bodhisattva

Hello to all of you wonderful nurses :) TL;DR at the bottom Well, I just wanted to thank everyone on this forum. I spent almost all of my study breaks on here looking for reassurance. I found so much helpful insight and kind words that would ease me in my worst of moments. As a student I worked at a restaurant and was stressed beyond belief almost all of the time. I was a B student with A capabilities, I just didn't apply myself because I was always so jaded about having to put myself through school. I slacked off through OB & Peds, and rather than spending my free time in the last semester preparing for NCLEX, I spent the time doing what I wanted to do. On the ATI predictor I had an 88% chance of passing NCLEX, and that was with no preparation or practice. I also didn't do Hurst. They could keep go somewhere else asking for $500. I had always planned on taking my NCLEX in August after I would be graduating in early May. I told myself that once graduation hit I would lock down and get serious. To my dismay I was offered a job position in April. This meant I would need to take my NCLEX much sooner than planned. No big deal. Quitting my job at the restaurant in May was one of the most satisfying things I had ever done. However I was taking a HUGE gamble. I was now jobless and if I didn't pass NCLEX I would be scrambling for money, a job, and having to study for NCLEX round 2. Not to mention loans beginning and personal debts. I rented Lacharity's prioritization & delegation book, the Saunders Q&A book, as well as the NCLEX mastery app. Soon after I learned about Uworld from this forum and had to see what the craze was about. I was blown away at how much better the questions were. They really challenged me and allowed me to develop a better sense of critical thinking than my 4 years of schooling combined. The questions in Saunders and Mastery app are complete GARBAGE. Do not waste your time answering definition based questions. Uworld's questions are so multi-faceted and have you pull from all different areas of your learning. The rationales are everything you need and none of the fluff. I studied loosely each day for about 2 weeks (2-4 hours each day). Then in the last 3 weeks leading to the exam I studied from 6 am-5 pm. I completely underestimated the breadth of information that would need to be covered for NCLEX. Luckily my anxiety allowed me to study for hours on end. TEST EXPERIENCE: I woke up at 5 am to do some sprints to calm myself before the test at 8 am. I was reviewing pharm flash cards in the car on the way and already thinking about how I was going to to fail. I did breathing exercises in the waiting room with my eyes closed. When the test started I was calm. These questions seemed easy. I was afraid I wasn't getting them right though. The content/subject of the question would be easy but the answer choices were so ambiguous and caught me off guard. My test shut off at 75. I thought for sure I failed. For sure. I went home and did the PVT and got the bad pop up. So I went out and bought myself a pizza lol. The next day I found my name on the BON website. I passed. How was it possible? TL;DR Uworld will teach you better than nursing school, ATI, and Hurst combined. Review the difficult stuff but don't neglect "the easy stuff". Take care of yourself while preparing, work out, eat well, and take your vitamins. It's not worth getting sick over and having to take the test while feeling like death. You got this fam