NCLEX 2015

elephant123 · Sep 26, 2015

I told myself when I pass the nclex, I would share my NCLEX story.... so here it goes!

My NCLEX prep included the following:

-90% of Kaplan Qbank questions: I chose the 1 month subscription for $50. I found the questions harder than the NCLEX, but they really emphasize infection control in excruciating detail, which I found really helpful. I would say 1 month is all you really need for this. They have other options with extended time, but it isn't really necessary. When I first started, I made 59%-to low 60%. Then after a week or two my scores started dipping into the low 50s and 40s. I started to panic. If this is the case for you, DON'T WORRY. Just remediate on that topic and other topics similar to those. Don't use the rationales Kaplan gives you. Look them up in Saunders.

- I listened to HURST videos- helpful for basic content and I highly recommend it, but it cannot be done alone. It helped me tie some things that I learned from school and helped me get a ton of questions right when I was practicing, but none of the content provided was on my NCLEX in particular. I did not do the questions HURST provided.

-1000+ questions from the Saunders Q&A book. These questions were easy to me. I was making about 75-80%. The questions really just built my confidence when all the other practice questions were tearing me up!

-800+ questions from the NCLEX mastery app- I definitely recommend this app. You can use this anywhere. If you have a hard time with select all that applies, this app is definitely for you! I used it all the time when I was going to the bathroom or when I wasn't at home.

-Lacharity's prioritization and delegation book twice (not the case studies portion, just the chapters). This book was the most helpful. I literally had about 50% priority questions. This book is perfect. If you have access to the online version, I would recommend clicking the topic priority and just go through all of them. This also helped me with delegation, which I was really confused about, but the rationales are really helpful.

The day before the exam, I watched a bunch of boy meets world and went through that 30 page study guide floating around on allnurses.com. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING THIS the day before.

The night before the test, I could not sleep. I was so anxious that I just laid awake in bed. I was scared I was going to fail, because I had no sleep. Most people feel like crying after the test, but I almost did right before. I went in the testing center kind of 30-40 minutes early, and they let me start testing as soon as I checked-in! I had 79 questions and 16 of them were SATA and 2 were dosage calculation. I felt like I was guessing on all of them. When I was to question 76, I was thinking, "Dammit, I'm in it for the long haul." To my surprise, it ended a few questions later! I found out the next morning that I passed when I saw my name on the BON page! Don't panic if your test keeps going after 75 and don't panic if you had zero sleep. It is possible to pass. DO LOTS OF QUESTIONS when preparing. I had one question that was almost the same question as one I did when practicing. Don't panic!

Also, if you're anything like me, you might find yourself reading everything NCLEX related on allnurses.com. There are a lot of people that have failed on here, and it made me realllllly nervous. However, I would recommend not reading the NCLEX horror stories. Stay positive. You can pass if you prep really well. Good luck to those who will take it soon!