Thoughts on NOT studying day before NCLEX

[nursie2013]

For those who have already taken NCLEX, what are your thoughts on not studying the day before the test. I know what the experts say blah blah, I want opinions of people like me! If you DID study the day before, do you think it was helpful or wish that you would have relaxed? Thanks!

[karlymarie]

I took the test yesterday. I finished in about 45 min. with 75 questions. I got the good pop-up and feel confident that I passed. I didn't study at all for the most part. I have only been out of school for about a month and I did very well in all of my classes and on the hesi. I started freaking out the day before the test and did a few practice questions. My boyfriend drove me to the testing center about 1.5hrs away, and I briefly looked over some general information like lab values and stuff on the way. Overall, I don't really think studying helps much. As long as you know how to dissect the questions and figure out what they are asking you should be fine. I felt like I didn't really know the answers to most of them, but I made educated guesses by ruling others out. My advice is to try your best to relax before the exam. Get a good night's sleep and eat a healthy breakfast. Try not to worry and have confidence in your abilities. If you made it through nursing school, you obviously know your stuff. Trust your instincts and good luck!

[dld1200]

All thru school a lot of my classmates swore by not studying the day of an exam. I would only stop a couple hrs. ahead. For the NCLEX I was determined to relax. If I didn't know it by now, I wasn't going to. To force myself to do this, I scheduled my exam at a far away site, one that me and my husband would have to spend the day before driving to and then stay over. I choose Atlantic City, NJ. This way I turned it into a mini vacation together, we deserved it. I took all my books with me, but did not open them! This was it, the grand finale of all the sacrifices and stress. We had a nice dinner together, hit the casino, walked the boardwalk. I was so calm for the exam the next day, I couldn't believe it myself. My head was clear with no stress and without a thousand facts scrabbling all together. I passed in record time and the minimum amount of questions. This is the exam that matters after all the work you have done, you don't want to blow something because you are over tired or just have too much stuff crammed in and yr. brain can't organize it when you get those questions in front of you. Good luck, breathe.

[OlivetheRN, ADN, BSN, RN]

I told myself that I wouldn't study at all yesterday, but ended up studying anyways. I went to play putt-putt with my dad for Father's Day and occasionally he would see me looking at my phone and say, "You're looking at that random fact discussion board again, aren't you?" Yep, guilty as charged. Then I did maybe 40 practice questions before dinner. The only thing I took with me to the hotel last night was the study guide from here and I kind of looked over it kind of didn't while I was watching True Blood.

[dalavanj, BSN]

I am the type of person who needed to do something the day before the exam so completed 100 Kaplan questions and made sure I knew all of the normal ranges for lab values. Needless to say, I didnt need any of that info for my exam but I needed the piece of mind to know that I did something instead of doing nothing the day before. I passed NCLEX RN on the first try with 75 questions. I took a long walk home from the testing site. The worst part of the waiting process wasnt even right after the exam. I was so mentally drained that I couldnt even think anymore. It was the next 24 hours that were the worst for me.