Those who have passed Nclex...I would love to hear your encouraging story

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Hi all,

I have failed my Nclex twice now :crying2:. I know this may sound weird, but I love to read all the posts of people passing. It gives me encouragement to keep going. I wanted to start a thread where people post their stories. My hope is to have a spot that gives encouragement to all of us who are studying for NCLEX. I know many people have posted their stories on here already. I just thought it might be nice to have a single spot filled with encouraging stories :bow:

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I know how you feel. I will be taking my test for the 4th time in three weeks. I think that this thread is a great idea!! I am new here, but have been lurking around for some time now lol and love to read passing stories. When will you be taking your exam? what have you been doing to prepare?

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I got my License number today and I am officially an RN. Here is my story, I am doing this for the future NCLEX takers, ESL students as they call us and those who are retaking it.

I graduated in May 2011, and got my ATT in the second week of June. I scheduled to take my test in the second week of August 12th. So,that gave me six weeks to study. I didn't have money to pay for the review classes, and I decided to go without them. I bought Saunders 5th edition, Q&A, Exam cram practise questions 3rd edition and it has 5 practice exams on it's cd, Kaplan strategies book and Lacharity. The first three weeks were to go through content, I used the Saunders cd and made a 6 week study guide from a test created to help you in your weakness areas. I knew my weaker areas and wrote them down on a piece of paper and I knew that if i studied all these weaker points and get to know them from inside out, there was no way, the NCLEX would torture me. So, I paid so much attention on these chapters and studied at least six hours a day. After becoming comfortable with those chapters, and btw,these were from Saunders. I started reading the Kaplan book on how to answer questions. I did the first 8 chapters, and did the test on the cd which i passed with a 69%.

Then I started practising questions from the different cds everyday. That was from Saunders review cd, saunders Q&A cd, exam cram. I didn't mind so much about the scores but i was more focused onto getting the meaning behind the rationales and why such an answer was the right answer. I did these questions for three weeks. I used to come on all nurses and read people's stories. To me, i realised that most of the people who failed the boards didn't pass because they didn't know the test, but they failed because of anxiety and fear. So, I started talking to myself that this test is doable and I can make it through the first time of taking it. If I know my content, and if these questions are the usual things we learnt in school, then I am gonna pass this test.I don't care how the question is phrased as long as i got my content straight, then I was ready to enjoy the game. Unless if the questions were taken from heaven, then i wasn't gonna make it because i have never been to heaven. This is how I was talking the whole time. No fear or anxiety was gonna mislead me. Those two are the number one cursor of failure, you give in, you are gonna retake this test as many times until you can learn to relax. I was ready to breath through and pray to God to be in charge.

It worked. I also thank the people on allnurses, because reading your stories gave me the courage to pass this test. i used to read both stories for those who passed and the ones who didn't pass. which made me stronger. Never give up, and always believe in yourself. if you passed nursing school without cheating ( sorry to say that) but it's the truth, sometimes the truth hurts. you will pass the boards. know your content before practising the questions. There are so many ways a question can be phrased, so if you know your content, then it won't matter on how that question is asked. that's my opinion and I used it and passed with 75 questions. Remember, english is my second language. So, Believe in yourself for those who are ESL students, you can do it. And for those who are retaking it, get rid of the fear and anxiety, focus and you will get it. You already know this and you got it. Good luck to you. i still have my books, if anybody needs a book to borrow, i am ready to give it you. Thanks all nurses

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I graduated in May 2011 took NCLEX the 1st of July. I had 75 questions in 1 hr 20 min. I had ALOT of SATA questions, no math, very few drug questions. I did the Kaplan Review and found that to be most helpful. My college used ATI in class and I believe that was also helpful. The Kaplan instructor told me the passing requirment for NCLEX is 52 %. I was scoring 65-75 on the tests so I felt pretty good about my preparation. The test experience was calm as I was sceduled for afternoon but center called and said they had open computers I decided to go ahead and test early as I was just pacing the floor at home anyway. Center was quiet and clean and staff was nice and helpful. I had a white board that I didn't use and only one exibit type question which was a chart review, it was easy if you know your drugs. I have terrible test aniexity and would rather have my eyes poked out with a dull spoon than take that test again BUT it is doable. My avg in class was a low B and I found the class exams much harder than anything I saw on NCLEX. If you use Kaplan's decision tree on every question possible you can easily pick the right answer!! GOOD LUCK.

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ESL student- Thank you so much for your reply! I always love hearing ESL students stories. You all have one more hurdle to get over, making this test a bit harder for you. Very inspirational!! Congrats on becoming an RN!!!!:nurse::clpty:

JBER-RN- Thank you for your tips and your story. As I said, reading such stories is inspiring. Im sure not only myself will enjoy reading it. I greatly appreciate your post!

Congrats on becoming an RN!!!!!:nurse::hpygrp:

Rnmesoon- I am scheduled to take my test on September 25. Right now I am using Hurst for content review. I then plan on doing LaCharity and Kaplan for questions. Prayers for us, and all other future NCLEXers!!!!

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Hang in there! This is a great idea to encourage each other. I hoped to encourage other NCLEX takers and give some study tips and info that helped me in these two threads:

Review of NCLEX prep books https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/review-nclex-rn-607853.html

Passed 1st time... and 2nd time https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/passed-1st-time-601909.html

Many threads here were a great help and encouragement to me as I prepared to take the NCLEX!

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Hi deez,

You may want to look at my post "long time lurker...first time poster" for my story (which mirrors yours quite a bit).

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uaefan-I found your post. You would not believe how close our stories really are. I really liked reading your post, and hope you dont mind, I am sharing a link to your post so others can read it too.

https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/long-time-lurker-533532.html

Thank you so much for your post. And a belated congrats on passing NCLEX!!!!:smiley_aa Best wishes to you and your future as a nurse:nurse:

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phoenix4- thank you so much for the links, and for wanting to help encourage those of us taking this test. i know i am not the only one who appreciates you taking the time to encourage us :D
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Anyone else? I know there are lots of wonderful nurses out there with a story :nurse: I really would love to hear about it :yeah:

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