New Grad passed NCLEX-RN first try!

4 Posts

Hi guys!

Nice to meetcha all. I was a member here YEARS ago, way back when. I've been an LPN for the past 17 years and now, I'm a recent ADN grad of St. Paul's S.O.N- Staten Island Campus in New York! Sat for my NCLEX on Wednesday, and got my unofficial PASS (best $8 I've spent in a while!) on Friday Morning.

I was in and out in about an hour and 10 minutes- 75 questions.

I can say, if the number of questions or the timer starts to get to you, you can disable the viewing of them- I got to question 67 and had to hide it! The thought of going over 75 was making me paranoid! I was keeping track of the number in the corner of the back of my mind, and it clicked over at 75.

I also knew after doing umpteen practice tests and an unbelieveable amount of hesi's that after about 50 questions, I had to stop, close my eyes, take a couple deep breaths and stretch. It really helps!

My practice regime included some Content review- (I tutor from time to time, and I found it a great way to study! If you can explain something in detail to someone else, you really Know the material.) Kaplan Q-Bank, and LOTS of the RN Mastery app for iPhone. I strongly recommend the app. It's about $30 for the full version- and it's well worth it for the content review-it's weak for pictures, hotspots, and put in order questions, but it's great for mnemonics and SATAs. I'd use it whenever I had 5 minutes quiet- banged out another couple q's as I could :) Oh, and I used NursesLabs.com as a good basic content review- they have some 'cheat sheets' that are the bare-bones basics and are excellent for the high points you will NEED to know.

I took the Hurst class and beyond disliked it- something about the pacing and the mad-libs style study book drove me mad- it felt like a 2 day long episode of being lectured to by my father in law... It wasn't for me but a bunch of other students loved it. Kaplan was like tons of questions and how to answer questions. It was cool- we had a great instructor, but honestly, if it wasn't strongly encouraged by my school, I probably would have passed on it as well. I was advised by a lot of people to use UWorld- it was outside my budget so I skipped on it- but I've heard a lot of great stuff about it.

I also took advantage of the school's mentoring program- moreso as a check into ensure I was doing my 'post grad homework' (eg: STUDY! QUESTIONS! TESTPREP!) :)

10 of 10, would do again!

So, I guess if anyone has questions, please let me know :)

--Nut!