out of my brain until then! Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice, it really helped :)

MurseJJ · Sep 30, 2016

UPDATE: Just took my NCLEX today, a couple of hours ago! I realize in this post I had said I was taking it Thursday but I actually meant Friday oops! Anyway, had 20+ select alls, about 15 of them in a row (yes I counted), at least 3 ekg questions, some priority and infection control, and a little bit of everything in terms of topics. It shut off at 75, and my literal reaction (the woman watching me on the camera must've thought I was nuts) was "But I'm not done yet!?!?" So I don't know how to feel; I feel like I should be crying and I don't know if the reason I'm not is because I'm still in shock and still super stressed or if it's because in the very back of my mind I think I did ok. I really feel like it could have gone either way. But I did feel prepared walking into it; I took a break around question 53 to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water which definitely helped. 46 more hours to go, hopefully I can distract the hell out of my brain until then! Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice, it really helped :)

Congrats, it's over! I felt the same way walking out of the NCLEX, I think it's a common feeling. When I got to 75 I expected to go on to 76, but that was that, haha. Now do something fun for the next two days and come back and let us know how you did! :up:

rccronin10, BSN · Oct 2, 2016

UPDATE: Got my quick results & passed!! Thank you to everyone for your advice :)