Passing NCLEX on SECOND ATTEMPT, The PVT trick and everything in between 2016!

[HawkeyeRN2016]

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to share my story about the NCLEX this past summer. I referred to this website many times during my ups an downs of this process and want others to hear my story as many helped me on this website! (Sorry this is gunna be long!)

I graduated from a four year BSN program in May. Coming out of school, I was already nervous about the NCLEX as our school made us use ATI and I always wasn't the best at them. I decided to sign up for the Hurst Live review class with a few of my friends. Hurst was a great program, but totally content based. On my Q reviews, I was scoring lower than the recommended score, but I wasn't far off. I also used U-World and was averaging about 55% at the end of using the whole entire Qbank. I knew my scores were a little on the lower side, but I felt confident.

I took my NCLEX at the end of June, and wasn't feeling too nervous walking into the test. I sat down to take the test and I just slowly became over whelmed. There were so many content questions that Hurst didn't even cover for me, and I just wasn't sure how to answer them. The questions kept coming, and finally all 265 questions later, I left in complete tears. I got home, took a few hours to feel sorry for myself, and decided to try the PVT trick. I tried it, and my credit card went through. Needless to say, I was completely crushed. 10 days later, I got my official fail letter. I felt like I was the only person I knew to fail and didn't even know where to go from there.

After a taking two to three weeks off, (YOU NEED TO TAKE A BREAK!),I was determined to start over. I re registered for the NCLEX, giving myself about another month and half to study. I still was feeling lost on where to go from there. After research on here, I decided to buy LeCharitys Prioritization and Delegation book, and use Kaplan and U world. I can say Kaplan was the best for me. I used the self paced online class and I felt it really helped me understand how to answer questions that I necessarily didn't know content. These three things were LIFESAVERS. I studied only about 3-4 hours each day, including weekends, where as before I was going about 8 hours every day and taking weekends off. I think spacing out my studying also helped me process everything easier. After the self paced class, I did all the Qbank Questions and all of the U world Questions. I averaged about 65-70% on those. I WROTE DOWN EVERY RATIONALE FOR WHAT I GOT WRONG AND STUDIED THEM IN FLASHCARDS! I scored a 70% on my NCLEX readiness test for Kaplan. LeCharitys book also was a HUGE HELP! I also did meet with a private tutor, only twice, she was helpful but very scattered and asked simple questions i knew would not be on the nclex.

Day of the Second NCLEX,I was so nervous. In between all of this, I had landed a job and NEEDED to pass! I walked in sat down for the test and felt I was much more eased at knowing how to answer these questions. However, 75, 100, 150, 200 questions pass and I end up getting all 265 questions AGAIN. I WAS CRUSHED!! I felt like I was repeating myself again and everything bad played over again in my head. I shed a few tears and decided to try the PVT trick again a few hours later just to get it over with. I GOT THE GOOD POP UP! I wasn't celebrating yet as I knew it can never be too accurate, but the next day I got my official pass from my BON and 2 days later the pass on my Quick results.

I JUST WANT TO SAY:

1. IF YOU FAIL - DO NOT GIVE UP! TAKE SOME TIME OFF AND GO BACK AT IT. SOMETIMES WHAT WORKS FOR OTHERS MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU - YOU CAN DO IT

2. KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. CONTENT IS A HUGE PART BUT NOT ALL OF IT.

3. THE PVT TRICK DOES WORK - BUT WAIT AT LEAST 3-4 HOURS

4 265 QUESTIONS IS NOT AN AUTOMATIC FAIL SENTENCE! DO THE BEST YOU CAN AND YOU WILL BECOME THAT RN YOU'VE WANTED TO BE!!!!!

sorry this was scattered! let me know if you have any questions and I would be happy to answer them :)