Nclex 2018

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I'm so sleepy right now but I told myself once this process was done that I'd come on here and explain my experience. I graduated in the fall of 2017 and took my nclex ending of February. Needless to say I failed. I walked out of that test center hysterical. I remember taking an uber home and crying myself to sleep for the rest of the day. I have NEVER felt like that before. Not even in nursing school. I was always the type of person to say once I get into nursing school that I promise myself I won't fail. That I would study hard enough and that's exactly what I did. Nclex had another thing planned for me though. On my first attempt I used uworld to study. Majority of the people I knew advocated for uworld and told me that was the only thing I needed. I wanted to purchase the PDA book to learn who to assess first but when I started doing uworld questions I felt there was no need since uworld covered everything. I LOVED the rationales on uworld.

Every question I did I copied and paste my rationales and printed them out. After I finished the question bank for uworld my average was around 53% and my assessment score was in the very high percentile. I finished my questions a week early so I decided to devote my time to studying the content I printed out. Big mistake and I'll explain why later.

I waited two days and to my dismay I found out I failed. I couldn't believe it. How could I fail using the one study source that EVERYONE seemed to use? I was depressed for weeks but in my head I was already thinking of ways to study to pass. Within a couple of days (maybe 2) I received my ATT and scheduled my test for May. Even with the test scheduled I had no motivation at all. I didn't know what to use besides uworld but I read that Kaplan is very good with test taking strategies so I decided to buy their question bank.

I bought the PDA book and I also decided to buy Saunders book for content and the strategies book from Kaplan. I stared off with Saunders but reading that book made my head hurt. I was sick of looking at content. About a week or two after, I decided to start the PDA book and my scores always ranged from high 50s to low 60s. It really helped with delegation and knowing who to assess first. Lastly, I decided to start Kaplan question bank a month later. My scores were horrible in the beginning. I was getting low 40s and I contributed that too not doing critical thinking questions for about two months. So I kept at it and my scores started to range from low 50s to mid 70s. I decided to think about my first test and said this is where I went wrong. I decided to stop for a whole week to study content and in that same time I lost how to answer questions. I also went into my test very anxious and I was NOT prepared for the full 265 questions. If it's anything you take away from my post is that do not listen to your friends. Go into that test prepared and not looking to stop at 75 questions. Once I hit 100 questions I started to panic and by the time 200 hit I was already crying. I blanked out the last 60 questions and just clicked anything. I felt like I already failed not knowing that I was still in the game.

Anyways back to kaplan lol. It is good to know content but when you're taking that test there's no way you would know everything. You have to be able to critically think through the questions and that's something uworld did not teach me. I believed Kaplan helped me so much with actually thinking and eliminating answer choices. In the end Kaplan question bank had four sample tests. I received a 50% on one and a 66% on the second one. On who to assess first I received a 60% and didn't bother doing the select all that apply. My overall Kaplan question bank score was 50%. All throughout this time I'm also doing questions in the Kaplan strategies book and decided to do their sample test of 265 questions that comes with the book. I ended up receiving a 72% on it. In all I probably completed over 2,500 questions. Oh and I also bought the nclex mastery app! It was good for content when I didn't feel like reading my uworld notes.

Took my nclex this morning and walked in feeling a sense of calmness. I finished the test in 150 questions and received the good pop up. I know how it feels to not pass and not know what to study. But this worked for me so hopefully it helps someone else.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I have moved your post to the NCLEX forum to ensure maximum responses. Congrats!

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Thank you !

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Congratulations sear for your success. Please check your private message i PM you. Thanks

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Congratulations sear for your success. Please check your private message i PM you. Thanks

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Thank you! I can't send a private message since I don't have enough posts yet but I will help you soon. It's my graduation week and I am extremely busy. Just keep checking your email.

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Thank you! I can't send a private message since I don't have enough posts yet but I will help you soon. It's my graduation week and I am extremely busy. Just keep checking your email.

OK, thanks. Enjoy your graduation with every goodies out there. Wishing you a joyous graduation ceremony.

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