Passed NCLEX in 60 using Kaplan ONLY!

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Hello Future Nurses!

If you have your NCLEX coming up, and you're anything like I was, you're FREAKING OUT. I wanted to make a post about my experience with NCLEX and what I used and how I benefitted from those resources, hopefully ease some nerves. My school included Kaplan in the package, and quite frankly, I couldn't afford UWorld, so Kaplan is what I used and stuck with. In addition to Kaplan, I used the Saunders book for content review, and Nurse Achieve for their Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT). Nurse Achieve is doing a deal where they offer a free 30 days to sign up and utilize their test bank and CAT btw!!


https://nurseachieve.com/register use code "free30" to utilize this! Highly recommend!! They don't ask for credit card information or anything, it is legit! I believe it's going on until mid-July.

I did the question trainers through Kaplan and had average of low 60s and high 50s for question trainers 1, 2, and 3.

Q Trainer 4: 60%

Q Trainer 5: 57%

Q Trainer 6: 58%

Q Trainer 7: 62%

If you have scores around these or even more than these, try not to worry, you are doing well!!

I then went on the other exams.

Who Do You See First: 80%

Alternate Format: 38% (which is normal, people usually score in the 20-30s)

NCLEX SAMPLE 1: 58%

NCLEX SAMPLE 2: 48% (YIKES)

This is where I got super discouraged. I knew under the 50% line was not ideal, and I needed to do some further review and strategy to do better.

After a bit more content review, and some QBANK in my weak areas, I went ahead and took the readiness test and scored a 67%. This was good! I knew > 65% was the goal and I started to gain a little bit of confidence.

At this point I was less than a week away from the NCLEX and this is where I started to take my CAT exams from NurseAchieve! This was essential! I was able to gauge the difficulty as I was taking the exam and could tell when I was getting some wrong and some right. This is how the NCLEX is designed and those adaptive tests taught me what difficulty level that questions were, and how to feel if I was doing well, or doing poorly.

After taking the CAT exams 5x and receiving Solid-Pass on 4 of them, and Pass on 1 of them, I felt ready. I was going to pass this test, I knew it. I kept telling myself, there is no reason for me to fail. I am prepared. I will do well. Speak positively to yourself because you will be there in no time!! Try not to focus on bad scores, but remediate the topics and TAKE NOTES to review later!!

The day of my exam, my husband drove me up to Sacramento and we had a nice lunch. He spoke positively to me and told me he believed in me. Support people are everything.

We prayed together, and I left my phone in the car, and started heading for the building. Talk about an ANXIOUS MESS! I felt my heart beating out of my chest.

Before I knew it, it was time to press start and do this test!

At question 60, my heart was beating quickly again, when I pressed next, the screen shut off.

I DID IT, IT'S OVER.

Now the waiting game.......

I received the email from Pearson Vue, that I had taken the test but still had questions, and didn't do the Pearson Due Trick right away, but when I got home that is the first thing I did!

Got the "GOOD" pop up! Worked for me, since I found out 2 days later that YES, I PASSED!

I didn't pay for the unofficial results, instead, I went to the Board of Registered Nursing and looked up my name. There it was. My license. Registered Nurse.

Praise GOD! He brought me this far and came through!

I hope these study tips and scores help some who may be testing soon.

Remember with Prioritization think:

Expected/Unexpected

Stable/Unstable

Acute/Chronic

& ALWAYS Airway, Breathing, and Circulation - Safety!

Keep your head up and remember you got this!! Every time I spoke about my test, my family and friends said they knew I would pass. I'm sure many of you relate. I didn't believe them fully, I kept saying "We will see." I should've taken their good energy and said YES, ABSOLUTELY, I WILL PASS!

You will pass! Have faith! Prepare, and get a good night of sleep the night before.

Good luck!!

6 Votes
Specializes in graduate Nurse.

Are you referring to the demo testbank I dont see any free trail here. please kindly advise

Hi Juliet! Click “buy” near the 30 day subscription, I believe for $95, and then on the next page, for the promo code, enter free30, that is where it will put the balance to $0 due!! Hope this helps!

3 hours ago, CPres2018 said:

Hello Future Nurses!

If you have your NCLEX coming up, and you're anything like I was, you're FREAKING OUT. I wanted to make a post about my experience with NCLEX and what I used and how I benefitted from those resources, hopefully ease some nerves. My school included Kaplan in the package, and quite frankly, I couldn't afford UWorld, so Kaplan is what I used and stuck with. In addition to Kaplan, I used the Saunders book for content review, and Nurse Achieve for their Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT). Nurse Achieve is doing a deal where they offer a free 30 days to sign up and utilize their test bank and CAT btw!!


https://nurseachieve.com/register use code "free30" to utilize this! Highly recommend!! They don't ask for credit card information or anything, it is legit! I believe it's going on until mid-July.

I did the question trainers through Kaplan and had average of low 60s and high 50s for question trainers 1, 2, and 3.

Q Trainer 4: 60%

Q Trainer 5: 57%

Q Trainer 6: 58%

Q Trainer 7: 62%

If you have scores around these or even more than these, try not to worry, you are doing well!!

I then went on the other exams.

Who Do You See First: 80%

Alternate Format: 38% (which is normal, people usually score in the 20-30s)

NCLEX SAMPLE 1: 58%

NCLEX SAMPLE 2: 48% (YIKES)

This is where I got super discouraged. I knew under the 50% line was not ideal, and I needed to do some further review and strategy to do better.

After a bit more content review, and some QBANK in my weak areas, I went ahead and took the readiness test and scored a 67%. This was good! I knew > 65% was the goal and I started to gain a little bit of confidence.

At this point I was less than a week away from the NCLEX and this is where I started to take my CAT exams from NurseAchieve! This was essential! I was able to gauge the difficulty as I was taking the exam and could tell when I was getting some wrong and some right. This is how the NCLEX is designed and those adaptive tests taught me what difficulty level that questions were, and how to feel if I was doing well, or doing poorly.

After taking the CAT exams 5x and receiving Solid-Pass on 4 of them, and Pass on 1 of them, I felt ready. I was going to pass this test, I knew it. I kept telling myself, there is no reason for me to fail. I am prepared. I will do well. Speak positively to yourself because you will be there in no time!! Try not to focus on bad scores, but remediate the topics and TAKE NOTES to review later!!

The day of my exam, my husband drove me up to Sacramento and we had a nice lunch. He spoke positively to me and told me he believed in me. Support people are everything.

We prayed together, and I left my phone in the car, and started heading for the building. Talk about an ANXIOUS MESS! I felt my heart beating out of my chest.

Before I knew it, it was time to press start and do this test!

At question 60, my heart was beating quickly again, when I pressed next, the screen shut off.

I DID IT, IT'S OVER.

Now the waiting game.......

I received the email from Pearson Vue, that I had taken the test but still had questions, and didn't do the Pearson Due Trick right away, but when I got home that is the first thing I did!

Got the "GOOD" pop up! Worked for me, since I found out 2 days later that YES, I PASSED!

I didn't pay for the unofficial results, instead, I went to the Board of Registered Nursing and looked up my name. There it was. My license. Registered Nurse.

Praise GOD! He brought me this far and came through!

I hope these study tips and scores help some who may be testing soon.

Remember with Prioritization think:

Expected/Unexpected

Stable/Unstable

Acute/Chronic

& ALWAYS Airway, Breathing, and Circulation - Safety!

Keep your head up and remember you got this!! Every time I spoke about my test, my family and friends said they knew I would pass. I'm sure many of you relate. I didn't believe them fully, I kept saying "We will see." I should've taken their good energy and said YES, ABSOLUTELY, I WILL PASS!

You will pass! Have faith! Prepare, and get a good night of sleep the night before.

Good luck!!

How many select all did u have I only had 3-4 and I got good pop up

Hi H to the R dizzle,

On my exam, I had many, many SATA. About 20 I would say.

Hopefully you see results soon! I know the waiting game is terrible.

I know but it just says results e on hold what does that mean

The “unofficial” results through Pearson take 48 hours to view after you’ve taken your exam. I was able to know I’m licensed by looking at the BRN (BON) in some states. I wasn’t able to view it until this morning. I took my test 6/17 and saw results 6/19. Did you take your test today?

Yes but I’m freaking out because I had only 5-6 sata and it says my results r on hold.

What does that mean

Try not to worry too much!! The good pop up is a good sign! It works 99% of the time!! Just wait two days to check the unofficial results or your state’s Board of Nursing

But is it a good sign because it just says results on hold! And m afraid that’s not good right

Take a look at the image below, hope this helps! May need to try the trick later. My mistake, thought you got the good pop up!

CC957733-6AD0-4D65-BF9B-20968B06CF6F.png
1 Votes

OK how soon after will I know

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