Passed NCLEX-RN...my story

3 Posts

I took the NCLEX-RN on October 27th and I am happy to say that I passed with 76 questions. It was the hardest test of my life. While I was studying I came to this site for motivation and tips on how to study, it was a huge help. I am sharing my story in hopes that it may help someone else who is preparing for the NCLEX.

I graduated college in May with my BSN, I then took two months off from studying to plan and get married. During this time I found out that 6 people from my 23 person graduating class, failed the NCLEX. This made me extremely nervous to take the NCLEX myself. I studied for approximately two months, averaging 12+ hours a day. During this time I used multiple resources, and averaged 100+ practice questions a day. I first purchased the NCSBN review program. I used the program for approximately two weeks, but honestly did not like it. The program covered a lot of material, however I felt like the questions where not a challenge. The second program was ati virtual, I used this program for about 90% of my studying. The program provides you with a "coach" who is a nursing educator. The program reviews fundamentals, pharmacology, med-sug, maternity, pediatrics, mental health, and leadership. It provides you with practice assessments after reviewing each section, if you don't score higher then a 60% on the assessments the coach provides you with more questions and another assessment to do. After completing each section the coach then gives you a code for a comprehensive predictor exam, if you score 92% or higher the coach give you the "green light" to test. I scored a 93% on the comprehensive predictor. The review took me about 8 weeks to complete due to the fact that I was also doing practice questions from other sources. The resources that I used are the following....

Nursing Mnemonics: 94 memory tricks to demolish nursing school

by Jon Haws

nclex rn questions and answers made incredibly easy by lippincott williams wilkins

nclex-rn practice questions exam cram (4th edition) by Clara Hurd

nclex-rn content review (3rd edition) by Kaplan

Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment (3rd edition) by Linda A. LaCharity--I did this whole book, and highly recommend it

lippincott's q and a review for nclex-rn (11 edition) by lippincott williams wilkins

Saunders Comprehensive Review for Nclex-Rn (6 edition) by Saunders

Saunders Q and A review for the nclex-rn examination (5 edition) by Saunders

ATI Comprehensive Nclex-Rn review (17th edition) by ATI

NCLEX-RN Drug Guide (5th edition) by Kaplan

In addition to using these books, I also downloaded apps on my phone and purchased two online questions banks. The apps that I purchased are the following...

RN Mentor by ATI--$20

Active stack pharmacology by ATI--$20

NCLEX RN Mastery by Higher Learning Technologies--$20

UWorld NCLEX-RN--free to download, but cost $49 a month.

The two online questions banks that I purchased are the following...

UWorld NCLEX-RN--This question bank consists of 1600+ questions, with many select all that apply and alternate items. The rationales to each question are extremely detailed, and describes exactly why the right answer is the answer.

Kaplan Q-Bank--This question bank consists of 1400+ questions. The questions to me seemed really easy, and not detailed rationales.

I also used the 35 page study guided floating around on this site, it was very useful.

Out of all the different resources I found UWorld to be the best. I did all of the questions in the questions bank (1686). The questions are very hard, and definitely test your knowledge. When I was taking the NCLEX I literally felt like I was just doing practice questions from UWorld. I highly recommend this product, and definitely felt like it helped me the most.

I Hope this may help someone.....happy studying!!

:-)