I posted about a month and a half ago about my first NCLEX-RN attempt and how I failed. Well, I retook the exam on Tuesday and found out this morning that I passed! If you have not read my previous thread and want to, it's here: Failed NCLEX-RN - need help indentifying weaknesses - Nursing for Nurses
I did the Pearson Vue Trick on both attempts and it was accurate. Not saying it is 100% accurate, but seems to be accurate for the majority of people.
For the first attempt, I took the Hurst Review course and did 1,000 practice questions. I got 265 questions on the test and received near passing on all my categories. For the second attempt, I did 5,000 + practice questions and read strategy books. People tell you that eventually you feel confident about taking the exam. I didn't believe them at first and thought "How will I ever feel confident about this test? It's so difficult!" However, on Sunday I finished up my final studying and took Monday off. I did feel confident about taking the test again. My test was at 2 pm, so I had plenty of time to sleep in, eat breakfast and lunch, and get to the testing center with an hour to spare. It is very important that you schedule your test at the right time of day. If you did good on your predictor tests in nursing school, look to see what time of day they were scheduled. I passed all of mine and they were scheduled for 1-3 pm. My first attempt was at 8 am, so that was definitely not so good.
So I showed up to the testing center and checked in. I did the tutorial and got to the 1st real question. Before I answered anything, I wrote down all my mnemonics on my eraser board, as well as my drug math formulas. The mnemonics can be found somewhere within this website... they were infection control. Then I began answering questions. I went to question 35 and took a break. During my break, I ate a Snickers bar and drank some Gatorade. I also did some stretches and tried monitoring my heart rate.
I went back in and had planned to take another break at question 76, but my test stopped at 75. I came home and tried the PVT an hour later and got the good pop up.
Anyone who has been through an accredited nursing program can pass NCLEX... it just takes determination and hard work. It might not happen the first time, or the second, or the third and so on and so forth... but I am a firm believer that if you want to accomplish a goal bad enough, you will do so. You must believe this is true to pass and not just say you can pass, but believe it.
:dancgrp:
P.S. There are a multitude of strategy and review books, so you can use pretty much anything you like and find comfortable/understandable. I used NCLEX 4000, Saunders, Mosby, and Kaplan.
Third time around, I did hurst review. Followed there study plan. In addition I utilized their question bank and their additional materials. I also did the Kaplan qbank as well as NCLEX 4000 University of Texas Medical Branch - Nursing
The 2nd time i took the test, I just tried to cram in so much information. I probably did less than 1000 questions. I got no practice at all. I figure if I knew the material very well I could pass. BIG MISTAKE.
Third time around I did questions from those 3 sources and read the hurst review book for a couple of hours a day. When I wasn't reading the Hurst book I also read the Kaplan drug flash cards. I took an hour and a half break for lunch before doing questions. I did about 150 to 200 questions a day. After about 30 or 40 questions I took a 5 minute break just to give my brain some rest. Then kept on repeating that until I finished. So I did that leading up to the exam. But I did take a few days off here and there when I had to work.
If you have not read my previous thread and want to, it's here: 
heyitsmeinna
5 Posts
Congratulations SDtoKY!!!!
So the third time around did you practice Kaplan question again?
What did you do different the third time around?