Passed NCLEX Feb 2018

[NatPatRN]

So I told myself that when I passed NCLEX I would post on here. I read and read SOO many posts to help me throughout my journey. First off, I was an A and B student throughout nursing school. I went to the University of West Georgia, and I started out at their fulltime program. I failed a class which pushed back my graduation date and had to go to the part time program. Which I did not know at the time was a blessing in disguise from God. I felt like a complete failure. I was leaving behind some of my best friends and classmates who I had been with for two years or more. I would like to say I failed because I was heavily distracted by a horrible relationship, but I shouldn't have let something so silly interfere with my dream career. Being at the part time program gave me the opportunity to get a job PRN as a nurse extern at a nearby hospital. I was on a Med-Surg floor and I learned SOO much there. I am a visual and kinesthetic learner, and I do learn best by repeating things over and over again. I was able to learn things at school and it was further reinforced in my work. I only worked when I felt like it because I was PRN and self schedule. I was able to schedule my work around my test dates and my clinical dates. Also I was able to get the specialty clinical and my senior practicum at children's hospital. I also was hired on that unit. I graduated December 10^th. I gave myself all of December and half of January to decompress and spend much needed time with family. I had family from all over the world over since I was the first to graduate college from BOTH sides. My school did provide Kaplan for us and to an extent it did help for me. It helped others more and some of my classmates took it as a joke. The quiz bank they had really helped me, I did all of the focused quizzes. I also paid for Hurst review, which helped me tremendously! It reinforced things I did not do so well at or my school did not go over thoroughly (Addison's disease, and maternity). I listened to all the lectures at least twice (repetition). One month before my exam I purchased U world. I did 706 questions in total and I had an average of 51% . I did take two of the assessments and on the first one got a 61 which is high chance of passing NCLEX. The second one I got lower! I got a 49% which is borderline.... Yeah I had a panic attack because I took that one 3 days before my exam date. I took NCLEX on February 17, 2018 at 8 AM. I walked out of there numb. I got in the car with my Dad and told him I was sorry I wasted his $200. I also started to think about losing my dream job at the children's hospital. I am not lying when I say I felt like I legit failed the NCLEX. I told myself everyone says they feel this way but I for real feel like I FAILED. I knew in 24 hours all my classmates who took the exam on a week day could see their license number on the GBON. The next day was a Saturday and then Monday was President's Day! I had no idea if they worked on weekends or on federal holidays. All I did know was that by Monday I would know because of my quick results. Now I could've done the PVT trick, but I knew that two of my classmates had done it and both could re-register (bad pop up) but once they got their results they both passed. So I said no PVT trick for me. Fast forward to Sunday evening still nothing on the GBON, so I decided to do the PVT trick and I got the good pop up. I was slightly relived. I got my quick results Monday morning at 10:15 AM! And passed! I checked the GBON and did not see my license number until Tuesday morning !

I believe that passing NCLEX is finding out how you learn and study best and doing that with enough time! I have other classmates who were straight A students and did not study appropriately and failed their first time. I consider myself an average Joe and I studied a little over a month and passed with 110 questions! I also liked Uworld the best and Hurst second best. I read the rationales form U world very carefully and made flashcards on things I did not know very well or didn't know. Kaplan was okay, I did not like the decision tree because it confused me more than help. Kaplan also had in my opinion, sloppy rationales. Regardless, I wanted to expose myself to a lot of questions. I am sorry for the long post and I'm sure some grammatical errors. But reading other people's stories helped me. I hope mine helps others. Find the way you learn and study and give yourself enough time to prepare and you can do it too! Oh and I did review the day before my test until 3pm. The rest of the day I prayed and prayed with some Netflix. Have faith in yourself. Go in that test and show them who you are and all the work you have done! I had 0 med calcs, which am deme angry because I am good at them and I have another classmates who had 2-4. I had a lot of SATA, I had FOUR drag and drop! 0 hot spot.

Sincerely,

Chicken little who is now RN