Passed with 75q's

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Hello all, I'm new to the forum but been lurking around for awhile. Anyway thought I'd share my NCLEX story.

Took it on Feb 12 (was supposed to take it on the 25th, but rescheduled it a week early), and just found out this morning I'm licensed. Mine stopped at 75 questions, as I was hoping it would, but the questions it gave me were some real mind benders. Almost everything you can think of - priority, delegation, teaching, assessment, cultural sensitivity, a few meds, infection control etc etc. No dosage calculations, and only about 3 SATA. I felt like most of the questions were type of "what statement or finding would you need to follow up on?", which is basically asking you to pick the wrong response. Anyway, after much anxiety before and during the test, I was able to finish it in 75 q's and was relieved it had ended and I was finally done. I felt pretty decent about it, but after reading other people's stories about how unpredictable the test is and everyone comes out of it thinking they failed, I had my doubts. Here I am a couple of days later as an RN.

For those taking the exam in the future here are some tips: In my opinion no amount of studying can really prepare you for it. You will NOT be able to remember every single thing on there, but most answers you can figure out through critical thinking and by elimination. You have to know what the question is asking, you have to be able to figure out what the question is asking, and separate the appropriate answers from the wrong ones. Take your time and really figure out what the question is asking, weigh out all the answer choices carefully and think about which answers you can safely eliminate. Look for key words in the questions and the answer choices which may give you a clue to which one is right or wrong. I was always able to eliminate at least 2 answers and had to choose from the other 2 choices which one was more important. Just take your time and have patience, take a deep breath and clear your head and try to think it over before you decide on an answer.

For those wondering how I studied, I used the NCSBN course (mostly for the questions), practiced using the NCLEX 3500, used a Delmar review book and CD (the questions in it were way too hard), and a few hundred questions from Lippincott's Incredibly Easy Review. No Kaplan or anything like that. Just practice doing questions and know the rationales. I think I did close to 3000 q's about 75-150/day, and also reviewed a little bit of content.

Sorry for the long read, hope it helps someone!