Second attempt... sorry its long

[mag426, ADN, BSN]

Hi,

Just would like to talk about my experience with failing the NCLEX the first time I took it and what I am doing now to prepare for the second exam that I will be taking at the end of the month.

So here's a bit of a background story: I graduated nursing school May 7th, went on a graduation trip and then went through a breakup right after. (May was very eventful) Didn't start studying till the end of May when I got my ATT and scheduled my exam for June 29th. Confident that would be enough time, I continued to study all the way till my test date. I only used UWORLD and on tutor mode and didn't get to finish the entire bank. The big day came and I was nervous but went ahead and believed that I was ready to take it. Got the bad pop up and instantly knew that I failed at that point. I was devastated to say the least but after a week I got myself together and started asking for advice from a friend that passed not too long ago. She gave me some good advice on what she did up until the day she passed and I decided to adopt her method to see if it would help me. I was studying before like I did for my nursing school exams, not knowing that wasn't enough and I was very all over the place with studying mainly at work (I work nights as a PCA in a hospital) and not doing anything else outside of that environment. I work 4 nights a week. I needed to do more, way more!!

I realized that I was studying wrong all along and needed to change things up entirely. I made out a physical schedule where I write down what I will be studying day to day. I purchased the Kaplan Qbank and have completed at least close to 2000 questions thus far, including going back and answering the one's I got wrong. I can say that Kaplan has helped me with strategy and figuring out what the question is asking and how to answer them. I have access to my friend's Kaplan account and she has the full package with the Q trainers and readiness test. I plan on taking those within the two weeks to my new test date. I was above passing on 1/8 of the content areas on the NCLEX, 3/8 near passing and 4/8 below passing. So I used that as a guide when answering questions on Kaplan. I started with my below passing areas and when I made above a 60% I moved onto the next. I still have 4 more areas to go. But I have been studying the whole month of July and I have 3 more weeks left before the exam. If I finish the Qbank in the next week, I also want to repurchase UWORLD and utilize their questions. I don't think I utilized it in the correct way the first time around.

I also included some content this time around from my Saunders NCLEX book. I started off reading the chapters and answering the questions but after getting through fundamentals, I've decided to go in and spot read on any procedure or condition I need clarification on. I also have the 35pg guide that was floating around on here. I've looked that over a couple of times and plan to again closer to exam date.

Not sure why I'm writing this but just would like some words of encouragement from anyone that has failed the first time and passed on the second. I feel entirely more prepared this time around. But I'm still nervous because this has placed my life on hold temporarily until I pass. (at least it feels that way) I'm supposed to start an RN-BSN program in September and cannot register till I pass the NCLEX. Also haven't heard back from any jobs and I'm sure that because I cant click the box saying I'm a registered nurse yet. I am just ready to conquer this beast this second time around and move on with my life :)

Good luck to anyone else testing soon and congratulations to all those that have passed!