I took my NCLEX-RN on Sept. 22, 2015 and I have read a lot of encouraging posts after I failed my nclex for the first time. So I want to post my story on how I passed the 2nd time.
First time taking the nclex I had 265 Q and took 5 hours. I took a month and read the Saunder's book from cover to cover and took notes on each chapter. This is a great book for general content review and the practice questions were only content base. So don't solely study using this book. I also used Kaplan and did all the question trainers. I don't remember the exact scores. But for QT7 I got 55% and it should have been at least in the 60's before I took the exam. But honestly, I felt that Kaplan didn't really work for me.
Second time taking the test: I used UWORLD! I cannot stress to people if kaplan does not work for you, try UWORLD. There is a free one week trial and the rationales are amazing!!! I mainly used this site to study for my second exam. I did around 75 questions a day and spent 4-6 hours review the rationales. Trust me, read each rationale for each question (even right/wrong) and also research more about the topic if you are unfamiliar with it. Like for cholecystectomy I YouTube how it's done and understood the procedure and it helped me understand more about the nursing aspect (like positioning, precautions, etc.) I typed out notes on questions I didn't understand and it helps me retain the information. For UWORLD my overall average was 58%. It also has a lot of SATA which was great!
I also borrowed (don't suggest you buy if you are on a budget ) the NCLEX - RN 2015-2016 Kaplan book and did the practice test a few days before my exam and got 74%. I think this test was fairly easy, given that I got such a high score. Link is below.
Overall, I used UWORLD, did a practice test, and read the 35 page study guide to study for the second time. I passed w/ 76 questions in 1.5 hrs. You can all pass the NCLEX! Make sure you have a schedule and remember to relax and have fun!
Hello everyone I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who used uworld for the NCLEX. I found it to be a great resource for practicing NCLEX questions, but every time I talked to someone about it, they would give me a confused look and tell me they had never heard of this program before. I have to say that after going through question banks from Saunders 5th edition, Kaplan, Hurst, and Lippincott I found uworld's Test bank to be the best. The questions were very close to the ones I had on my NCLEX and I loved the rationales and teaching points it had for each question. The thing about this website is that getting the question right isn't nearly as important as learning what you did wrong. NCLEX questions cover an enormous amount of information; making it impossible to learn everything. However sometimes knowing a few core concepts and question patterns that NCLEX follows is far more valuable than simply going over various nursing topics. If you want to really boost that average though try listening to a Hurst lecture, completing the notes as you listen, then take a 30 question quiz on the subject in uworld. After you do a few of these take a 75 question test that has a mixture of topics. But most importantly remember to stay calm; as soon as you panic you will begin to make silly mistakes. Which is actually worse than not knowing the answer. Hope this helps someone cause it sure helped me pass. Good luck to everyone!
happpyy I also failed my exam the first time around with "near passing standard" on every category. I did basically what you did.. i did the saunders book cover to cover and took out as many books from the library as i could, like lacharity and kaplan. This time around I'm doing UWORLD, I'm just curious as i take my exam next week. How many questions did you complete? Also, one of my friends said to not look at the average and look more at the percentage when you finish each individual exam to see if you are within 5% of it, what do you think?
Hi im about to take my nclex this March. I have almost all the copies of uworld rationales (hard copies) and also did alot of practice question (900+ now) , yes i agree uworld is great! But do u think itll help me alot in terms of memorizing my rationales on uworld. Will it help me pass? Is the real nclex and uworld alike? How alike? Would really appreciate your response.
Brian93
1 Post
Hello everyone I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who used uworld for the NCLEX. I found it to be a great resource for practicing NCLEX questions, but every time I talked to someone about it, they would give me a confused look and tell me they had never heard of this program before. I have to say that after going through question banks from Saunders 5th edition, Kaplan, Hurst, and Lippincott I found uworld's Test bank to be the best. The questions were very close to the ones I had on my NCLEX and I loved the rationales and teaching points it had for each question. The thing about this website is that getting the question right isn't nearly as important as learning what you did wrong. NCLEX questions cover an enormous amount of information; making it impossible to learn everything. However sometimes knowing a few core concepts and question patterns that NCLEX follows is far more valuable than simply going over various nursing topics. If you want to really boost that average though try listening to a Hurst lecture, completing the notes as you listen, then take a 30 question quiz on the subject in uworld. After you do a few of these take a 75 question test that has a mixture of topics. But most importantly remember to stay calm; as soon as you panic you will begin to make silly mistakes. Which is actually worse than not knowing the answer. Hope this helps someone cause it sure helped me pass. Good luck to everyone!