Passed NCLEX-RN 75 Questions (CA)

[adrasteia]

Hello! I've been lurking on here for a while and thought that if I'd pass, I'd make a post about my "study experience" to possibly help future test takers.

Test: 75 questions in 2 hours (long I know, but I really wanted to make sure I read the questions correctly). I had 10 SATA, 1 med calc, 1 exhibit, no hot spot or drag and drop, and a bulk of med/surg. It's all a blur to me now. Another friend of mine passed in 75 questions as well and had 22 SATA. I don't think SATA has any bearing on whether you're doing well or not; they're just another type of question. And if that's right, then I'm so glad I only had 10. I probably would've had a harder time with 22!

Basic information: I took the NCLEX-RN in California last Friday, November 6th. I saw my license # posted on the website this morning, Tuesday, so that took about 4 days (fortunate!). No PVT for me. You can consider me an Internationally Educated Nurse and I graduated 2012. I caught up with my lacking requirements here in California for the first 8 months of 2015 and I "graduated" again this August. My ATT came a month later in September and that's when I really buckled down and studied.

I gave myself about 7 weeks to study and used only 3 resources: NCSBN, La Charity and UWorld. Before I get into them, I think it's important to note everyone has different study habits. I've read many on here state that they studied up to 8-12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some had study groups, tutors, etc. That's great! But those were not for me. I can't study more than 6-8 hours a day unless I absolutely have to because my brain just stops processing information correctly. I'm also a solitary studier so no groups for me. The downside of my way though is that you really have to have a good sense of self-control and motivation. Studying by myself for only 6-8 hours a day for 7 weeks? I better study well, real well. And with luck I guess I did! So here's what I did:

1. Week 1-3 NCSBN Content Review ($50, 3 weeks):

I used this for content review and I loved it! It was cheap, precise and had a lot of information. I really liked that it broke down each topic into chapters and highlighted the important information because that helped a lot in my study planning. I mapped out what I needed to do for 3 weeks: each day I would cover 1-2 topics each and answer 70 questions from the practice bank. At the end of 3 weeks I covered every topic except Pharmacology and Cardiac (I felt they were my strong points so I just browsed through them and noted the important parts). However, I definitely would've finished them since I had some time left but life happened. All in all, I was pleased with my purchase!

• Practice Bank Overall Score (1200): 62%
  

2. Week 4-5 LaCharity's Priority, Delegation Book (Rented on Amazon, $15):

I would've never heard of this book if it wasn't for this site and I'm glad I did! Fantastic book, it really upped my performance in priority and delegation. I only finished the first part of the book (the 24 chapters) and not the case studies. Two chapters a day with review of each rationale. Now this was definitely doable and you may consider it easy even (I mean, just 2 chapters a day?) but after my intense 3 week content review I felt I needed to "relax" a bit, haha.

• First 24 Chapters Score: 64%
  

3. Week 6-7 UWorld QBank (1 month, $49):

Ah, UWorld, how I love you. Again, I would've never heard of this if it wasn't for this site and I'm glad I did! All of my friends used Kaplan, they swore by it, but I saw how difficult UWorld questions supposedly were so I thought why not? And yup, they definitely were! Each practice test will deflate your confidence but that's a good thing. The questions were grade A and most were difficult (a majority of its users that I've seen score in the 50s and low 60s). The rationales are the best thing about it though because they are long, very detailed and sometimes relate different topics at once which is great! It also offers a bunch of SATAs which should get you used to them by the time you take NCLEX. I purchased the 1 month subscription but only had 2 weeks until my exam so I took 150 questions a day to finish the qbank. That was 12 days so I had 2 days left before my test to relax!

Another neat thing about UWorld is that its visuals look about 98% like NCLEX! The color, the font, the positions of the different links--it was almost eerie! When I took the exam I thought to myself, "whoah, am I using UWorld?". But I suppose that's a good thing because then you'd have gotten used to how UWorld looked that it eased you into taking NCLEX, at least visual-wise.

• Overall QBank Score: 58%
  

Day of Exam: I had a light breakfast and brought water and bananas to sustain me in case I went all the way to 265 questions. My test was at 12:30pm and I got there about 45 minutes before. They let me take it early and in 2 hours I was done. I watched a movie after to distract myself because I really thought I failed. The "easy" questions I got wrong and I was so bummed! So over the next 3 days I was agonizing over my mistakes despite my desperate attempts to distract myself. Finally after today I can heave a sigh of massive relief. I'm officially an RN! Hooray!

So that's that! It's also important to TAKE BREAKS WHILE STUDYING! I am the queen of breaks. When I study for "6 hours" you can bet I took a lot of breaks in between, haha. Sometimes there are times where you just can't retain any more information and you want to stop and that's fine! A couple hours off, a day off (or even 2) can do wonders for you. Watch a movie, eat out, party with friends, etc.--just don't forget to breathe and live a bit of your life at least! Do your best and study hard, but not too hard. You passed nursing school, you can pass NCLEX! Good luck to all future test-takers and your future endeavors! :)

[RNfindingherway, BSN, RN]

Congrats on a job well done.

[genieayat]

Your post has given me new strength! I'm an internationally educated nurse and also have lackings for California. Ended up applying for Hawaii. I graduated in 2011 and life kind of just happened and now here I am taking my Nclex in January 2016. I'm doing NCSBN for content and UWORLD also! I've been using another prioritization book for delegation and whatnot but hear about PDA by LaCharity ALL THE TIME. I think I'm just going to rent it like you did. Lol.

Congratulations btw! You deserve it!

[Will777]

I just took the RN exam July 11th. I studied with ATI and after a month I learned about Uworld from this site. A month of Uworld 3-4 hours a day did wonders for me. I started off with Uworld at about 52% and started to go up from there but not by huge numbers. When I was taking the NCLEX exam I remember getting to question 75 and it not shutting off and I thought 'uh oh this is going to be a long test' but then after question 85 it shut off. I tried the Pearson Vue trick at 24 hours after and 48 hours after and received the good pop up. Just yesterday I found out I passed!!!!! and I know the combination of ATI with Uworld was great for me. Ending with Uworld was perfect because I was able to go through roughly 2000 questions and then concentrate on the ones I got wrong. Great rationalizations - very well put together. I'm so lucky to have read about it on All Nurses. It was $59 for 1 month.