Passed the NCLEX in 82 questions, here’s my story

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I know, you must be an anxious person trying to find answers on the NCLEX. I’ve done that too, so many times I’ll be reviewing and I’ll wonder, “how difficult is the NCLEX?”

I decided once I passed I’ll make a post and after several episodes of doubts and anxiety, I passed on my 1st try with a weird set of 82 questions.?

Throughout my nursing school experience, I was the type of student who usually studies a few days before but I knew, even if I didn’t study much, I can pass any exam.

But the NCLEX was different. The prep I did for a month made me throw up, lose my appetite, and become insomniac. I had friends who had passed and that placed more pressure on me. I only used uworld and read the rationales. For two weeks before my exam, I would do 100-200 questions per day while reading each rationale thoroughly. I’d say that method caused me to feel burned out that by the last week leading up to my exam, I would only do 10-20 questions per day. (Also because I got a lot of repeated questions and I usually already memorized the answers to those)

Now the night before the NCLEX, I didn’t study. I tried to relax and watched my favourite shows and read manga. I got sufficient sleep but I still felt unprepared.

EXAM DAY:

My exam was scheduled at 2pm so I had enough time to try and get some food in me. My heart was pounding when my dad drove me to the test centre. I signed in, read the rules, went to the washroom before heading to my spot. I told myself I will be prepared to answer all 265 questions and I convinced myself to read each question slowlyyyy.

The first question I had was a very vague one. I don’t want to go into details on the topics but I knew I mostly had SATA questions and I wanted to cry so badly because it felt like I was guessing it all. At 75, there was still a bit of me hoping it would shut off and when it didn’t, my heart was pounding like crazy. I stopped and did some deep breathing exercises. I recollected myself and took extra time to read the questions. By 78, the questions got “easy” in a way that they tested me on stuff I knew. After 82, my screen turned blue and I cried. I thought I failed because I guessed 90% of the questions I got.

After I received the email that I had finished my exam, I did the PVT and got the good pop up but I STILL wasn’t convinced. There’s still that doubt that I’m probably one of those people who got the good pop up but actually failed.

2 days after I got the official results that I passed and I still cried so much.

I guess what I wanted to say in this long post is that please give yourself time to understand how the body works. I wouldn’t say memorize each disease and medications out there, but find a way to group them. I studied meds by groups and for pathophysiology, I focused on parts I really didn’t understand and took the time to tailor my uworld questions to each system.

This may sound cheesy but give yourself that positive pep talk. During the exam, I told myself if I pass this, then I can go to a BTS concert for the first time (lol). Think about stuff you want to do after the exam and motivate yourself to finish strong. You’ve been through countless nursing exams, clinicals, and practical exams. You graduated from a tough course!

AND PLEASE EXPECT TO ANSWER 265 QUESTIONS. I know this may sound hypocritical when I expected to stop at 75 but I managed to stay focused and picked myself up.

Good luck and you can do this! ?

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Congratulations!!! Thanks for sharing.

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Hey way to go! What do you mean by "the good pop-up"? Is there a "bad pop-up"?

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On 9/6/2019 at 9:44 AM, frenchmafia said:

Hey way to go! What do you mean by "the good pop-up"? Is there a "bad pop-up"?

The good pop-up is basically when I tried registering for another exam on pearsonvue, it gave me a message saying that I can’t schedule it because their records indicate that I recently scheduled it. I guess the bad pop-up is when the transaction actually goes through.

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Congratulations ❤️❤️

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