Passed NCLEX in 75! My take on it.

[ThatOneMurse]

So I took my NCLEX on Saturday and received my RN license yesterday. I have never been more relieved and excited in my entire life I don't think haha. Anyways, I know how badly most people stress about the NCLEX but in my opinion my Parent Child and Psych exams in school were harder (maybe because these are my least favorite subjects). My school also made us take the HESI exit exam and it seemed harder to me than my NCLEX. Given everybody's exam is different so maybe I just lucked out but my advice would be to go in confident and don't stress yourself out!

To prepare I went to a 4 day in person Kaplan course that my school paid for and used the online materials Kaplan provided. I only did two of the Question Trainers (1 and 4) and scored in the low 50's on both of them. I also did 800 of the Q Bank questions. These were VERY similar to the questions you will see on your NCLEX, even the layout. On these I averaged 60-68% with my lowest being a 48%. I would try to do 150 of these every day or every other day and review all of the questions afterwards. I also reviewed normal lab values and electrolyte imbalances because I had convinced myself that I would have a ton of questions pertaining to this and I ended up only getting 4-5 questions specifically regarding these topics.

My advice would be answer as many quality, NCLEX style questions as you can so that you are used to the format. Kaplan is nice because the QBank questions are all at passing level so you will know what they look like and involve. Also, learn the decision tree because it can really help with prioritization questions which you will likely see a number of. Review delegation for LPNs and UAPs (LPN gets a stable pt with expected outcome, UAP gets a standard, non-changing procedure, RN must do teaching, initial assessment, and get unstable, pts getting discharged, and new pts). Also, there is so much possible material that can be pulled from on this exam that it is impossible to know everything so just accept that now so you don't freak out when you hit a question (or 20) that you have no idea about. Almost all of my meds that I had on my test were ones I had never heard of before so I just had to guess and I did okay!

Overall, when you pass this exam you will only get about 50% of the questions you see right so it's normal to think you failed. To help with the anxiety anytime I had no idea about a question I would just tell myself that it was one of the 15 questions everybody gets that does NOT impact your score and it really helped calm my nerves. Make sure to thoroughly read each question and answer so that you don't miss a key word and completely throw off your decision. Also, don't let yourself get psyched out exploring some of the posts on here haha. I felt okay the day before my test until I got on and read some of the horror stories people spoke of and seeing others talk about studying religiously for months while I had spent a 2-3 hours every day or two for a two weeks. So far all of the people in my graduating class that have taken the NCLEX have passed and you can too! One of my close friends took the entire 265 questions and passed so don't give up if you hit 76, 120, 200, or 265! As long as you are given another question you have the ability to pass. The way this test is designed is conducive to helping you get your license! Just make sure to take a deep breath, relax, and tell yourself that you can do it. Best of luck to all of you!

[tiny_divaa]

Congrats !Thank you for sharing this. I am using Kaplan so far I have done 450 in the qbank and my cumulative score so far is 52% which isn't good. Did you read the Kaplan content book for areas you were weak in ?

[koni01]

Congrats on passing!! Thanks for sharing your experience :) I would like to ask if the Qtrainers helped you though or if the Qbank is better or doing both? There's a lot of questions for QTrainer so I'm not sure if I can get it done on time.

[ThatOneMurse]

Thank you! I used the book to go over medications but none of the ones I covered were on my exam of course. I also used it to cover electrolytes and it helped me some. The book definitely has a ton of info and was useful for touching up on those areas for me. I also used YouTube to refresh myself on things such as CHF because I remember info better when presented in that manner, but it's really personal preference! I would recommend doing as much of the QBank as you can. Make sure to utilize the decision tree when you can too. It doesn't apply to every question unfortunately but it definitely helps. Remember to never "pass the buck" aka do nothing, don't ask "why" questions, don't ask yes and no questions unless it's about self-harm, acute vs chronic, expected vs unexpected, and use ABC's to prioritize if you aren't sure. Don't get discouraged if you are in the 50's, that isn't bad! Like I said, all those questions are passing level and you just need to get 50% of those right to pass. So just keep practicing and touch up on areas you are weak on using whatever is easiest for you. Go in to the test telling yourself you can do it. If you made it through the struggle that is nursing school you can pass this test! Good luck!

[ThatOneMurse]

Thanks! I only did 2 or 3 of the Q trainers so I can't comment too much on them. The 4th Q trainer had almost identicle questions to the ones I got using the QBank. There may have been a few more select all that apply (SATA) style in the trainers but that seemed to be the big difference. And the first few Q trainers have questions below passing level which ironically were harder for me than the above passing questions haha. I think I got a 46% on the 1st Q trainer and a 55% on the 4th one so I decided I would rather only do questions that will pass me instead of having my confidence ruined doing questions that wouldn't even get me my license. The last 3 or 4 trainers are all passing level though I believe. It was also easier for me to take a few 50 question tests using the Q bank each day instead of trying to do one of the 150+ question trainers in case something came up and I didn't have the time to complete it. That's how I did it but I had friends that did literally everything on Kaplan too so it's whatever you feel works best for you! Just don't psych yourself out is my main recommendation. You made it this far so you can pass this test!