Passed NCLEX June 2016 in 75 Questions

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Hello Everyone!

I just passed the NCLEX yesterday and wanted to share with everyone how i studied for the exam and passed in 75 questions! The NCLEX is a terrifying test to every new graduate. I put off studying for almost three weeks after I graduated (which was April 22nd) and then got my authorization to test on May 12th. I signed up to take it on June 7th. On May 18th, I paid $58 for "u world" for a month's subscription. This was all I spent on nclex study materials. I didn't pay for kaplan or hurst because I wanted to save money (these are $300+).

UWorld comes with over 1800 practice questions, so I divided these up and did about 100 per day. I often did "tutor mode." My scores were between 43-56% in the beginning, but closer to my test date, I started getting high 60%-mid 70% on the practice tests. U world was by far the BEST thing to use to study for the NCLEX. The rationales are AMAZING! They were very detailed and I learned so much from them. They also have a high percentage of "alternate format" questions. Anytime I didn't get a question correct or didn't fully understand it, I would write down the rationale on a word document in my own words so I would remember the content. These questions were very similar to the actual questions on the NCLEX and the interface was almost identical. It felt like I was just doing another U world practice test when I took my nclex exam!

I also used NCSBN for the 3 week course because my school paid for it. I did all 1300 practice questions from here, but I felt that these were not very similar to the actual NCLEX. The rationales weren't that great, but I just did them so i could get extra practice questions in. I didn't look at anything from their content review, only the practice question banks.

I used the purple SAUNDERS comprehensive review NCLEX book to do a quick content review and probably spent a total of 2 hours looking through this book and mostly reading about medications. I felt that their practice questions were too easy, so I didn't do any practice questions from here.

I went to barnes and noble and looked at their KAPLAN NCLEX premier 2016 book and did about 200 practice questions from here. I felt that these questions were alright, but many of them were too easy and looking back, not very similar to the NCLEX. I just did them for extra practice. Also at barnes and noble, i looked at a book called "Lippincott's NCLEX-RN alternate format questions, 5th edition." I did about 50 practice questions from here just to get extra "alternate format" practice questions in. I didn't buy this book, but I did like the questions and I thought they were pretty challenging.

In the days leading up to the test, I studied about 3-4 hours a day and did 200 practice questions each day. The day before the test, I did 150 practice questions, read over my U world notes in that word document I made, and relaxed the rest of the day. The day of my exam, I didn't do a single practice question. I went in to the testing center, signed in, went in the testing room, put in ear plugs, and pretended like i was at home doing a uworld practice test. I prayed a lot before and during my test as well, so this helped to calm my nerves!

I spent a little over an hour on the exam and had close to 20 select all that apply, one math question, and a lot of prioritization questions. I didn't have any "put this in order" or "hotspot" or "listening" questions. It shut off at 75 and I had a good feeling about it. I was pretty sure that I had passed, and sure enough, the next day I saw that I passed. It was not as bad as I thought it would be at all!

My advice would be to use Uworld and be consistent in your studying (try not to take any days off). There's no need to spend a ton of money on review courses or study for 12 hours a day (I only did about 3 or 4 hours). Total, I did between 3500-4000 practice questions before my exam. I studied consistently for 21 days. After taking the exam, I'm glad I didn't pay for kaplan or hurst because the content review would not have been helpful for this type of exam. Doing practice questions is the BEST way to go. The Uworld rationales alone are enough to prepare anyone for this test (I felt WAY over prepared when I took the NCLEX). There were very few things on the actual NCLEX that I didn't recognize or was unfamiliar with.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to the NCLEX forum

congratulations

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Specializes in Internal Medicine, Endoscopy,HDU.

Congratulations! I will definitely get Uworld for practice questions. I'm done with NCSBN and finished 1350 questions with 63%. I don't get some of their rationales. Hopefully I'll pass too.

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Congrats on passing the NCLEX. So I retired from the Marines in 2011 and decided to get my BSN. I graduated May 2016 and I am getting ready for that dreaded test. Anyways I did the Kaplan classroom review and have done every Q trainer- I averaged 65 percent on Q4-Q7. I have done 8 Q Banks and I range from 51 percent to 65 percent. I would have to do the math but I am probably sitting at 60 percent all together. I am finding the more I do questions and rationales the better I get. I am going to complete all the questions in kaplan and when I am around 90 percent complete I will to the readiness exam and take my boards.

My question is- how do I look? I think I am on the right track. I am also considering 30 days of U world as well. It is fairly cheap and heard it is fantastic.

Someone help me out here if you could. Also, I am new and my name is Dave- how do you post a new blog? Thanls so much. I have been reading the blogs for a few years now but never became a member until today.

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Hello! It definitely sounds like you are on the right track. Although I did not do kaplan, I believe that it is more than enough that you will need to take the NCLEX. My friend used kaplan and she passed in 75. U world was pretty much my sole source and it provided more than enough info for me to pass. In my opinion, having taken the test very recently, the way to pass is through practice questions (not so much through reviewing content). When i took the NCLEX, there were very few things that I did not know. If you are willing to spend $60 on Uworld (which honestly is pretty cheap) then I would HIGHLY recommend doing so. If you keep scoring higher and higher on kaplan questions, then this means you are improving and that the questions are becoming easier for you. U world questions were slightly more difficult than NCLEX, which is another reason I think it was so helpful.

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I heard the same goeas for Kaplan, the questions are just a tad harder than the NCLEX. I will do U world also as their rationales seem more in depth from what I see on their free question. Anyways thank for the reply and encouragement. I cant wait for this to be done.

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Specializes in EMS, LTC, Sub-acute Rehab.

I just passed the NCLEX PN which is not the same test. For what it's worth, I used Kaplan, UWorld, Exam Cram Cheat Sheet/Questions for a good hands on copy. More importantly I read up on the test itself so I'd know what to expect. I really didn't think it was difficult but I've taken adaptive CAT style exams in the past so I might be a bit bias. Honestly, if you can make it through nursing school as a male and the Corp, you'll be fine. Good luck Devil Dog!

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Specializes in Er.

Congratulations

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I spent a little over an hour on the exam and had close to 20 select all that apply, one math question, and a lot of prioritization questions. I didn't have any "put this in order" or "hotspot" or "listening" questions. It shut off at 75 and I had a good feeling about it. I was pretty sure that I had passed, and sure enough, the next day I saw that I passed. It was not as bad as I thought it would be at all!

I couldn't agree more! The only difference was that I had 2 "put these in order" questions and they were surprisingly simple: use of the RACE acronym, and how to use crutches going downward on steps.

I used the study guide provided here on Allnurses by those wonderful three nurses (amazing!), my Saunders comprehensive book for detailed reference material, and Exam Cram NCLEX-RN for my test/review material. Exam Cram doesn't reteach what you already know, but reinforces what you may have forgotten or should know for the boards. There are 10 questions after each chapter with answers and rationales, and two major practice exams (with answers/rationales) at the back of the book. It also comes with a removable study sheet for on the go studying, a section on the most frequently used drugs and classifications and an "in case you forgot" section which supports what we tend to forget at the end of our program. It is a quick read and cost less than $30 on Amazon! Uworld is great, I admit that, but I did not use it at all. Whatever you use, I highly suggest that it is something that reinforces what you know, and doesn't try to reteach you your entire nursing school program; when reviewing a subject and you forget particulars about it, do your due diligence and review the section, then retest yourself; and practice about 100 questions a day.

I took the NCLEX the first time on 9/1 and got 75 questions and it shut off. I felt pretty good about it. Went home and tried the PVT and got the "good pop up" statement. 48 hours later, I found out I'd passed.

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Hey everyone - I came across this in hopes for some tips/well-wishes in passing the nclex-rn the second time :( unfortunately i failed the first time in 75 questions (yes i know thats an epic fail), i had to work my butt off in nursing school and was an average b student (with a few c's). i used kaplan the first time (in-person) and did all the question trainers as well as all the q-bank (minus ~300 questions) - after failing in july 2016, i re-started kaplan again and have been doing a lot better on my question trainers, I'm concerned because I'm not sure if I'm answering questions right or if I'm just remembering the answers? I just finished QT 4 and got 64%, i re-test in two weeks and just want to pass this time! Has anyone failed the first time with kaplan, reused them again and then passed the second time? i have a job in dallas waiting for me to start october 2016 and don't want to have to call them and tell them i failed---a second time

please help!!!!

thank you :)

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batstudent16 I am so sorry to hear you failed at 75 questions. But I will first say not everyone pass on the first try.

Please let me suggest a few things to you. As a recent graduate from an accelerated nursing program and an average student in my class this is what I did. The kaplan Q banks and trainers though helpful are not enough if you are an average student.So I supplemented kaplan with U-World and also used the cheat and cram sheets posted on allnurses by some nice people here.Remember, understanding rationales for answers are very important and that is where I found U-World a very important resource. And also please remember, knowing content and topic of the questions are also important. So what I did is to use kaplan app which you can easily download to your phone since I guess you already made payment for kaplan. And when you are done downloading the app, try to go over the content where you know you are very weak. For instance, I always noticed I was getting low scores on OB and Psych. so I spent more time in these areas. Good luck this time.

In summary I will say,

1) U-world

2) Cheat and cram sheets from this website

3) kaplan app or the book for content revision

4) And if your kaplan account is still active, you can continue revising the questions

Second attempt is a charm. Good luck again

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Hello, can you send me the link to where I can find the Cheat and cram sheets. I haven't been able to find them. Thank you.

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