I graduated Nursing School in December of 2007. I had a job waiting for me back at home and moved the day of graduation. I began working in early January as a Graduate Nurse in an ICU that I had worked in as a tech for nearly 6 years before nursing school. Everyone knew me and seemed excited that I was finally back as an GN. February comes and orientation is going well. I sign up for the nclex on my birthday, which should have been my first sign things were not going to go so well. I had been studying using a friends password on a popular class/prep course website and had been doing fairly well (60-70%). All of my classmates had passed theirs by this point, most with 75 questions and one with 110. I go in, sit down, take a deep breath, and start the test. Man the questions were a lot harder than I had anticipated!! By question 70, my heart was beating out of my throat, I thought I was going to throw up or pass out. A math question next. A gtt calculation..."how the heck do I do these"... Completely forgot how. Now I thought I was going to really pass out. After I answered 75, I hit next. 76 came up. Oh was I really shaking at this point. Questions kept coming and coming. I didn't wan't a break!! I wanted to get out of there. By mid 200's I was looking for the quit button. At 233, it finally shut off and I raced to my (new) car holding back the tears. I had failed. I knew it. Everyone says, "oh, you passed. Everyone thinks they failed." I knew I had failed and I went into a depressed and I mean depressed mode. I had to tell everyone. I started therapy, began taking an antidepressant, and found out that apparently I had had an anxiety attack during the test. Medications were given to me for that too.
Fast forward 45 days and I had talked myself into taking the test again. Everyone at work was rooting for me and I had been taking more and more of those practice tests doing better and better. This time I had to travel to take the test and went up the night before. I had a good dinner, tried to relax, found the test site the night before, and really felt ready this time. That morning I got up, took a shower and popped in my anti anxiety medications. Off I went. Felt great during the test. 75 questions and it shut off. I passed... well thought I had anyway. I was so excited. I called all of my co-workers and classmates. I went out that night and celebrated with friends. Two days later I found out that I had failed!! Failed at 75 questions?? I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even remember any of my questions. Were they hard? Easy? Not one could I remember.
So back in to depressed mode I went. Luckily this time I was medicated. My family was supportive. I quit my job... too embarrassed to go back and face everyone. And thought this was a sign that nursing maybe wasn't for me.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME!! Third time was a charm for me as I passed with 75 questions. I took a Kaplan course and felt that it really helped me pass. I had been so caught up on learning facts and content based questions like in school and not on how to take this crazy test. I took deep breaths. No medications this time to put me in a daze. And I took my time. I read every question and answer and made sure I knew what they were looking for. I used the board and marker and made slashes for each answer choice. Then instead of looking for the right answer, I got rid of the wrong ones. I remembered Maslow...and ABC's... and Most of the time, I only had one answer left!! When the computer shut off, deep down I knew that I had passed this time. It just felt right.
So to everyone who are re-peat test takers, I felt your pain. I pushed through, and although now I am in the process of looking for a new job, I am excited about a new start in life. My dad told me last night... "This will probably be the last time in a long time, that you will not have to work. Retirement is still a long time away." And he was right. I hate that my life has been on hold for six months, but you know what... I bet I learned more in those few months studying harder and harder, answering thousands of questions, than I probably did in nursing school.
So Good Luck Repeaters and new test takers. You can and will do it!!
i guess we're both the same. im taking my 3rd attempt for the nclex this november and really planning to take kaplan course. my uncle told me that might be i had too much content review rather than the strategy of answering those questions. we'll see about that. and when i go ol first thing i saw is this post of yours that helps me really thrive to go kaplan and i need to make money for that. god bless in your future career! :typing
You know what my sister told me to not dwell on the past and to think about the future. I am just starting from scratch with my studying but I am doing it differently. I think I had your problem. I would focus too much on content rather than the strategy of the question. I need to practice more questions.
Congrats! Thank you so much for posting this. This is very encouraging to me as I have failed 3 times now! Angie:up:
hi angie0621, i'm with i failed recently for the 3rd time, this site really helps a lot in encouraging retake test taker, I almost lost it but i will stood up and do it again I will follow suzanne's plan.
Congratulations. I,m in the process of studying with kaplan. I just got my online access a few days ago. This will be my second time around so I really appreciate your words of encouragment. All the best "NURSE".
Hopefully the third time will be a charm for me as well. *fingers cross*
Letjackson987RN
176 Posts
:ancong!:
i guess we're both the same. im taking my 3rd attempt for the nclex this november and really planning to take kaplan course. my uncle told me that might be i had too much content review rather than the strategy of answering those questions. we'll see about that. and when i go ol first thing i saw is this post of yours that helps me really thrive to go kaplan and i need to make money for that. god bless in your future career! :typing