I have never been a great test taker. I had failed my exit HESI during my last semester of nursing school, and had to take the course in the summer. Was 30 points from passing on my 4th attempt, and finally passed on my 5th attempt. Officially graduated in Summer 2012.
1st attempt:
Tested: January 2013. Used Kaplan to study. Failed after 169 questions.
- To be honest, I didn't study intensely... I kind of went into it with a "let's just see how this test goes" attitude. I had started working at a retail store in October 2012 and when I failed, I decided to take a little break... of a few years.
2nd attempt:
Tested: February 2016. HURST review course, used q-bank and listened to their video lectures. Failed after 75 questions.
- Pretty long gap between test attempts. To say "life got busy" is such a cliche, but it really did. I basically married my job when I had started working at an assisted living facility in August 2013 (while still working my retail job, but left retail in February 2014). It felt good to get back into somewhat of a "healthcare'ish" role. I was hired on as a med tech and caregiver. I would med tech on nights (2 days) and care give during PM (3 days). Vacancy for day med tech came, and I was offered the position full time. Passing meds came like second nature to me, and I absolutely loved every aspect of being a med-tech: passing/transcribing meds, getting to know my residents, picking up on queues when residents behaviors would start to change, faxing doctors and informing families of patient's change of condition, etc. It was basically being a nurse, minus the pay and doing clinical skills. Was then offered to be the asst to the resident services director; I felt a bit apprehensive to take the job bc it meant taking me off the floor to be in an office doing paperwork. Basically, I didn't want to leave my residents, but after talking to my friends, they said "when an opportunity arises, take it." I started scheduling, managing the med-room, auditing incident reports, updating resident assessments/meeting with families, going through charts... the list goes on. Oh, and did I mention... I was doing this for both assisted living AND memory care. After seeing how I worked, the executive director, offered me the opportunity to become the memory care director full time. This took about a week for me to mull over... was I ready to take on a whole dept, was I going to fail, would I really get the support? Took the opportunity, and ended up loving it! I did everything that I was already doing, but focused solely on memory care. I loved my residents, the families, and my staff--and I learned SO MUCH. But I ended up leaving in February 2016 for a better job opportunity with a hospice agency.
3rd attempt:
Tested: April 25, 2017 and passed after 190 questions in 3.5 hours! (I posted this story as a comment to another topic that was started.)
- Began working at a hospice agency in February 2016. I had taken my exam and failed, but my administrator allowed me to continue working there and encouraged me to take my NCLEX when I felt ready. I scheduled my exam, but kept rescheduling until the very last day of my ATT.
- Used LaCharity PDA, up to chapter 19 from February-March 15th. I knew I needed to be challenged more, so I took everyone's advice on here and purchased UWorld.
- Started UWorld subscription on March 15th and tested for NCLEX-RN. I used UWorld exclusively from the time I subscribed up until my exam.
- Qbank questions left: 533
- Overall score (excluding tests created using incorrect questions): 53%
- Scores on exams ranged between high 40's to high 60's (mainly scoring in the mid-50's). *One outlier where I scored 34%. That's what I get for trying to study at 3am in bed dozing off every other question (don't do that. haha.)
- RN Self-Assessments: took 1 and scored 64%, placed in the 74th percentile, with a very high chance of passing.
If it helps you any, here was how I studied:
Mon-Fri
- Work: 8:30am-5pm
- Straight to Starbucks and studied from 5:30-10/11pm (still had to commute 45 min home)
- Took test of 75 questions *(how I remediated down below)
Sat-Sun
- Days off: did 2 tests of 75 unused questions each and 1 test of incorrect questions
Week of April 10-14th (work gave me 1 week off)
- I started my day at 9am with breakfast and watching some Netflix (it was such a luxury not having to wake up at 6am to get ready for and commute to work). I started my studying at 10am, with the same schedule as Sat-Sun with breaks every 2 hours for 15-30 min.
*Remediation: I read through ALL rationales; incorrect first, then the correct.
Incorrect questions:
- Notebook divided into systems (cardiac, renal, peds, maternity, etc.)
- Wrote rationales and/or drew diagrams/pictures/charts.
- *If I wrote something similar down in the same section, it was an indicator that I needed to study that concept a little further.
Correct questions:
- Felt comfortable with delegation questions, placing skills in order, assignments for float nurses, etc.
- Utilized note section in UWorld to type rationale; a form of repetition to solidify my knowledge.
- If my reasoning for getting the question right differed from UWorld's explanation, I would write it in my notebook.
Key things to note:
- When you take your NCLEX, you'll feel like you're taking a UWorld test.
- Questions on NCLEX are actually a bit easier to rationalize through than UWorld (you may even see some questions that are SIMILAR to questions you had on UWorld or you'll automatically know the answer to bc of UWorld's rationales.)
- Don't panic if you go beyond 75 questions; you're in it to win it so answer each question like they're #75. (I took a little breather when the break pop-ups came. I didn't leave the room; I sat at the computer, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and said 'you got this' and kept going.)
I felt that the NCLEX owned me. I went in so confident, and walked out feeling so defeated. I even cried in front of my administrator and co-workers because of how frustrated I felt when I went into work the next day. I checked the CA breeze site religiously on Wednesday and Thursday, but when no results showed up, I just gave up checking and accepted that I had failed. I told myself, no more breaks; get ready to reapply for a repeat exam and started mapping out my study plan. Clearly, I did all of that in vain because on Friday, my administrator called the office, my co-worker picked up the phone, called me into her office and screamed "you're an RN!" I obviously ran to my computer, went to the site, and when I saw my name was really there, THE TEARS CAME FLOWING. I couldn't believe that I had finally done it!
Where am I now: Still working in hospice, working on getting my certifications, vamping up my resume/cover letter, and will be applying to jobs soon!
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Long story short: I'm a firm believer in God's timing; I may not be where I thought I'd be, but I'm where I need to be. All my experiences thus far have shaped me to be who I am today, and I hope that some place will take the chance on me to be the great nurse that I know I can be. So, for those of you that feel discouraged, burnt out, or defeated... I feel you, BUT don't you do dare give up. You've made it this far to give up on yourself now!
