Paying it forward. My NCLEX experience

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So I'll pay it forward. I spent hours lurking on these forums for advice on this exam.

I used Hurst, Kaplan, and Uworld to prepare for the exam. I consider myself to be an average student. I studied hard to get decent grades (A's and B's). I'm not the best test taker.

My school required us to use Kaplan. I didn't like it because the rationale's lacked depth. After seeing others post about Uworld I decided to take a gamble on it and I am glad I did. I initially did the free trial and loved the rationales. My final qbank score was 52% and I was extremely worried. But people reassured me that the focus was to be on the rationales, an they were right. Don't worry about the score. When I finished I had about 400 questions left to do. Close to my exam date I created exams on the subjects I was stuggling with such as Peds, OB, and Mental health. UWorld repeats certain topics, and this is for a reason so pay attention. :yes:

Kaplan: I did about 500 questions and had an avg of 58%. My qtrainers scores were qt1 48%, qt2 63%, qt3 52%, qt4 59.3%, qt5 61.3%, qt6 57%. I was nervous about my scores.:no:

Hurst: I highly recommend. I did the online version and took my time watching the videos. I didn't memorize the whole book as suggested. I read though it about three times to get my core knowledge strong.

Before the exam: My anxiety was at an all time high, and keep in mind I don't typically have anxiety problems. I literally could not sleep or eat. On the plus side I lost like 5 pounds :scrying:. But I spent about 3 weeks truly studying for this exam for about 4-6 hours a day. I was working fulltime as well. I am spiritual person so I spent a lot of time praying and ask God to take the test with me (which he did). I also believe in channeling positive energy so I wrote my name with the RN beside it and hung it on the mirror. I changed my screen saver on my phone to a passed quick result screenshot. So that I could visually see what I was asking for.

Exam day: I was so nausea I could barely eat. I tried studying before the exam which was completely pointless. I wasn't retaining any information. I got to the exam site early and began my test early. I came prepared to take all 265 questions so I packed a good lunch. I sat down started the exam. When I got to about question 50 or so I had a feeling I would stop at 75. To my surprise I got to question 75 and the magical blue screen appeared. I was relieved and then felt bad. I got to my car and looked up some questions and realized I got them wrong. I didn't have to pay for quick results I received an email from the BON with my license 24 hours later.

Exam Summary: 75 questions. 1 med calculation. 10-12 SATA. No exhibit. Not drag and drop. No audio. No ekg. Mostly priority and teaching.

Tips

-Take focused exam on your weak areas

-stay off allnurse the day before your exam you will see post about people failing and it will increase you anxiety

-trust yourself

-Do practice questions!!

-Uworld is AWESOME!!

-The exam is not as hard as many people make it out to be you can pass this exam!

Happy NCLEX and may the odds be ever in your favor

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I have been SO scared to retake my test. I took it and failed twice last year. But, I am more than ok in admitting that I was not prepared AT ALL. I didn't study anywhere near what I needed to. Besides that I had a LOT of stressors in my life.

So I took a step back and have studied pretty regularly for just over a year now. I took Hurst and didn't really jive well with it. I have had Kaplan since school and have grown to love it. My scores used to be all over the place, but have leveled off in the 50's and 60's. Every now and then I'll get something in the 40's and it'll kill my confidence. But I make sure I go back and read all if the rationales. I'm just under 200 questions left in qbank. I'm gonna start retaking the qtrainers starting tomorrow. I will be registering and scheduling my test next week. I'm hoping for the 2nd week of November. As soon as I schedule, I will be turning up the studying on Kaplan as well as doing the free week trial on UWorld.

Hope it'll all be worth it! I am scared out of my f'ing mind, but I feel more prepared now than I was the last two times I took it, and the last time I took it I got all the way out to the 6 hour timer and ran the clock out at 235 questions. So I was close.....ugh!

Anyways, congrats! And I hope to be posting my success story in here soon!

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I have been SO scared to retake my test. I took it and failed twice last year. But, I am more than ok in admitting that I was not prepared AT ALL. I didn't study anywhere near what I needed to. Besides that I had a LOT of stressors in my life.

So I took a step back and have studied pretty regularly for just over a year now. I took Hurst and didn't really jive well with it. I have had Kaplan since school and have grown to love it. My scores used to be all over the place, but have leveled off in the 50's and 60's. Every now and then I'll get something in the 40's and it'll kill my confidence. But I make sure I go back and read all if the rationales. I'm just under 200 questions left in qbank. I'm gonna start retaking the qtrainers starting tomorrow. I will be registering and scheduling my test next week. I'm hoping for the 2nd week of November. As soon as I schedule, I will be turning up the studying on Kaplan as well as doing the free week trial on UWorld.

Hope it'll all be worth it! I am scared out of my f'ing mind, but I feel more prepared now than I was the last two times I took it, and the last time I took it I got all the way out to the 6 hour timer and ran the clock out at 235 questions. So I was close.....ugh!

Anyways, congrats! And I hope to be posting my success story in here soon!

I am sending positive thoughts your way! You can and will pass this test. One benefit that you have is that you have seen this test twice now so you know what to expect. One tip I'll give which is something I learned from Kaplan like two days before my test was to look at the subject and match it to thee answer. Sometimes the answer is restated in the answer. Also eliminate similar answers. I went in believing I would get all 265 and this helped me remain patient. I suggest starting UWorld ASAP the rationales are very in depth and it's hard to absorb the info if you do more than 75 questions in a day. Good luck I'll be looking forward to seeing your success post.

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I'm gonna wait to start the free week trial of UWorld for when I have the actual date. But thank you! I appreciate it!

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