Passed NCLEX in 75 questions first time

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Dear Colleagues,

Just wanted to drop a line of encouragement to those of you taking or studying for your NCLEX. I sat my NCLEX for the first time on Monday 22nd September and I passed in 75 question and was in the exam for 55 minutes.

i am a British registered nurse and have not held a clinical post for ten years although I specialised in children with disabilities in the Uk. Never been in an American hospital and when I started studying 3 months ago I couldn't tell you what a penrose drain was or what needle I would use for what. None of the drug names are the same and most of the nursing terminology is different. I used Kaplan and found it a fantastic resource. I studied every day except for weekends, I got low 50's for all my tests but finally got 67 for my readiness test. If there was something I wasn't sure of I went on the internet to see a video to make it clearer.

I couldn't revise every drug classification so I studied a few important groups, antibiotics, anti psychotics, Parkinson's drugs, ADHD medication, hormonal drugs for cancer and cardiac. Could not retain any more facts on drugs.

on the day of the exam I just told myself to do my best and hope for the best. obviously I can't say what was presented to me but it was not as daunting as I thought. I found the questions on Kaplan much more difficult and complex. I prayed that it wouldn't shut me off at 75 as I felt that if it kept going then I was doing okay and keeping my head above water. when it shut off at 75 I was a bit stunned. I came home and tried to analyse everything that I did wrong and couldn't face the thought of facing the books again. Luckily I found out this morning through BON website that I have my licence. To say I am delighted is an understatement!

please know that if I can do it without the benefit of being trained in an american college or university then you definetly can. Take one day at a team and keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your finger off the mouse and read every word before you commit yourself. I have a 5 second rule of reading and understanding then taking a breath for 5 seconds then pick my answer, sounds crazy but it works for you!

good luck to all of you!!

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Congratulations!!!! Yes for the future Nurses we can do it!!!

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Specializes in OR.

congratulations

I am from UK as well and have not stepped in an American hospital and i can relate exactly how you feel and that it being daunting. I have yet to give mine next week. I too had enrolled in kaplan and i also thought that it has taught me about american nursing. i can also relate that the drugs are really different and it has been difficult to say the least. where abouts are you in US algie

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I'm in Florida

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Congratulations!!!!!!:)

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Congratulations to you!!!

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Specializes in OR.

hi algie,

i am in georgia. its nice to meet you in allnurses

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Congrats algie!

I have been using Kaplan Q bank (making my own 75q exams) and scoring in the 60-70s. (Done about 700-800qs so far)

I took QT 1 (60%) and QT 2(72%), and am going to do QT3-7 next week.

I am planning to take the NCLEX in 2-3 weeks, almost completed La Charity PDA, and have been reading Saunders for content review

Aside from completing the QT and the Qbank, do you have any additional tips? Thank you :)

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algie07 congrats! I am also a FEN, thanks for your encouragement!:)

jp_0991 Did you buy the online kaplan qbank or the whole course, I am undecisive on whether to buy the kaplan qbank on it's own because I think that one doesn't come with the qtrainers, I will also be reading la charity.

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Hey Carrot cake, I bought the Kaplan course with all it's question trainers 1-7 and you get 1500 questions on the Qbank with an alternative format question set (that one killed me as it's mostly SATA which I hate). I really liked it as the Content book and review material was really good and the videos although sometimes overly long really helped me bring a focus to what I was reading. I think I paid 360 as they had a deal giving you 75 dollars off. I also signed in for some of their free live sessions that are posted on their website, they are always at odd times like 8pm on a Friday but they were really useful.

good luck with the study and the test, take it one day at a time and you will be fine

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carrotcake- Yes I have the one with the Kaplan Qbank and Qtrainers. I have heard you can find the QT online somewhere but I haven't tried.

I've done more than half of LaCharity (only bought the online resource) and found it helpful.

I have been doing 100q a day including content review from Saunders and have studied for 3 weeks now.

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Hey jp_0991

i guess I would say just keep doing what you are doing and focus on areas that you are maybe weaker in. I think it's good to think of a few classifications of meds that you want to be familiar in, I didn't go through the process of learning all the endings of drugs, they can ask you anything and some of the drugs I had in my nclex were not ones I was familiar with but you can normally make an educated guess. I learned about 5-6 classifications of drugs that I thought were regularly used like antibiotics etc and within that I memorised only the ones with odd side effects.

i did have a plan to learn one classification a day but they all faded into a large pharmacological mess after day 5. Your scores are good, mine were much worse! I would say question trainer 6 +7 are much more NCLEx like and they are higher level questions. Read every rationale and understand why you got things wrong.

good luck!!!

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