Scared of the NCLEX

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I know there have been many post regarding how to take the NCLEX and what to study for. I am just overwhelmed and scared of the NCLEX. During nursing school, I was strong in clinical and strong in patient care but I struggled so much with the exams. I usually managed C's and very few B's. I always go with my gut answer but then it comes out to be the other answer that I narrowed it down to.

My stress comes from the fact that I graduated Dec 2012 and I was working part time to pay my bills. I got a job offer at a hospital and started working there right away when I got my IP number from the BRN. My issue is that I work 12hrs shifts and I am tired on those days off, but I still force myself to study. I scheduled my exam for feb 26th but feel like that's too soon because I work 3 12hrs shifts then I'm off for 4 days then I work 4 12hr shifts and off for 3. I know consistsent studying is important and I would like some help or advice please. I am doing the Kaplan online demand and found that helpful. I got a 51% on the diagnoistic test without studying anything and I got a 53% on Question trainer 1 without studying. I am reading the Kaplan Course book and making notes but am overwhelmed with the Medications section. How can I develop a study plan? Any suggestions? I rescheduled my exam for March 12th at 8:00, which is the next opening and I believe this will help me so I can feel confident. I know I am a bad test taker and this scares me. Anything will help.

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There's no way for you to take off of work for 1-2 weeks prior to the exam? I feel like the sooner you take it the better, with at least a full week of studying every day. The hospital I work at doesn't allow graduate nurses to work without a license because they were finding that the new grads were working too much and in turn, failing their boards. I think it was most helpful that I took off 1 entire week prior to my boards just to study and relax.

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I know how you feel about the whole pharmacology section in the Kaplan book! It's very overwhelming at first but if you know how you study then it can lay off some of that uneasiness. As for me, I studied all of the medication groups that i was familiar with first to get that out of the way, then i focused on the medication groups that i didn't know anything about and invested a lot of my time into that. What helped me was looking up youtube pharmacology videos and watching the lectures (those videos are short so its helpful if your managing your time) to understand how the meds work. Then i used the Kaplan book to get a general sense of the side effects and took note of the unique meds. Goodluck!

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I work tomorrow so I will ask my unit manager if I can have 1 week to mentally prepare. Thankyou ladies, I will keep focusing and practicing and alot of prayers

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