Passed NCLEX Feb 2015 - Entire experience

[thejourney16]

Greetings to all,

I am both relieved and extremely grateful to have the opportunity to write this message as a Registered Nurse. First, please allow me to say that I passed my NCLEX in 75 questions the very first time. Did I feel confident? No. Did I feel prepared? No. Did I feel like I had passed after 75 questions? No. Preparing for the NCLEX was by far, one of the most taunting and humbling academic experiences that I have had – and I had a number of struggles to get here so that says a lot. I am sure you all have had difficult times and are prepared to take on this challenge.

First, in terms of preparation, I was extremely lost when it comes to gathering the necessary information to study. Our school provided us with Saunders, Kaplan, Hesi Review, and an additional bundle. You would think that this number of materials would be helpful - no, it was in fact overwhelming. After graduating a 2 year non-stop nursing program, I took two to three months off because I was going through a breakup (tough times lol) and also because I was working full time. I then decided to prepare for my exam.

Prior to my preparation, I felt that I needed to be stronger in my foundations and core content. I decided to go with the Hurst Review for Content and Kaplan for questions. I then proceeded by studying on and off for about 5 weeks given that I found it very difficult to focus after a long day at work. Nonetheless, I would review by listening to one of the topic lectures from Hurst every day and would take notes on that topic. I felt like I would take one step forward and two steps back due to the lack of consistency. What I had not realized was that the 2 to 3 hours that I would spend listening and taking notes on a topic slowly started to make a difference.

I tried a number of ways to modify my schedule studying. I would wake up at 4 am to study for three hours before going to work at 7:30. I would go to work and listen to lectures during work to learn the material. With the Hurst review, there are a number of topics that they deem indispensable to having a strong foundation in order to pass the NCLEX. I spent as much time as I needed to cover all the lecture content which took me more time than I originally anticipated.

The issue then became the fact that two to three weeks before my scheduled test, I had not done any questions. I then decided to transition into Kaplan. After taking my first three review tests, I was completely demoralized because my scores were not improving. Further, the decision tree does not work for me. Having been a science major, I do better when I have a strong knowledge base from which I can decide how to answer a question. With the NCLEX, that method seems almost impractical given the amount of information that you have to know.

After taking another exam with Kaplan and doing horribly, I realized that I was running out of time. I would try to do questions, remediate, and then another set of questions following by another set of remediation. I was completely exhausted given that I was trying to fit it 8 to 10 hours and sometimes more hours of studying because I felt like I was running out of time.

To make the long story short, after attempting to change my exam date to no avail, I was down to ONE week and I still felt misguided with no confidence that I would pass the NCLEX. Given that I had spent most of my time working with HURST, I decided to completely forget about Kaplan and focus purely on HUST for that one week. I took all of the tests from the HURST review. Although I was not doing well at first, I was getting more comfortable and confident because I was learning more through each exam.

Finally, I took my last test the day before my exam. I know it's not recommended but I had no choice. After remediating, I had no energy to learn anything new. I literally scanned through the important meds - i.e. cardiac, HTN, diabetic, etc., looked at my lab values, and tried to relax the night before. The issue is that I could not sleep the two nights leading to the exam because I was so anxious. Throughout my time studying, I kept praying and asking God to enlighten me and bless me with the favor of passing my NCLEX.

On the exam day, I woke up and I was exhausted. Not a good way to start. I proceeded by getting an energy drink – another bad move, made a peanut butter with no jelly sandwich and hit the road. On my way to my exam, I was just filled with emotions. I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to sit and take my NCLEX. Given that I am from another country, I was told that I could not go to college let alone have the chance to be licensed as a nurse. That morning, against all odds, God gave me the opportunity to take my test and for that I was extremely grateful. I cried on my way to my test because of how grateful I was. Once I got to the test center, I briefly reviewed some lab values one more time and left everything in my car to go take my test.

During the test, everything looked very familiar. I felt like I have seen and learned about all the topics that were presented to me. The issue however was finalizing and choosing one answer. There were a number of questions, at least 10, where I felt like I knew the topic but could not pick between two answers. As I was taking my test, I knew that I would not pass if I go pass 125 because I did not have the stamina to take more than 125. I paced myself mainly because I am a very slow test taker and because I was also really tired and running on caffeine and adrenaline. It took me a little over 2 hours – yea I know, very atypical – but when I got to question 75 which I did not even realize at the time, God answered my prayer and allowed the computer to shut off. At that moment, I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA of my performance. I felt like it could have gone either way. I kept reflecting on those 50/50 questions and felt like I had made the wrong selection which completely discouraged me.

Now, what is the message here? I knew you probably did not get anything useful out of my post but the goal here is to show you that YOU can and will pass the NCLEX. I was evidently disorganized during the process because I tried to fit both Kaplan and Hurst under the same schedule. Please don't try that, especially if you only have a few weeks left. I found Kaplan to be extremely discouraging given that I am not the type who learns from doing a number of questions. I need to see the material and learn it in a very detailed and organized manner which was provided to me through Hurst. Did I know everything? No!!! There is no way to learn everything. You may NEVER feel ready. Just believe in the process and understand that it's just a test. Please don't be like me and try not to do half of the things I did. (i.e. cramming, not sleeping, not having a good diet, energy drinks etc.)

Overall, I want to apologize for the long post but also want to wish you the very best in the process. Please let me know how I can be of assistance. I would be happy to answer direct questions that you may have. I know that this is a very untraditional post so my apologies, I guess I am just a little ADD.

Thank you for allowing me to share my testimony. All the glory be to God.

Best regards,

#TheJourney16