Passed Nclex on 9th try

[jaystyle80]

Dear Allnurses,

I have an unbelievable story to tell each and one of you getting ready to tackle this monster RN NCLEX exam!

First I would to give a brief history and background.

I graduated nursing school with my BSN in an accelrated program. I have a previous bachelors in engineering from 2004. The school i went to has a very high passing rate somewhere around 98 on first time takers so when i graduated in June 2012, my confidence level was sky high! I didnt' even think of taking a review course. But i did anyway and did Kaplan. I just did a couple hundred of the Qbank review questions.

I took my exam July 2012 and it stopped at 75. I failed. i was so upset. I bounced back up from it and said okay, Now i really have to review all of the Kaplan. Kaplan has this guarantee pass and let you take the review for free a second time. So this time i went through the entire process. Every QBANK question and all of the practice exams, watched the videos and did the live review class.

I took the exam for the 2nd time in October 2012. I got to number 135 and my test stopped. I didn't know what to think or feel. I received the results 1 week later and to my dismay i failed again.

This time i was beginning to get frustrated. So i spoke to an old classmate of mine about another type of review course. She recommended Hurst Review. So i paid another 399.00$ for the live review. I also paid anther 150.00$ to reapply and 200.00$ sitting fee from pearson vue to retake. It was set for Junuary 2013. Around Dec 22, 2012 a terrible and tragic event occurred. I got a DUI. The BRN contacted me and let me know that I needed to go through the entire legal enforcement process and jump through thousdands of hoops before i can retake. I didn't realize how painstaking the process was. From Nurses groups, to AA meetings, to writing letters, to laywers, lawyer fees, thosudand of dollars, to a voluntary 30 day substance abuse rehab center, and community service for over 1 year and a half. Luckily for me i was able to persuade the BRN that i was not only sober, but I certainly had learned my lesson the hardest way possible.

So after all this was done, i still had to respond to the BRN with court documents, letters of recommedation, rehabilitation leters, etc. I mean over 100 pages of documents and written documents. it was a complete nightmare. about a month after i sent it i get a ltter from the BRN! They granted me approval to retake and placed no holds or restrictions on my license if i were to pass the nclex.

So now this bump in the road was the first of many!! I was now 2 years removed from school with a huge deficit. they say the longer you are out of school, the percentage dramiatically decreases with pass rate. So i knew i had a long road ahead. I had forgotten almost all CORE content and had to heavily review.

Long story short so i don't bore you people, i used Saunders, NCBSN, D&D educators, Kaplan again, Hurst once more, and a couple of other books i borrowed from friends with delgartion and prioritization. 6 more times i failed!

I had had it and i was fed up! I needed something dramitically to change. I was almost on the verge of givijng up. mind you its' almost 5 years later and I am still here trying to tackle this RN Nclex monster. 5 years out and it my chances have only gone down. I have only read a few articles on a few people that have every taken it 10 times or more and passed. I was beginning to get discouraged to be honest, but my son and my girlfreind were my driving forces. I used my son as my motivation.

I knew i had to do this for him. He is an innocent 2 year old toddler and he deserved so much more from his daddy. I finally read on a allnurses.com board that someone recommended Uworld. And that it was very similar if not exaclty the same as the NCLEX. i said what the heck!! I have spend thousdands of dollars, wasted 5 years and if i was going to do it, i better do it!

"NEVER GIVE UP!!!!" was my motto! you only fail when you quit!!!

So i said what the heck! Spend another 300.00 on this. I did the 2 month and found it wasn't enough. I finished the 1950 questions in time, but not enough time to reveiew all the ones i did wrong. I exteneded it anohter 2 months. I finisehd about 75 percent of the ones i did wrong and decided it was now time to do the readiness exams.

exams:

1) I scored a 52 percent on the exam putting me on the "BOARDERLINE" of passing with a 34th percentile rating. I was a little bummed but knew i could do btter on the seconde.

2) Took test #2 a day later and scored a 41 % which put me in the "LOW" chance of passing. I was in the 14th percetile literally.

I began to stress out, but i knew that I was ready regardless of what the score indicated. I took my chance. Did my scheduled exam on JULY 28th.

When my test turned BLUE and went to this new trial " 10 questions" for the ncelx to give insight as to what they may want to add in the future, i kept thinking to myself" Omg OMG OMG did i do good and what is this new survey quetsions. I guess they added this new thing after you complete your exam and it consists of 10 questions that they are piloting to see if they will add it.

Anyhow, my exam stopped roughly at 125. I looked up my last question which was a staff education question which was def not a recall or recognition and i thought it was mid-level to high level competency. I looked up the answer and I was RIGHT!!

So i felt as if i had a chance.

Well here in california, we don't have quick results. My mother is also an RN and she is nosy. So i guess she has been checking up on the CA BREEZE like literally every day since last friday.

I work part time and usually im at work around 6 am. at around 630 am im getting text messages from my mom to call her urgent. I was thinking the worst like someothing bad hhappend. She was hestrically crying on the phone i couldn't undersratnd a word she was saying. I asked her to calm down. i then heard that words " YOU DID IT!! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY AN RN!!" I was still in so much shock i didn't know what to think. She sends me a snap shot of the BRN with my name officially on there! I broke down in tears!! I called my girlfriend and my son to tell them the great new and they all began to cry!

anyhow, the moral of this story for those 1st time test takers or multiple like me ( almost 10 times), is to NEVER GIVE UP!!! I really mean that. when hope seems dampered and all dreams seem lost, always remember this "YOU ONLY FAIL WHEN YOU QUIT!" I am a testiment to this saying!!

I also want to thank UWORLD for such an excellent job of prepping me for the actual test. The similraities and questions asked were almost identical!!

-Jason Briones B.S.N. R.N. ( I can proudly say now!!)