Passing the NCLEX on my 2nd time

Published Apr 4, 2014

10 Posts

Hey guys. .. I just wanna share this good news on this website. Allnurses really helped me pass NCLEX. From the notes, to encouragement, to words of wisdom from the moderators, this site helped me pull through. I know there will be others that will relate to what I went through. So as I planned before, if I ever pass, I would share my story with everyone.

I went to San Diego State University after graduating HS. I majored in nursing after being undeclared for the first semester. It wasn't my plan to be a nurse. In all honesty I was lost. I either wanted to be a doctor or an engineer. Both were expensive. So my parents decided I should just take nursing for now. and so I did. I'm not a bad student, I had only A's and B's in HS. But I just wasn't feeling the whole "nursing" thing. Long story short, I did really bad on my classes after 2 sems in SDSU. So my parents shipped me to the Philippines lol. In Philippines all 4 years of BSN would cost as much as 1 year in SDSU. So that was a plus. Then after finishing my first year in Philippines. I started liking it. And eventually I graduated in March 2012.

After graduating, I didn't bother taking the board exam in Philippines. I wasn't planning to work there so I decided to skip it. I messed around for a few months there then, on July 2012 I flew back to California. It took me about 8 months to get my papers straightened out for the requirements for California. (all due to my school being slow in processing the needed documents). Eventually I was declared ineligible to take the NCLEX RN in California because my Maternal and Surgical cases weren't concurring with my lectures. So I decided to apply for Nevada. I took TOEFL then eventually I was eligible. I took the NCLEX on November 2013. I failed. And for a number of reasons:

1. I had too much resources. Saunder's, Kaplan, LaCharity, NCLEX 4000. textbooks from college. So I was all over the place. Studying this, studying that. ..

2. Studied too much. I was reading and reading. Even when I wasn't comprehending and remembering things I kept reading. I tried to cover as much content as I can. So I ended up reading the Saunder's cover to cover.

3. I didn't take notes. I would just read and read expecting to retain all that information.

4. Sleeping late. I would stay up until 2 AM.

5.I would be in my room the whole time. taking breaks only to eat.

6.I was preparing for a 75 question exam. I went through all 1300 question in Qbank for Kaplan. So at the day of my exam, when it continued past 75 I wasn't prepared. I just clicked and clicked hoping that it would end soon. I ended up with 190 questions.

7. I wasn't understanding the questions. I would always miss a critical word. So when it came down to reviewing rationales. I would say "I could have gotten that one right!"

8. I lost my motivation. All I ever thought was "I just want to get it over with"

9. I was working as a caregiver 4 days a week for 10 hrs each day. I thought I could do it all.

All those things contributed to my failure of the exam. I finished with 194 questions. I tried the pearson vue trick and it went straight to the credit card page.

So when I got my ATT the second time around, I decided to do things differently:

1. I didn't read a lot anymore. Since I read the whole Saunder's book I thought to myself that, that was enough. So my plan was to enroll to NCSBN for 8 weeks then enroll for Kaplan for 2 weeks. NCSBN for questions, Kaplan for test taking strategies.

2. I studied less. I would only spend about 3 hours per day.

3. I stuck with Kaplan and ditched NCSBN. for 2 weeks I attended the online classes, taking notes. And really soaking in the Decision Tree and analyzing how the Nclex is structured. I don't have anything again ncsbn. I just didn't have time. I was afraid that having two resources would confuse me.

4. I slept early. 11pm. Still late but, it worked.

5. I exercised. I was on the treadmill while attending the online classes.

6. I asked my caregiving agency for a decrease in hours. So I worked only for 1 day per week for 6 hrs.

5. I took the kaplan question trainers.

Diagnostic Test = 63%

Q1 = 75 questions 52%

Q2 = 75 questions 52%

Q3 = 100 questions 55%

Q4= 150 questions 51%

Q5=150 questions 53%

Q6= 200 questions 54%

Q7 = 265 questions 55%

Readiness Test = 53%

As you can see those scores are not very good. Kaplan recommends having a score o 65%!But when I was reviewing rationales. I kept saying that I could've gotten that one right. So kept that in mind on test day.

On April 3 2014 I finished with 194 questions. As you can imagine I was afraid. On my first time I finished with 190 questions. So I was convinced that I failed.

Went home and did the Pearson Vue trick.

It worked. I passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this little story will inspire someone or at least get their hopes up.