I came to this site frequently when I was preparing for my NCLEX and it really helped me to know what to expect when I sat for my boards. I decided when I passed my test I would write about my experiences so that I could share my 2 cents. ANYWAY, I took the NCLEX on Monday (July 21) and found out yesterday that I had passed! So whew hoo!!! Here was my experience...
I graduated with my ADN on June 12. I took about a week and a half off after graduation to spend time with my family and regroup, and then started studying hard for my boards exactly 3 weeks before my test date. For 4 days of those three weeks I took the Kaplan class. These were long days. 8 hours in a classroom just doing question after question with the instructor and my classmates. I think that I really, really got a LOT out of Kaplan. One thing to know though, they don't teach you content. You have to already know the content. They do, however, teach you how to answer NCLEX type questions, which is half the battle eh? So after my 4 day review I emptied my schedule, told my friends and family to leave me alone, and told my work not to call me. I had exactly 16 days to study. For those 16 days I studied HARD. Probably 8-10 hour days. The only resource I used was Kaplan. I read the book they give you cover to cover, plus I watched their lessons on demand which were awesome. Yes boring, but important info you need for your boards. In addition, I did about 75 questions per day. All Kaplan as this was my only resource.
As my test day approached, I got more and more anxious. I get HORRIBLE test anxiety and I wasn't feeling particularly ready. My qbank scores were OK- 60% usually. My qtrainers were Ok as well, nothing spectacular. High 50's but on Qtrainer 7 I did get a 66% which I was stoked about! The pressure was building as well, as I was one of the later people in my graduating class to take the test and EVERYONE was passing! I said to myself, dear God please don't let me be the first in my class to fail!
So the day before my test I did not study at all. I had read that your brain really needs to rest, and mine did. I had overloaded it for 3 weeks. It was hard not to study, as it felt weird not doing so, but I think it really helped rest me for Monday. The day before was definitely worse than the day of and seemed to last forever! That being said, I relaxed the best I could. Finally. Test day. I was actually surprisingly calm. I told myself that I had worked my butt off for the last 3 weeks, and that I was going to do the best I could. That's all I could do. If I passed, I passed. If I didn't, I could always take it again.
My test. Here is the thing about my test. Well wait...first of all let me just say I had talked to several classmates who had recently taken the test, and the consensus was the test was SUPER hard and they did not feel good about it. Ugh, I thought. Just what I wanted to hear. Here is the WEIRD thing about my test: I did not feel like it was that difficult. At all. I felt Kaplan was 10 times more difficult! My entire test I was freaked out because I was thinking to myself these can't be higher level passing questions! I know this stuff! This isn't as hard as what everyone was saying! I had 75 questions. 30 SATA and 5 drag and drops and 1 super easy math question. Yes, SATA were difficult in that there was always one or two options that I was unsure about. But NOTHING compared to Kaplan in level of difficulty. When my computer shut off at 75 I walked out nervous because I thought to myself ,what the heck was everyone talking about! That test was not that hard! Like I said, I felt like I probably wasn't getting passing level questions. Plus, I'd heard that math isn't passing and I had gotten a math question.
When I got to my car I immediately attempted the pearson vue trick. And I got the good pop up!! I tried it again a couple hours later to make sure, and again got to the good pop up!! Stoked!!! Heck yeah!!
So here is my consensus. The NCLEX is challenging but if you do the work, you'll be fine. Don't listen to everyone else. Do your thing. Study. Prepare. You will be fine. It's really not all that difficult. Thanks everyone!
I've been using the Kaplan too, took the classroom course and loved it so I'm glad to hear your thoughts on it.
I was wondering if you could tell us about the exam questions, like what kind of SATA were there? Was it kind of like, what would you see in a PT with SIADH kind of thing? Were there lab values outside the usual electrolytes and blood counts?
I follow your advise and passed ,,,, last 25th September i Took the test 2nd time , and passed in 75 Q thanks , highly recommend Kaplan review of content and stratergies and online Q Banks and Q trainers and resourses as well , Good luck to all of you in take your Nclex .
honeydewnyc
41 Posts
Hi Erin,
Thank you and Congrats!!!
I've been using the Kaplan too, took the classroom course and loved it so I'm glad to hear your thoughts on it.
I was wondering if you could tell us about the exam questions, like what kind of SATA were there? Was it kind of like, what would you see in a PT with SIADH kind of thing? Were there lab values outside the usual electrolytes and blood counts?
Thank you so much!