Passed the third time!

Published Jun 30, 2015

12 Posts

I passed my NCLEX with about 110 questions!

I'm making this topic for people who may have failed the first and second time around. My mother has told me stories about people who give up and never take the NCLEX after failing the first time. So here's my story and maybe other people on here might be able to relate, and I hope that it can bring some relief to some of you guys. =]

I'm telling you don't give up! You can do it! Being honest I had a very rough year starting my last semester of nursing school. My depression was getting progressively worse and I wasn't able to go to therapy because it interfered with my school schedule, and my depression never got in the way of my school work so I know that me passing and graduating wasn't going to be a problem; I was even on the Dean's list.

Toward the end of the semester I ended up self harming, and by the time I took the Kaplan course (at a discount), I just couldn't focus and my heart wasn't into it. I kept postponing the NCLEX until I couldn't anymore and failed the first time 250 questions in. My qbank was still active, and to be honest, I barely studied the second time I scheduled my NCLEX (probably due to depression and other extraneous factors that was my own fault) and the same thing happened; failed 250 questions in.

I told myself that I had to focus this time, and I didn't let it break me. Confidence in yourself plays a HUGE role in your performance on the NCLEX, and if you have supportive friends and family members, surround yourself with these people! They will push you to keep going and believe in you! Remember, you didn't go to nursing school for nothing! All your knowledge is there, just believe in yourself!

I paid for Kaplan to take the course again, and scheduled my NCLEX once again. I did my best to focus this time, and did the question trainers, getting around 60-61% on them, and reviewing the content based on the rationales of these questions.

I got only a 49% on Question trainer 7, and a 54% on the readiness test. These scores aren't good, but for those who are taking Kaplan, don't let it get to you! Look over ALL the rationales, even on the ones you got right, and retain the information so you don't make the same mistakes again! I also did qbanks that were focused on my weaker points so I could improve on it, and I would say I got around 50% on most of them, BUT LOOK AT THE RATIONALES FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE. I can't stress this enough!

During the NCLEX, I didn't take a break the first two times, but I figured maybe for me taking a break would help, so when the two hour mark hit I was at question 100 and I figured maybe this time I should take a break because it might help me. This might not work for everyone but it worked for me. I only took a minute or two to take a couple of deep breaths, ate a quick snack and drank some water and walked back into the test room. After regaining focus and not panicking so much, I answered the last few questions and it surprisingly cut me off very soon after my break.

This was on the 27th. Two days later, I found out I passed!

So if you fail, don't give up. You can do this and believe in yourself.

Okay, I'm really exhausted and going to go to sleep. I barely slept and it's been a real rough week for me. I was scared that the breakup with my boyfriend was going to affect my nclex performance because he left me the same week I was going to take the exam!

Okay, good night people and good luck to anyone who has their exam scheduled. =]