Passing The NCLEX-RN

I wanted to share my NCLEX RN experience and what resources I used to pass the exam.

I passed in 153 questions. Prior to exam, I wanted to get a feel for how the exam was and My GOD. The difference of the experience of the NCLEX RN was just mind blowing, from "the exam was very easy, I finished in like 30 min" to "the test was really hard, I feel like I failed." So going into the exam I felt very confident in a small amount of questions. There were some questions where I was like is this a trick question because of how easy it was. In my experience, overall the exam was hard because there was a lot of questions that I didn't know and that I had to think through or guess. Leaving the exam I had a terrible headache, I felt dizzy and could not do the final research questions. I felt like I failed the exam. Went home, cried, prayed to God and did the usually post-NCLEX things. I did the PearsonVue trick and the exam was on hold (apparently they will hold your exam if there was any technical issues during your exam, you finished too quickly, or they are suspicious of any cheating activity), then I got the good pop up "our records indicate that you've recently schedule a exam... blah blah blah", then got the bad pop up, then got the good pop again. The good pop stayed consistent. The wait to get my results was torturous, as we cannot receive quick results here in Canada. But I got my results in about 6 days after I wrote the exam.

Okay now for the resources.

I began studying in late June and wrote the exam on August 29.

I used the holy grail UWorld and did about 900 questions out of the 2100, as well about 700 questions from the NCLEX-Mastery app, however I did these questions month before my dedicated NCLEX RN review. I also did about 3-4 four chapters of the book Lacharity. I also listen to Mark Kilmek's audio review. I think this really saved my butt at the end of the day. He was very entertaining when teaching and kept my focus. He teaches the basic principles to pass the NCLEX RN. If you can get your hands on the audio tapes, included it in your prep.

Please don't waste your money with the Saunders Comprehensive Review book. Focus on doing NCLEX style questions. UWorld has really good rationales, better than NCLEX-Mastery. UWorld also looked very similar to the actually NCLEX RN exam. The questions from the Lacharity book was also very easy, but if you having issues with priority and delegation it doesn't hurt to do these questions. UWorld also has these types of question in their q-bank.

The UWorld Experience

Please read the rationals critically and understand them. I found myself constantly trying to memorize and wasted time by writing the rationals word for word. I didn't not even get to review the notes. During the past 3 month I did on average 20 questions maybe 3 days a week. It was frustrating because the gold standard is doing about 75-100 questions a day for a month. So I was getting really worried, as you can imagine. But I couldn't do more than that. I couldn't not focus at all. Do what you can. A week before the exam, I did the self-assessment and ran out of time doing only 25 questions, UWorld refused to reset the time. So I just reviewed the answers. But UWorld is hard and at times I would get distracted, felt like I was going to fail, and was going through bouts of depression and anxiety. I was also burnt out from my nursing program. If your feeling this way, please go on vacation, do something nice for yourself, and relax. I wanted to go on a getaway before studying but didn't have the money to do that, so I just pushed forward.

Final Last Words

If you got this far, thank you for reading my post. I hoped this helped someone out there. I just wanted say, going through nursing school, and passing the exam was a horrible experience. I am just being honest. I felt like I was in the depths of hell most of the time. But it will end and you will become an RN. If you believe in God, pray and believe in yourself, if you don't believe in God, believe in yourself. YOU CAN MAKE IT THROUGH. Say "I will be an RN." Try to be as positive as you can because staying positive, being disciplined, and staying motivated was my ultimate struggle. Rant to your support systems, let it all out. Oh and don't have a fight with anybody during this process. Get back at them after.