I decided to write my experience about preparing and taking the NCLEX especially because I waited so long to take it and everytime I wanted advice/guidance I looked at these forums. I graduated May 2013 and took the exam the first week of September. First and foremost, let me begin by saying that the NCLEX is really not as bad as everyone makes it seem. So if you have anxiety like me, stay away from these forums and just focus! I felt a lot of pressure because I waited so long to take it and according to "statistics" generally new GN'a don't do very well post 3-months. Well I'm living proof that is incorrect. So on to studying..... I used the Hurst Review, Saunders CD, and a Priority and Delegation book. I wanna say that I did over 2500 questions. I studied one topic a day from Hurst Review and did questions on that topic. Of course I didn't study continuously over those 3 months, I skipped days in between....a lot actually. But before the exam, I dedicated two full weeks of intense studying, literally 5-6 hours. You have to do what works best for you, everyone is different; just make sure to learn the content. The NCLEX really wasn't as bad as everyone makes it out to seem. I got content from Peds/OB/community/mental health nursing. I got 13 SATA and a lot of it is common sense really. I can't stress enough to take your time and read each question carefully. Use the elimination process or any method when answering complex questions. If you know your BASIC content, you'll ace the exam! Good Luck! There's a mantra my friend would always say that would calm my nerves before an exam--> "I always know, whatever I need to know, whenever I need to know it"