Reading post on allnurses has really got me through nursing school. The days i felt confused,scared, or just anxious..this website saved me. And I hoping by sharing some of my story I will be able to bring some comfort to someone else.
I guess my biggest accomplishment was passing my NCLEX exam on the first try! When the computer shut off at 85 questions and that blue screen popped up i wanted to get up and shout, "I wasn't finished!"
I swear i felt like I did not half of those answers. I had so many select all that apply and pharm questions! I was so upset about that considering the fact that I studied Endocrine and Cardio for like two weeks and i ended up with only ONE cardio question. For the most part I can say the rest of my exam was a combination of priority questions, SATA, pharm, OB, and mental health.
So once the exam was over I felt like poop. I had to sit in my car for like 15 minutes until I was able to drive. It took me like 40 minutes to get home and I went and tried the Pearson Vue trick. By the grace of God I got the good pop-up!!! I had to log in and out like ten times to make sure my mind was not playing games on me! All my friends told me it was 100% accurate but I wasn't going to tell anyone until I knew for sure. Well I was able to find my nursing license number this morning and my school called to congratulate me!! I could not believe that I officially a NURSE:roflmao:
I bought all types of Nclex books to help me prepare...let me you that was a mistake!!! It made me feel so overwhelmed!!! So to be honest this is what i used...
1)Saunders (the red book)
2) Kaplan PN book + the Kaplan prep program
3)exam cram practice questions
I graduated nursing school in May and I probably studied 5weeks total. I have to say going through those online Kaplan videos is what took me forever! they were long but let me tell you it was a wonderful review session. I made flash cards off those lectures! I never used the decision tree..it was too confusing! and their Q-bank questions were more similar to the Nclex questions than Saunders or Exam cram..so If you can't afford to pay the $400 then invest in buying the questions only
Now with Saunders...i used that book through out nursing school and they have thousands of questions. Saunders really helped me also....
Exam Cram was so hard for me!!!! It has 1,000 questions. So i did 100 questions at a time...and the highest score I ever got was a 64%! But their rationales were so good and I think it was worth because it really made me think!
I reviewed content for like 3 weeks and really started practing questions for like 2 weeks. I felt like that worked for me because I wanted to make sure I was Ok with my content before I started practicing questions.
The night before the test I was a mess. I did NOT feel prepared and I did not want to take this exam. I just had to face my fears and go. I stopped by the church by house and said a quick prayer and off I went. The rest is history..
If I can pass then I know all of you can pass also!!!!! No one ever feels prepared no matter how long they study.
The best advice for me was follow Maslow and ABCs...and always eliminate two options!!!
I hope I was able to help and if you need words of encouragement or need to vent about being nervous about the Nclex you can always email at [email protected]
