Repeat tester - Passed the NCLEX 5-26-2015

[lilnurse0813]

I failed the NCLEX march 2013. I was so defeated and ashamed. I had no idea it would happen. I had all A's in school and I felt like I knew my stuff. I took the Hurst review and studied content. I did NOT do enough practice questions. I have very bad test anxiety so practice questions were too much for me - go figure i didn't pass. I was there for 6 hours and it was the worst experience of my life.

I wanted to share what worked for me this time. I have been out of school for two years, but i committed myself to doing it right this time. I got a test date. I bought the Maryanne-Hogan NCLEX review book and set a schedule for myself - 2 and a half months. I read every chapter about pharmacology for an entire month in that review book. I knew those drugs. Then i did content review according to the NCLEX test plan for a few weeks out of that book. Management of care for a few days, reduction of risk potential etc... I didn't do any specific med surg (physiologic adaptation) stuff because I learned a lot more doing questions. Then i hit the practice questions, for about three weeks. I did the 265 questions in the back of that book first and did super poorly. then I did the entire Prioritization, Delegation, Assessment book by LaCharity. I did the entire Kaplan QBank - its only $50 for 1300 practice questions. I was scoring about 56% in the beginning (freaked out a lot about that) and got to about 65-70%. I also bought the Davis NCLEX question review book - this helped me a lot because it had only questions according to the NCLEX test plan so i could brush up on specific topics (pharm, Labor and delivery, psyc). This book is SUPER HARD! there are a lot of select all that apply and alternative format questions so its good practice.

I used the comprehensive tests in the Saunders book too but didn't review out of that book. Writing this all out it seems like a lot of work. and it was! i was putting in 8 hours a day towards the end. My life suffered from it - but its all over now and I PASSED!!!!! i was there for only 1 hour and 25 min and got 75 questions. I got to #75 closed my eyes and PRAYED!!!! when i opened them the computer had shut off. i couldn't believe it. I felt like all of my questions were about pharmacology and were select all that apply. I didn't have any dosage calculations which i thought was weird.

So there you have it. I hope my story can inspire others that have been out of school for a while and have rededicated themselves to the process. Put in the work and it will happen!!!!

[TIB217]

Congratulations! Feels good huh? Can't stop smiling!