NCLEX RN 14 times

DTWriter · Feb 14, 2017

That's very discouraging

Your situation is dire but not a total lost cause...yet.

As OrganizedChaos suggested, you should consider going back to nursing school, especially one that is reputable (for instance - one where >90% of their students graduate and pass the NCLEX).

Going through nursing school again may help you pick up information that you missed the first time around. Plus, when you graduate again, you would be a new grad as oppose to being an "old" new grad. After that, it is up to you to pass the NCLEX within a reasonable time.

Interestingly, my siblings and I had a conversation last month in regards to how long a person has to use a degree post-graduation before the degree becomes useless. For getting a job, we eventually agreed on 3 years post graduation.

You are not yet at 3 years, but you may have to do a refresher course or return to nursing school anyway to get a job. You might as well go back to school to prepare for the NCLEX.

sianee · Feb 14, 2017

I'm going to get a job instead as an assistant so I can pick up skills, hands on

pixierose, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2017

I'm going to get a job instead as an assistant so I can pick up skills, hands on

The thing is, yes -- you'll pick up skills. But you won't necessarily pick up the nursing knowledge that a nursing refresher course or nursing school will assist you with.

As another poster mentioned, your situation is dire. It's one thing to have test anxiety; it's a whole other issue to have a "knowledge deficit." I'm not even sure what that means.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Feb 14, 2017

I'm going to get a job instead as an assistant so I can pick up skills, hands on

You won't pick up the knowledge you need to help you pass the NCLEX. You have 2 options: 1) Go back to an accredited nursing school with a high pass rate OR 2) Give up on nursing.

Everything you are doing is not helping you gain the knowledge you need to become a nurse. If you can't grasp the subject any review course or job won't help you. Especially since this year you are coming up to 3 years since you have graduated. But continuing what you are doing is pure insanity (doing the same thing over & over but expecting different results).

Extra Pickles · Feb 14, 2017

sianee has had multiple threads over the last few months, saying she has failed the nclex after yet another 45 day waiting period. Repeats test every 45 days, fails every 45 days. Something isn't adding up here.

Sianee, you have received all of the advice on this thread many times before, on many different threads. Each time you don't seem to indicate that you've understood the advice or plan to follow it, except for a rare statement about trying a new system or studying harder. Nothing anyone has said to you seems to be getting through whatever barrier you have set up to keep out good advice.

While English is not your native language you have still been speaking it since you were 13, the fact that you went to nursing school and hold a job somehow in the criminal justice system means that you speak English well enough to not have that be a barrier to passing this exam. Yet in reading through your posts they don't read like someone who has a decent grasp of the English language, so either you aren't being entirely truthful about your language skills or you aren't being entirely truthful about the job you hold, something is off here.

You say you have been working with juvenile delinquents as a counselor for 16 years, I wonder what kind of county or state job pays well enough to afford you the ability to pay hundreds of dollars in testing fees every 45 days? From what you've said and how you've said it, I have to believe you don't hold a Ph.D. in psychology or social work and therefore are working as an unlicensed (no college?) counselor which is going to be a lower-paying job. Yet you can pay application and testing fees in excess if five thousand dollars, in $400-$500 increments every six weeks?

On top of that you now tell us that you bought a vacation home in Rhode Island so that you can leave your current job and move. None of that makes any sense to anyone who thinks on that for a full 20 seconds. No one invests in a home purchase more than a thousand miles from where she lives when she doesn't have the ability to go there because of limited vacation time. No one spends that kind of money to buy a home in a state where she doesn't yet have a job, if changing jobs is really the plan. Which makes me think it isn't, and you're not telling us what's really going on.

If you are who you say you are and just badly covering up the details of your life you don't want us to know, I get that. If that's the case my advice is as it has been before, which is to choose a new path in life. You are torturing yourself by constantly failing at what you don't really have hope of actually being successful in. If you are NOT who you say you are and the details are just there to play a game with us, I feel sorry for you truly, because then no one here will be able to help you at all.

Help is available for you, whichever you are (real or invented). Please find it, and I wish you well.

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 14, 2017

I'm going to get a job instead as an assistant so I can pick up skills, hands on

How do you expect this to help you? It's not the ability to perform tasks that makes the nurse; it's the knowledge to know why the task is being done and what to do with the results of the task. Anyone (and even some animals) can be trained to do tasks. Nursing is not about tasks. If you want to be a nurse (and I'm still not sure if we're being punk'd or not), then you need to stop with the excuses (your current job) and pathways that aren't going to help (vacation house, CNA job). As the saying goes, it's time to poop or get off the pot.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Feb 15, 2017

sianee has had multiple threads over the last few months, saying she has failed the nclex after yet another 45 day waiting period. Repeats test every 45 days, fails every 45 days. Something isn't adding up here.
Sianee, you have received all of the advice on this thread many times before, on many different threads. Each time you don't seem to indicate that you've understood the advice or plan to follow it, except for a rare statement about trying a new system or studying harder. Nothing anyone has said to you seems to be getting through whatever barrier you have set up to keep out good advice.
While English is not your native language you have still been speaking it since you were 13, the fact that you went to nursing school and hold a job somehow in the criminal justice system means that you speak English well enough to not have that be a barrier to passing this exam. Yet in reading through your posts they don't read like someone who has a decent grasp of the English language, so either you aren't being entirely truthful about your language skills or you aren't being entirely truthful about the job you hold, something is off here.
You say you have been working with juvenile delinquents as a counselor for 16 years, I wonder what kind of county or state job pays well enough to afford you the ability to pay hundreds of dollars in testing fees every 45 days? From what you've said and how you've said it, I have to believe you don't hold a Ph.D. in psychology or social work and therefore are working as an unlicensed (no college?) counselor which is going to be a lower-paying job. Yet you can pay application and testing fees in excess if five thousand dollars, in $400-$500 increments every six weeks?
On top of that you now tell us that you bought a vacation home in Rhode Island so that you can leave your current job and move. None of that makes any sense to anyone who thinks on that for a full 20 seconds. No one invests in a home purchase more than a thousand miles from where she lives when she doesn't have the ability to go there because of limited vacation time. No one spends that kind of money to buy a home in a state where she doesn't yet have a job, if changing jobs is really the plan. Which makes me think it isn't, and you're not telling us what's really going on.
If you are who you say you are and just badly covering up the details of your life you don't want us to know, I get that. If that's the case my advice is as it has been before, which is to choose a new path in life. You are torturing yourself by constantly failing at what you don't really have hope of actually being successful in. If you are NOT who you say you are and the details are just there to play a game with us, I feel sorry for you truly, because then no one here will be able to help you at all.
Help is available for you, whichever you are (real or invented). Please find it, and I wish you well.

After more details of her "life" have come out I am starting to think we are all having our legs pulled.

I don't know what state job pays so much that someone can not only pay all the fees with retaking the NCLEX but all the study materials AND buying a vacation house. My mom has worked for the state for many, many years & doesn't make that much. She has a previous bachelor's degree too.

I don't understand how you can have such a well paying job when it seems like you can't write a proper sentence in English (& choose not to understand the language) & don't have any sort of degree.

If this is real you need to take the advice of all the *experienced* nurses. What you are doing clearly isn't helping you pass. No job or review course will help you. If you are that well off & feel like throwing it away, throw it my way! I would like a vacation home too.

nnekn1 · Feb 15, 2017

ok, I asked you this because it seem as if you may have a language barrier. As a person of Nigerian descent, I have met many people who have lived in this country for years and still have a problem with grasping American English. This can prove to be a very tough challenge when it comes to the NCLEX because you MUST have a firm grasp on the English language. You may want to try some ESL classes and also try a live review or in-class review aa someone stated above, because independent study doesn't seem to be working for you.

As for taking the test, stop scheduling the exam so quickly. It seems that this is what you have been doing each time and since it it isn't working you should try a different technique. You have said that you feel as though if you stop scheduling and taking the exam so soon, you fear that you may forget the info. Well, this method hasn't been helpful. Since you have another test coming up, reschedule it for a few months down the road. Use that time to study and take classes. Also try reading some books and/or magazines in English and pay attention to sentence structure, so that you can be entertained while learning at the same time.

Don't be discouraged. I know people who have passed their boards years after graduating. Those who are trying to tell you that they wouldn't feel as if you'll be a safe nurse after psssing are not here to help you. At the end of the day, the NCLEX is a clever exam that is designed to measure minimum competency. It is specially moulded to each test taker to throw out all the material that you are weakest at. So if you pass (whether after one try or 10) you are competent enough to be a nurse. Period.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Feb 15, 2017

ok, I asked you this because it seem as if you may have a language barrier. As a person of Nigerian descent, I have met many people who have lived in this country for years and still have a problem with grasping American English. This can prove to be a very tough challenge when it comes to the NCLEX because you MUST have a firm grasp on the English language. You may want to try some ESL classes and also try a live review or in-class review aa someone stated above, because independent study doesn't seem to be working for you.
As for taking the test, stop scheduling the exam so quickly. It seems that this is what you have been doing each time and since it it isn't working you should try a different technique. You have said that you feel as though if you stop scheduling and taking the exam so soon, you fear that you may forget the info. Well, this method hasn't been helpful. Since you have another test coming up, reschedule it for a few months down the road. Use that time to study and take classes. Also try reading some books and/or magazines in English and pay attention to sentence structure, so that you can be entertained while learning at the same time.
Don't be discouraged. I know people who have passed their boards years after graduating. Those who are trying to tell you that they wouldn't feel as if you'll be a safe nurse after psssing are not here to help you. At the end of the day, the NCLEX is a clever exam that is designed to measure minimum competency. It is specially moulded to each test taker to throw out all the material that you are weakest at. So if you pass (whether after one try or 10) you are competent enough to be a nurse. Period.

Joined just yesterday & only posts in the NCLEX forum.

Ok, I'll bite.

The OP needs to go back to school if she so desperately wants to be a nurse. No in person review will help her since she has admitted to a "knowledge deficit" (whatever that it). How can you review information you don't know? You can't. That's not a review (it's learning new material) & not what a review is meant for.

After 10+ attempts (at the NCLEX) & multiple experienced nurses coming forward saying to try something else, are being helpful. The OP got through pre reqs & nursing school (taught in English), so now we are just making excuses. If the OP can't pass the minimum competency exam to be a nurse after 10+ attempts & (almost) 3 years, it's time for her to reevaluate her life.

She would have a very steep learning curve should she pass the NCLEX now. Not only that, but what will she say to employers when she would go looking for jobs? She might get employed at a desperate nursing home. I started working in LTC right after graduation & it was overwhelming. I can't imagine being out of school for 3 years & then being thrown to the wolves. She doesn't qualify for any new grad program because she isn't a new grad, she's an "old" new grad. Since she lives (or use to live) in FL, it won't be easy to land a half decent job with new grads getting pumped out of schools all the time.

She hasn't used any skills since nursing school. If you have been through nursing school you should know you don't get very many opportunities to do things. It's not as if she was working as a nurse & had those skills down. She never fully got to use any skills because she has never passed the NCLEX. Going to a review course won't help her remember how to do the skills. Again, making work difficult unless she goes back to school.

Just because you have seen or heard of people taking years to pass the NCLEX doesn't make them safe nurses. If they were safe (& competent) nurses they would've sought help after their first failure. Not just that but what does that say to their critical thinking skills if it takes a person multiple years to pass a critical thinking exam & now they have to critically think on their feet? Patients don't have years to wait.

Personally I believe the NCLEX should be 3 times & you're out. After you've exceeded the attempts you either have to go back to nursing school or choose a different career.

gizahon · Feb 15, 2017

Hi sianee,

Do you get near passing on all of the sections????? If yes, then it's a strategy and critical thinking.

Best wishes

nnekn1 · Feb 15, 2017

Joined just yesterday & only posts in the NCLEX forum.
Ok, I'll bite.
The OP needs to go back to school if she so desperately wants to be a nurse. No in person review will help her since she has admitted to a "knowledge deficit" (whatever that it). How can you review information you don't know? You can't. That's not a review (it's learning new material) & not what a review is meant for.
After 10+ attempts (at the NCLEX) & multiple experienced nurses coming forward saying to try something else, are being helpful. The OP got through pre reqs & nursing school (taught in English), so now we are just making excuses. If the OP can't pass the minimum competency exam to be a nurse after 10+ attempts & (almost) 3 years, it's time for her to reevaluate her life.
She would have a very steep learning curve should she pass the NCLEX now. Not only that, but what will she say to employers when she would go looking for jobs? She might get employed at a desperate nursing home. I started working in LTC right after graduation & it was overwhelming. I can't imagine being out of school for 3 years & then being thrown to the wolves. She doesn't qualify for any new grad program because she isn't a new grad, she's an "old" new grad. Since she lives (or use to live) in FL, it won't be easy to land a half decent job with new grads getting pumped out of schools all the time.
She hasn't used any skills since nursing school. If you have been through nursing school you should know you don't get very many opportunities to do things. It's not as if she was working as a nurse & had those skills down. She never fully got to use any skills because she has never passed the NCLEX. Going to a review course won't help her remember how to do the skills. Again, making work difficult unless she goes back to school.
Just because you have seen or heard of people taking years to pass the NCLEX doesn't make them safe nurses. If they were safe (& competent) nurses they would've sought help after their first failure. Not just that but what does that say to their critical thinking skills if it takes a person multiple years to pass a critical thinking exam & now they have to critically think on their feet? Patients don't have years to wait.
Personally I believe the NCLEX should be 3 times & you're out. After you've exceeded the attempts you either have to go back to nursing school or choose a different career.

There's no need to be judgy. I have read this blog for years, so the fact that I just joined and just started participating in convos shouldn't be an issue. As if people haven't been having conversations before Internet blogging was invented.

Whatever one can do to lend a hand shouldn't be looked down on by others.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Feb 15, 2017

There's no need to be judgy. I have read this blog for years, so the fact that I just joined and just started participating in convos shouldn't be an issue. As if people haven't been having conversations before Internet blogging was invented.
Whatever one can do to lend a hand shouldn't be looked down on by others.

Reading the posts vs. actually commenting are two different things. What does conversing in person have to do with this subject? I don't see the correlation.

Have you looked at the OP's other similar posts? She comes here, asks for advice & then doesn't take it. Not only that but she has excuse after excuse. None of those are good qualities to have as a nurse.

I see you just passed your NCLEX. Because many experienced nurses have recommended the OP retake the whole nursing program at the very minimum. Taking 3 years to pass the NCLEX is a scary amount of time. Also the OP has admitted to a "knowledge deficit". If she really doesn't understand the material another review (in person or on her own) won't do her any good. We are trying to help the OP & at the same time, patients. If the OP can't pass the NCLEX in 3 years (solid evidence proves she will continue to fail) then maybe it is best for everyone that she chooses a different career. Maybe once you start working you will understand where we are coming from. Because there should be a red flag going off in your head when you hear/see of a nurse that took 3 years & 10+ attempts to pass the NCLEX.