This is a followup to this thread: https://allnurses.com/forums/f197/what-my-chances-pass-nclex-rn-tomorrow-327044.html
Its two days later and I found out about 20 minutes ago that I passed the NCLEX-RN.
Passed at 75 questions, total test time was about 1:15.
In case anyone wants to know QTrainer or Qbank scores:
QT 5: 67
QT 6 : 64
QT 7: 70
QBank: 63 (200 questions completed)
I spent two weeks going over Saunders Comprehensive, did all the questions there, then two days on Saunders Q+A that I hated, did 200 questions there. Then I spent 1.5 weeks on Kaplan.
If I can leave any advice for anyone here struggling to pass, or worried about passing.
1. The Saunders Comprehensive book is really THAT good. The questions are too easy, but the material is invaluable and condensed. If you don't want it as study material, at least use it for reference.
2. Saunders Q+A has good hard questions that focus on more disease and body rather than what would a nurse do. Great to review material, but not the questions you will see on the NCLEX. Excellent rationales though.
3. Kaplan questions are really hard and tricky. Some say they are harder than the real NCLEX itself, I think the material is easier, but the trickiness remains, go slowly and think critically. Kaplan questions are the best questions to study to see what real NCLEX questions are, no other book that I had came close.
4. During the NCLEX: DO NOT FREAK OUT IF YOU GET AN "EASY" QUESTION. DO NOT FREAK OUT!!!
In the middle and toward the end of the NCLEX, I thought I was failing because I had some easy questions. I even had one close to the end that I felt was very easy. I thought that because I was doing poorly on the exam, (had a ton of SATAs, which I am very bad in) that these questions were easy because I was failing... well guess what, I passed.
5. SATAs are tough, but even if you are horrible in them, you can still pass. I had a bunch of SATAs and I was freaking out, but in the end I just used the best judgement I could and I guess I did well enough to pass.
6. Think critically, imagine yourself in the situation. On at least half the questions I was not sure of the answer. I usually came down to the last two, and then just used my best judgement to select the priority.
7. Eat before the exam... you need some energy for it.
8. Know Infection control and prioritization, they are two very important topics that I don't see covered very well in anything, Kaplan had good prioritization, but infection control was lacking. I went online and to a hospital website: http://infectioncontrol.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/HTML/precautions-diseases.html
This taught me precautions for a lot of diseases.
9. DO NOT WORRY IF YOU END AT 75. DO NOT THINK YOU FAILED.
This can't be repeated enough, I worried for two days straight, thinking I failed because I didn't know a lot of questions and had to guess. You truely can never know if you passed or failed, you will always get 50 percent wrong as this is how the exam works. I honestly thought there was no way I passed, and yet I did. I read many posts on allnurses.com where people said they failed and then found out in 48 hours that they passed. This WILL happen to you. Almost everyone that comes out (all my friends included) thinks they failed... and yet 85 percent don't. So calm down!
If I posted anything I should not have about the NCLEX, can a mod tell me and I will remove it. I made sure not to post any numbers or any information from the exam since I don't want to go to jail or lose my license, am I in the clear here?
j0877
30 Posts