Three attempts and no success

Nursing Students NCLEX

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I have taken the NCLEX-PN Three times the first and third time the computer shut off at 85 questions the 2nd time it shut off at around 92. All Three times i have failed. :( I know if you fail with the minimum amount of questions that means you did TERRIBLE!!! I don't know how to pass. Every attempt just makes me loose more faith in myself. I need help figuring out how i can pass!! Cause i am honestly to the point of saying F- It cause i feel like i have no chance :cry::cry::cry: Please help me out!!!

Yeah, I hear content is one thing, and strengthening your test-taking skills is a whole other thing

Best of luck, and you WILL pass this test!

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I have have heard the same!! I need to really focus on teat questions cause the material is there. Thank you for your positive encouragment!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

How are you studying? How much time and effort are you devoting to studying?

The issue may not necessarily the source of the review, but how one approaches the NCLEX itself: understanding the four concepts of becoming a competent, entry-level nurse:

1. Safe, effective care;

2.Health promotion;

3.Physiological Integrity;

4.Psychosocial integrity

Will determine WHAT the question is asking you; the question may be Respiratory related-but is it a Health Promotion or a Safety, or a Physiological or a Psychosocial one? Would you know the difference and choose the BEST answer?

Once one understands the concepts of NCLEX, they can do so successfully.

Don't look at content; you know most of the material because you passed nursing school; begin to do questions related to each concept; review all questions and rationales; ANY rationale you struggle with, THEN review content. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When practicing the questions, prepare the questions like a mock NCLEX exam, review the minimum and then work up to the maximum for endurance purposes.

After looking at your report, focus on the weakness and review questions and rationales; make mock NCLEX tests and start with the minimum and gradually until the maximum; you have to have an endurance in answering application questions.

After each "exam", make sure you are reviewing the rationales; any rationales you are not clear on THEN

look up the content.

Best wishes.

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Specializes in cardiac ICU.

Please don't lose heart! I took NCLEX 4 times and have failed 3 times, so I know how it feels. I have seen that many on these boards have used Uworld. I can't comment on this because I never used Uworld, but I did however use Nclex Mastery and it helped me to nail the NLCEX on the 4th attempt.

Also, what really worked for me was to practice answering as many questions as possible and do it every day consistently. It kind of becomes a second nature and you will feel much less anxiety next time you take the test.

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I never used UWorld or NCLEX Mastery but I hear they are both good

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Specializes in cardiac ICU.

I looked at Uworld and am of opinion that it is likely to be a very good and comprehensive resource, except they charge for monthly access.

After my remedial course (expensive!) and other prep expenses I was out of funds.

I thought that a small one-time fee would fit the bill and it did nicely with nclex mastery app.

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Try the Kaplan. I would pay for the Q bank and go over those questions until I could not take it anymore.

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I am taking it for the third time in 3 weeks. Me and my class mates did hurt the first time and we all thought it was a waste. You just spent the last couple years learning the material. Nclex is all about critical thinking and they want to see if you can dissect the questions and really think like a nurse . I am doing the Kaplan program online and they focus of the Critical thinking . I'm very pleased to far. It just depends on what your weakness is . Material or test taking. Do Kaplan if it's test taking. Good luck ☺️

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I failed my first time taken it too...I did the Hertz Review and passed the second time...I download the audio to my ipod and listen to it all the time plus I read through my Hertz review book over and over...I only studied for 2 hours versus 8-10 hours the first time...I had this website that had questions, I did them every day before the exam, I can't remember the site..I will have to look it up and get back with you..Please don't give up, you've come too far sweetie...I know you feel discouraged but you can and will pass..

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I graduated from a BSN nursing program in December of 2014. I am in the same situation. I had just paid for my deposit and am waiting to pay to schedule to take my exam the fourth time. Post graduation---> Did Kaplan and all the Q banks. 2nd time, I used the refresher for Kaplan... did worse than the first time. The third time, I got the monthly subscription for UWorld. Still haven't passed.

For resources this time, I really like the LaCharity: Prioritzation, Delegation, and Assignment book. I actually rented it off of Amazon for the year for $19. I also tried the NCSBN 3-week course to see if i liked it more. I like it better than Saunders in my opinion.

I like the Uworld rationales over the kaplan ones. UWorld really goes in depth in them!

WE CAN DO THIS! :)

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I've seen some posts by you and in all of them, you speak with no tact. Please be nice. Be truthful but be NICE.

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I have read most of the comments and perhaps I can add to the discussion. I think what you are doing is concentration on memorizing the material. That's great, that got you through nursing school, but the NCLEX is not about facts and material, like another poster commented, it's about critical thinking.

What you need to do is look at the question and think, what would I do if the patient was laying on the floor in the room, or if it were my child, or parent; or what would I want if I were in that situation as a a patient; how would you feel if someone said that about you; which one of my fellow nursing students would I assign that detail to? That's how you have to approach the questions.

After I passed (on the first attempt) a former nursing instructor asked me to send an email to her about my experience, she shared it with her class. This is an excerpt from that message:

For the most part the NCLEX is a test of "critical thinking." In fact, I cannot remember one question in which I knew the answer without even thinking about it. It was not a fact-based recollection test but, instead, a test in which you need to "figure out" the answer based on the information in the question.

When I walked out of the testing unit I texted everyone I knew that I had failed and failed miserably. I had to take all 265 questions! Every question seemed to be a decision of whether I should second guess myself or go with my gut. Thankfully, you cannot go back and change answers because, if I could, the outcome may have been much different. Apparently I am a good critical thinker.

Each test is taylor made, that is it is responding to a certain number of preliminary questions you answer. For instance, maternity is one of my weak points, so I noticed I would get a few maternity questions in a row. Cardiac is a strong subject for me so I received a few sporadic rhythm strips to evaluate. With that being said, the question was not, "which rhythm strip is atrial fibrillation?" Thats not a critical thinking question, that's fact based. The question was worded more like, "in which rhythm strip would the nurse question a diet consisting of green leafy vegetables and kale?" You would need to connect A-fib with a warfarin prescription and a contraindication of Vitamin K--think critically!

Know your generic names, NOT the trade names, trade names will not appear on the test! Know furosemide, not Lasix; enoxaparin, not Lovenox; phenytoin, not Dilantin. Get into the habit of calling the drugs by their generic names. One problem with study guides (ATI especially) is they always give you both names, one parenthetically. Block that out, only use the generic name for your own good.

Know your labs! Not just the numbers but what they mean. If BUN is high, great, dehydration, but the question would ask, "in which lab would the nurse question a med order for furosemide?" Know when and when not to raise head of bed and, for goodness sakes, if you encounter a flat line on a telemetry screen at the nurses center, check the leads first!

Study management and delegation. If you were a charge nurse and had a maternity nurse as a replacement for the day, which patient would you give her, an elderly man with a hip replacement or a middle aged woman being prepared for an epidural? If you hear other nurses discussing a patient in an elevator, what would you do first? Run to the CEO's office or confront the nurses? Know what an LPN, CNA, PCT or volunteer can and cannot do, then apply it to a critical thinking question.

Know your ABG's! Don't just know the ABG reading but how you would treat it, or more commonly, what treatment you would question. If a patient was in respiratory acidosis, would you give a potassium supplement? And remember COPD and "hypoxic drive," that question will be there.

Don't worry so much about dosage calculations, I've learned they don't attribute to your score much anyway. If you're worried, practice converting from micrograms and dealing with micrograms per kilogram, and if the answer has you set the pump to 1.5 mL/hr it's probably the correct answer, especially if your dealing with a NICU patient (I redid the question for 20 minutes only to find out I was correct, wasted a lot of time!) What you do need to know is that jello is a liquid! And know all the other things that don't look like liquids but are part of a liquid diet.

Know your nutrition! More specifically, drug-nutrition reactions. Know iron supplements are given with vitamin C to increase absorption, then know which foods have vitamin C, then think of a critical thinking question pertaining that information and, viola, you have an NCLEX question.

So, how did I prepare? Well, I'll be honest, I sort of crammed it but I don't condone that. I was working full time in the shop so this is how I did it:

ATI, ATI and then after that, ATI! I took at least 90 questions a night for 5 nights a week (say three, 30 question tests) then took a long test once a week. I did this for one month. I scored horribly on every one, 67%, 70%, I think I scored an 80% on one test, but don't despair. Here's my secret; after I took a test, I took it over and over again until I got every question correct. So, for instance, I would take a 30 question test on respiratory and score a 67%. Go through it and read the rationales. Take it again! Score a 96%, go back and take it again until I got every question correct, then move on to the next one. On average, I took each test twice so thats 180 questions a night but the second run through goes quickly.

Keep in mind, of the 15 million questions you have already taken up until this point and the 1000 you will take to get ready for the NCLEX, you will not, I repeat, will NOT see any one of those questions on the NCLEX. There are no repeat questions in nursing school land and don't focus on selecting the correct answer, focus on selecting the MOST correct answer.

So, I'll leave you with that email and good skill, since luck has nothing to do with it.

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