dafishman

Dont give up! I passed on 12/15. See my other thread where I talked about the questions I received and how I studied. Mine shut off at 85 again! This time, I passed. WOO HOO!!!! on the 22nd received my new york state registration and license in the mail! Nice to get that and get closure! Anyways, best of luck to you and dont ever give up, never! You can do it! Time for my RN now...

Hi, thanks for the kind words. I finally passed on 12/15 in my 2nd attempt! Shut off at 85 questions. Check out my other thread about it I explained what I did and type of questions I encountered. Onto my RN now. gl to you!

UPDATE 12/16/14************** Just called straighterline. I spoke to a rep and he said that if you are going into their NURSING program, they want you to take it at their school instead of straighterline. I have to believe it because straighterline is in the business of selling courses and memberships, he simply said any other program at excelsior I could do it, but nursing, he shut me right down and said nope, take at excelsior...... I know I could and others could take it at a local community college (I already took A&P 1 & 2--8 years ago--needs to be less than 5), so I am screwed. I am not putting in 3-4 months, I will test out at excelsior......

Well, I finally caved and bought my quick results, 10 minutes ago and low and behold I passed! To say I am shocked is an understatement! As I replied above, there was no way I thought I passed. The only thing I will say is this: SATA's HAVE to be UPPER level questions, they HAVE TO BE. I had 25, maybe more, 3-4 in a row, there is no other explanation for how I passed at the minimum of 85 questions and it shut off. I know some people say they aren't but they had to be for me. Well, I will say KAPLAN worked for me, that is quite obvious by me passing and that was ALL I used for my 2nd time. It is definitely worth it if you can afford it. Onto my RN now with excelsior college. Wish me luck. Best of luck to all and if you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask.

Well, I finally caved and bought my quick results, 10 minutes ago and low and behold I passed!!!! To say I am shocked is an understatement! As I replied above, there was no way I thought I passed. The only thing I will say is this: SATA's HAVE to be UPPER level questions, they HAVE TO BE. I had 25, maybe more, 3-4 in a row, there is no other explanation for how I passed at the minimum of 85 questions and it shut off. I know some people say they aren't but they had to be for me. Well, I will say KAPLAN worked for me, that is quite obvious by me passing and that was ALL I used for my 2nd time. It is definitely worth it if you can afford it. Onto my RN now with excelsior college. Wish me luck. Best of luck to all and if you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask.

I think I dive in to much into the info and I forget the basics. I really do. I dont know what else to do....This post will be me talking to myself, so excuse me! I didnt get one Hep question, I got Heb C-B-A!!! b & c were SATA (got wrong looked up) and A I got right...... Got some simple ones to me, 2nd stage labor (birth), client getting ready for thoracentesis, what is essential to check (make sure they have the ability to sit). Exhibit one with pulse under 60 (56), hold Dig. Then I got a hand washing one, yes, a SATA hand washing, and I think I screwed it up. How, I dont know, but I cant remember all the choices but I remember sitting there saying REALLY? I had no HF, no ANGINA, NO pneumonia, no hyperkalemia, hypo, natremia, mag, nada....no parkinsons, no AD, no als, ms, leukemia, no ulcers, no stoma, ostomy, no other birth stuff or pregnancy ones except the ones I mentioned. 2 other lab ones which were easy, 3 normal lab values, 1 wasnt.... I just dont get it. I was prepared. Scored 64% on Kaplan, was scoring 88-90% on retests. But, then I get these off the wall questions... Oh, the influenza shot, I put SQ instead of IM. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dumb. Heres the kicker, my 1st nclex, if I would have had that same type monday, I would have aced it. Instead, I get these other crazy ones that to me seem to simple or generic to qualify one as a nurse. *** do I know, NOTHINGGGGGGGG... Wow, just perplexed to say the least...... I guess I am going to make sure I have the basic of basic stuff down 1st before my next go round. I know I failed, I do. I will update as soon as I get my letter. The wife said she will look online for me when she gets home and pay the 8 bucks, I said go for it, I wont...I made peace with it in my head. Whats the sense in paying when i know? Sure, miracles could happen but doubfull..... One last thing as I mentioned, I had at least 20-25 SATA and 3-4 in a row!! I was like ***. My 1st time, maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 of what I had today. Also, got a math ? which was flow rate and easy enough............ ******* sata's got me!!!! Dirty dogs!!!!

Im in NY. Results are in but I am not even going to buy them. I made peace with it. I really did. I know I failed because I looked up a lot of the questions I remembered and 1/2 were right and 1/2 wrong. Need to be above passing pretty good for it to shut off at 85 and I know I wasnt. Even if the 15 pilot ?'s were wrong ones, I know it. I will await my letter next week and reschedule and send in another 200 and wait the 45 days. Crazy, but I cannot beat myself up or be mad at anyone else. I obviously dont know the info...Its that simple.......

I will say congrats to you! I would not recommend hurst, please see my prior thread about my experience. I took my exam today, if I failed, ncsbn, is where I may turn to next....I don't know, I really don't!!!!!

Just took the exam. Shut off again at 85. I think I failed, I really do. had about 20-25 SATA (3-4 in a row once), 3 exhibit ones. 1 math. few UAP questions, couple 1st, priority, would you see 1st. I hit next on 85 and went off....Man, I don't feel good at all. I will know in 2 days........I wish the PVT trick stick worked. Stomach is in knots....

Update: Just finished Q-bank. Ended up at 64% cumulative. I am hoping I know enough now to pass the boards 2 weeks from today. If I retake the Q-bank I will update my new results, I would assume I would be in the 80's or better...... Any questions, ask away....

Update: Sunday night, Im at 94% through Qbank and my scores are at 63%. I plan on finishing tomorrow and hopefully I will at least stay where I am or maybe even increase a little more... Test is 2 weeks from tomorrow. Update tomorrow. Night all...

Quick update: 81% of the way done, this is my 1st time and I am at 59%. I am hoping I can get into the 60's. I am planning on being done sunday at the latest. I think after that I may have them reset the Qbank and retake the test and hope I score into the 80's, maybe higher......Try to reinforce some of the earlier questions and the ones I had difficulty with.... I do re-mediate after every test and put the content on note cards, seems to be helping..... Will update soon!

11/11/14 update: Well, I finished all the vids except the pharm ones. I am going to do them on my own. When I took the Nclex I had 3 questions on Pharm. Not going to get too crazy with all the pharm stuff. Anyways, 3/4 done with the book and making notecards, will be done with them in 1-2 days and then its just studying them daily and finishing my q-bank... So far on the Qbank, I am at a 55% overall, I have taken 450 questions, so 45% of the way through them. I am REALLY hoping I can get to the 60%+ mark!!!!! I really dont want to have to do the Qbank questions again, I want to be able to get their the 1st time! Scheduled my exam for 12/8 (monday at 8am), wish me lucK!!!! I will update in the next week, I should be about done with the qbank and see where I am lacking and then its studying the notecards every second I get. The cards are outlines from the videos. They highlight all the key points. I highlighted the book and then am going back and making appropriate cards.....Easier for me then thumbing through the book page by page and studying that way.. I am hoping what Vanessak83 days is true!!! I should be close to the 60%. Talk to you soon.....

Quick update. Took about 6 tests, 25 questions each. Lowest was a 52, highest was a 72, few were 60's, so I am improving! Kaplan videos follow along with their book. They tell you the high points and areas to know. I watch the vids and highlight the book. Then I make notecards from my highlighted text. One thing that I dont like it the biggest part of the test is coordination of care and safety and infection control, but the book BARELY touches the coordination of care at least according to the test question in the Q-bank. My scores are the lowest in that area. Like 46-50%, same with the safety one. I went through the book ten times, there is no more information I can get from it. So, once I am all done with the questions and the book, I may look at another book and see what their coordination of care and safety and infection control looks like and see if that would have given me more info in regards to the questions I got wrong... Kaplan will spend 2 hours on the 2 I talked about and 6 hours on a section that is worth 6-12%, just dont make much sense to me..... BUT, I do LOVE it a lot compared to Hurst, hands down 100000% better. Simple Nursing I now only go to if I need to know the entire patho from top to bottom, so far, I think its working as my scores have increased. I have did about 34% of the Q-bank questions and my overall score is a 54%. Kaplan says you need 60-65%. So, I can hopefully keep bumping them up. I will try this weekend to add some pics of how the Q-bank breaks down everything in the categories and show some people in case they were wondering how it worked.....

Update: Watched Kaplan vids and they went hand in hand with their book but seemed to only hit the high points (or im hoping). For example: TB. In the book they have like 10 S/S's. In the vids and their powerpoint, they listed like 6. I assume the top 6. Same thing with Varicella, Rubella, Mono, they hit the key points and moved on. In the book when your following, you can see much, much more info. Same thing for AIDS. They touched a little bit in the video and in the book their was 3 pages, same with Hepatitis. Going to keep doing these vids and highlight in my book and make notecards and things I dont understand I am going to use simple nursing to further explain them since the videos really just tell you what it is and doesnt give a lot of examples to go with it. Will keep you updated! Going to try a few more tests tonight and see if anything stuck or if i regressed or improved or still at my 50%. Thats my overall % after 18% of all the ?'s, 50% correct.....Kaplan says you need 60-65%. So, im subpar still.....Got a lot of questions to go though and I think I need to get this content done and quit doing things backwards and wondering why I score low.... I keep trying to put the cart before the horse!!