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swooshferdz
26 Posts
Be prepared for the fight of your life! This is how I saw this test. I am fighting for my life and the life of another human being.
I have devised a way to incorporate Krav Maga into surviving and dominating the NCLEX. If you do your research, Krav Maga is one of the most effective and brutal self-defense fighting system which is very effective, efficient and easy to learn. One of the main concepts of it is to get away from the immediate danger and find SOLUTIONS to PROBLEMS. In Krav Maga, you are trained in real life stressful situations. In this way, you are well equipped and ready when the real danger comes. When somebody attacks you, you attack them stronger. It's a mentality - You need to survive! Get out of Danger! You need to fight! You need to dominate! You need to be all out! You cannot be half-hearted! You need to be honest with yourself and do the work and invest the time. It's not gonna be a walk in the park. The NCLEX test humbles people! I don't care if you are the smartest kid in class. Everybody is on the same level playing field. No one is above or below.
I'll be honest with you. that Test wasn't easy. I had to train hard and smart exactly how you told me. I want to share with you how I did it so you can share with your other students my experience and for them never to lose hope.
Here are the materials that I have used:
- LaCharity (2nd Edition)
- Kaplan Review Blue Book
- Memory Notebook of Nursing: A Collection of Visual Images and Mnemonics to Increase Memory and Learning 1 and 2
- Memory Notebook Of Nursing (Pharm and Diagnostics)
- Frye's 3300 Nursing Bullets for NCLEX-RN
- Kaplan Videos and Audio
I started my review reading cover to cover the, 3300 bullets. Then went on to reading the LaCharity. After reading I started taking the Question Trainers. I had a print out of those and reviewed the answers and wrote notes on it. On each question, as it continues to show up, I build my knowledge on the topic as I eventually knew it by heart.
One of the best things I did also was I joined the Allnurses.com NCLEX Forum. Over there, I saw the tips of how other students studied, how they supported each other. There were some students who were kind enough to share notes and materials. There was this specific forum called RANDOM FACT THROWING were they posted their mnemonics and information that they knew. I had a collated MS word copy of it and I used Ctrl F to find information that I didn’t know yet. This was golden!
One of the things that I noticed on the forum site was the LaCharity. This book had a lot of praises. Most students told me it was a must read. I read it first before taking the q-trainers and qbank. It doesn’t compare to the questions in LaCharity which were 100x tougher. But that’s ok with me as it made me tougher as each chapter passed. I read both the Part 2 – 18 Chapters as well as the 21 Case Studies in the book.
After that, I started taking the qbank questions and finishing the question trainers in 2 weeks. To be honest, my scores weren’t pretty. I was averaging just a little over 50. These were my scores:
- Diagnostics - 46
- Readiness - 52
- QT1 – 45
- QT2 – 52
- QT3 – 51
- QT4 – 51
- QT5 – 61
- QT6 – 56
- QT7 – 55
I just let go of fearing the numbers and said to myself that it’s better to make the mistake right now than on the real world. And with each question, I started getting the pattern of how to find the answers. I knew everything was my weakness so what I did was I made everything my strength. I approached everything randomly each day. I read the 3300 bullets and the Random Facts. This built up my knowledge in the different areas of the test.
My classmates shared their experiences and the more they described their experiences, the more I was sold that the questions that they were describing were LaCharity questions. So I did another passing of the 18 chapters and 21 case studies.
The day before the test, I went to the testing center to introduce myself. Unfortunately they couldn’t show me the test room itself. But that’s ok. I tried to relax by going to the gym and prepare myself physically as well. The day before my exam, I know that you said not to study anymore, but I got so tempted. I reviewed for the 3rd time my notes on Question Trainer 6 and 7.
On the night of the exam, I tried to sleep by 10pm. However, all kinds of things were going through my mind. At some point I had some positive talk going on, then negative talk about what ifs started to show up. I was up the whole night. Coming to this test, I had 2 brothers, both of which took this exam 3 times. There was this stigma on my mind telling me that maybe I will take it the same number too. But I kept telling myself that I will just take this test once. My eyes was shut but I kept on toss and turning in bed. I did not sleep going to this test. At 5:30 started waking up, and took another one of your priceless advice. I took 10 questions. My score was 5/10. At this point, the numbers were all in the middle. Out of the 50% qbank my average was 50.
On the way to the testing center, I knew there was going to be traffic since they were demolishing a bridge along 405 and skidball center. As anticipated, It took me 2 hours to reach the exam site in Gardena. What I did was a lot of positive self talk. I was telling myself, so ok, I didn’t sleep so what will be my strategy going to this test. This words came up to my head: FOCUS, QUALITY, PATIENCE.
At the test site, those were the exact words that I placed on my erasable board. I remember you telling me to do great on the first 10 questions. My first question was a toughie. But I didn’t give up. At some point I noticed that I was answering too quickly. I took a break at the 30 question mark and then took another break at the 2 hour mark. When I reached the 75th question, I took a 2 minute break before proceeding. I was hoping it would stop then it proceeded with question 76. I remembered what you told me about as long the it gave me another question, I was still in the game. 76 was my final question.
On this last question, my knowledge of my lab values, Kaplan (****) tips and the critical thinking part I have learned from LaCharity literally saved my life.
By the end of the test, I didn’t know what hit me. But in my heart, I knew had a high chance of passing this test. I did the Pearson Trick in the afternoon and the Good Popup showed up! Whew, what a sigh of relief! I’m just so glad that I trained and studied hard and the real NCLEX test was a little bit easier for me during the real test.
Good luck with all the NCLEX test takers out there and I hope this Krav Maga blueprint helps you!