Retaking NCLEX 1 yr later, need advice

[brimmck]

I've been looking through this forum for quite some time now and I decided it was my turn to ask for help. I realize that everyone has a different process and study methods but any real advice could help me at this point. Here is a little bit of my background...

I graduated nursing school about a year ago and took my NCLEX a few months later in May 2014. At the time I was not very focused because I was working a lot but I led myself to believe that I would still be ok because I did well in school and I have always been a good test taker. I was using ATI's greenlight program but was finding it hard to keep up with the amount of hours required to study to I stopped that and switched to Kaplan because some friends recommended it. This switch in my opinion ultimately threw me way off because of the different style of studying and questions.

I took my NCLEX in California in the afternoon and ended up taking the entire 265 questions, which was around 5 hours. I will say I was in NO way prepared to be there for that long as all of my school friends assured me that it wasn't that bad and they all passed at 75 questions. Being in the test center that long made me start questioning everything and I was too tired to focus by the end. I felt so burnt out and I went home and tried the PearsonVue trick and realized I did not pass because it was allowing me to sign up again for the exam. I was so embarrassed. I didn't want to talk to family or friends for weeks.

Once I was finally over the embarrassment I tried get back to studying but almost every time I sat down I was so overwhelmed with not knowing which program to use this time around. I had a new test date but at this point I've rescheduled so many times because I have no confidence and I don't want to have to redo a third time. Like I said its been a year since I graduated and I feel so far removed that I'm having a hard time focusing once again. I have many resources to study from at this point but I feel like that's even more distracting because I'm going back and forth and can't pick one to focus on at a time.

Sorry for the long backstory.... So now I'd love anyone's help/advice on which program is most recommended to start with? What time of timeline did people give themselves to study, how many hours? I have the Kaplan Review Book, Davis's NCLEX success book, Saunders review book, old ATI review books, a few study guides, and I have recently purchased the NCSBN 3 week program to see how it is. Any tips on how you stayed motivated/hopeful/confident after failing once would also be much appreciated.

Thanks for anyone's help!!

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

What did your performance report state?

The issue may not necessarily the source of the review, but how one approaches the NCLEX itself: understanding the four concepts of becoming a competent, entry-level nurse:

1. Safe, effective care;

2.Health promotion;

3.Physiological Integrity;

4.Psychosocial integrity

Will determine WHAT the question is asking you; the question may be Respiratory related-but is it a Health Promotion or a Safety, or a Physiological or a Psychosocial one? Would you know the difference and choose the BEST answer?

Once one understands the concepts of NCLEX, they can do so successfully.

Don't look at content; you know most of the material because you passed nursing school; begin to do questions related to each concept; review all questions and rationales; ANY rationale you struggle with, THEN review content. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When practicing the questions, prepare the questions like a mock NCLEX exam, review the minimum and then work up to the maximum for endurance purposes.

After looking at your report, focus on the weakness and review questions and rationales; make mock NCLEX tests and start with the minimum and gradually until the maximum; you have to have an endurance in answering application questions.

After each "exam", make sure you are reviewing the rationales; any rationales you are not clear on THEN look up for content.

I will suggest if you are having issues with content ExamCRAM as a good resource and review book; also the NCSBN program for 8 weeks is like a review course online and is VERY comprehensive, if you find that the three week course is too intense; give yourself time to comprehensively understand the program.