Passed nclex second time

Published Sep 12, 2016

3 Posts

Hi all,

As the title goes, I passed my test the second time :)) Promised I would share what I did and what really helped me to push through.

Something about me: I've always done the bare minimum work during school and had A's, B's with mostly B's. I was good with busy work but not really great in tests because I suck at studying. So when everyone told me to prioritize on practicing questions and not really on reviewing information, that's basically what I did. My school made us buy Kaplan ($400) and we were told to do all QTrainers, readiness test, and everything else. I completed QTrainers 1-5 and skipped 6 & 7 because they're looongggg like 200+ questions. My averages were about 46% and Kaplan encourages you to get at least 65%. I took about 75 questions each day for about 6 weeks. And to be honest, I slacked a lot. I took the questions and got what I thought were decent grades but never remediated. And surprise, surprise I failed the first time at 127 questions. I was hurt but I knew what I did wrong.

SECOND ROUND: This time I really dove into study mode. What I bought/used:

UWorld subscription, Lacharity prioritization book, and Hogan's review book. I love love love Uworld because the questions are super hard but makes you think critically which is what NCLEX tests you on. It also gives excellent and concise rationales. Kaplan is okay but it's rationales are nothing compared to UWorld. I completed all of UWorld's questions and wrote down rationales for each one whether I got it right or wrong. I went through all my notes and highlighted key stuff. My averages sucked in the beginning and were about 37% but gradually rose to 50's towards the end. I retook all the ones I got wrong and my percentile was about 72%.
I completed and took notes on all the chapters in Lacharity but did not do the case studies. I liked this book because it just gives you questions based on prioritization which is a big part of the test and its rationales were all right, but better than Kaplan.
I skimmed through Hogan's books up to chapter 16 and kind of gave up because it was just too much work for me every day. Honestly I didn't felt like it helped me and I was on a time crunch. But if you have weeks and plenty of free time, I suggest taking down notes where it highlights NCLEX materials.
Finally, after everything was done and all notes were filled. I retook Kaplan's readiness test and scored 72% which predicated a 99.2% of passing. Didn't really bother with QTrainers because I was just so tired of taking questions. I started to have nightmares on everything I learned lol.

I took my test about 50 days later because I kept pushing it off. I was really scared about failing again. But my 6 month grace period for loans were about to arrive so I needed a job asap lol. After reviewing all of my notes and memorizing lab values, I took my test. I completed all 265 questions in 4 hours. I seriously thought I failed because my last question was an "easy" one and I read somewhere on the forums that this means you failed whether you got it right or wrong. I mean "easy" as in non-SATA or non-prioritization. But I passed. Also, the pearson vue trick worked for me but don't take my word for it. I did it 4 hours after I took my test.

RECAP:

Whatever program you use, always REMEDIATE on rationales. That's how I learned the most.
I bought/used UWorld and Lacharity and studied lab values.
Studied for about 50 days. 3-4 hours Mon-Fri.
Study areas where you lack. I didn't study pharmacology at all because I didn't have any the first time I took it. But I was bombarded with pharmacology the second time because the test is evil and picks up on your weakest areas.

I hope this helps! Please don't think your life is over because you failed the NCLEX. I thought like that too and it did not help at all. You passed nursing school. That, itself, shows your worth as a nurse. At the end of the day, a test is just a test. Take it again and move on.