Second Times the charm

Published Mar 24, 2014

1 Post

I, like many, told myself that I would write one of these after I passed NCLEX-RN since I referred to this forum so often during preparing for the boards! Reading other people's posts about how they studied, difficulties they were having with different topics, or just the posts on successfully beating NCLEX helped me stay on the ball and focus- so thank you posters!! My first try on the NCLEX I really was confident, not cocky, but thought after eat, sleeping, and breathing my Kaplan book and online questions along with Saunder's and a million flascards I had made I would be fine. I tested for 4.5 hours and recieved 245q's befroe the computer turned off and like many have said I KNEW i didn't pass before I left the testing center and was miserable! This test is unlike any I ever took in nursing school because while it's difficult, I actually felt like the questions weren't nearly as bad as the ones I had done on Kaplan and Saunder's which totally threw me for a loop. I couldn't do the PVT trick either because Pearson's network was doing maintence for 48hrs which was torture lol When I got my results in the mail I was "above passing standard" in at least 4 topics and "below" in 1 and "near" in 2 others I think thats the breakdown. I was discouraged but honestly the best thing I can say I did was take a month off to regroup. I worked full time while in my BSN program and while studying so I hadn't even enjoyed being finished school because I jumped right into studying and didn't take time to have fun or relax.

The second time around with NCLEX I was a lot mor elax about it which sort of freaked me out but I went with. I used Hurst's online review which was AWESOME for a simple breakdown of foundations and I really liked it. I don't know that I would pay the $300 for it (a friend lent me their login) but it honestly helped me understand rather than memorize. Kaplan was a pain in the butt about my refund as it had been purchased through my college so they gave me restricted access and I did probably 75q's a day with kaplan for 2 weeks and remediated EVERYTHING Wrong or right and I really think that was the best thing I could do with Kaplan. I also signed up for the 3wk subscription to the NCSBN's learning extension and i LOVED it! I cannot stress the helpfulness of their program enough- LOVE LOVE LOVE! I really benefited from learning the material and having quizes on that topic immediately after rather than just doing a group of questions that vary on the knowledge base. I walked into my second exam surprisingly not as confident as the first time but just comfortable and placed an emphasis on using the foundations I better learned through hurst, strategies through kaplan (decision tree, ABC's, saftey first, ETC.,) and medsurg/pahrm/maternity/priority knowledge I gained through the learning extension. I brought plently of food to snack on during breaks if I was there too long which turned out to be a huge help as I was there the FULL 6 HOURS and definitely could feel a change in alertness once I got hungy! My test shut off after 6hours and 239 questions and unlike last time I felt like I did well- even though the fact that I got that many questions and it didn't shut off at 75 made me go crazy at first. The best advice I can give anyone who is in a similar position is to take your time, stop and deep breath when you start feeling anxious over a question or how long you've been there, and take a snack break if you're there for more than 75 questions/ 2hours whichever comes first. Taking a BR break, eating a snack, and giving myself a little pep talk literally was the best thing I did that day. After my results were on hold for 72hrs (hell!) for a problem with my palm scan, seeing those quick result was the best feeling I have ever felt during this crazy journey of nursing school/NCLEX. I wish everyone the best of luck with their boards and remember if you can make it through nursing school you can kick this test's butt! :)