Passed NCLEX with 265

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share my horror story to help with anyone who is worried about the NCLEX pre or post exam. I am a new grad RN (woohoo) who chose this as a second degree and went to an accelerated accredited university, with a reported pass rate of 100% when I applied. I finished with a 3.67, got a 99% pass expectancy on my cumulative ATI, and passed all prior ATI's with a Level 2 or above (not bragging at all, just stating). So fast forward to the day of my NCLEX, with that in the back of my head and prior classmates passing in 75 questions under an hour, I thought I had it in the bag.

Sitting through that exam was the most mentally straining and emotional thing I have ever been through in my time as a student and my past career. Once I got passed 75 questions I started to doubt myself, thinking that while I wasn't failing, I also wasn't passing like I thought all smart future nurses. I got to 100, 150, 180, (the highest I heard of anyone in my cohort going was 186), 200... When I got to 200 I took a break and had a mini panic attack in the bathroom (which looking back I am now cracking up at how dramatic this sounds!)- I told myself that I would be getting all 265 questions. Any NCLEX video on YouTube and all of my teachers would tell us that after 200 they test would look at the last 60-65 questions when seeing if you passed or not, so I knew I had to crack down. At the end of 265 I was 100% bawling my eyes out, feeling like there is NO WAY I passed, and trying to talk myself into making a study plan because I knew I would have to take it again.

I tried the PVT probably 50 times and each time the good pop-up came up, but this did not ease my mind because of course I looked at blogs saying that "PVT is not 100% accurate". The next day I looked for my RN license on my states BON website and my name popped up!! I basically sh** myself (for lack of a better term) and was so relieved and surprised. Basically the moral of this story is that YOU CAN PASS AFTER 265 questions and that 75 QUESTIONS DOES NOT MAKE YOU SMARTER OR A BETTER NURSE!!! Regardless of your GPA and how many questions you think you should get, if you have the RN after your name, you are a NURSE!

Keep your head up and prepare for 265 questions because in the end it will make you less distracted emotionally and allow you to answer the questions to your full potential!

XOXO,

NYU Pediatric New Grad Nurse