Took the NCLEX in FL for the first time on 4/2/13 and failed...HELP?

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I live in Tampa, FL... and graduated from an ADN Nursing program in 12/2012. I took the NCLEX on 4/2/2013 and found out a couple days later that I unofficially failed the exam.

Let me explain a bit about myself...I'm married and have a 4 year old daughter. My wife is a middle school teacher and works many hours during the week (at her school and at home). She tries to be supportive and help me by taking our daughter out someplace...when she has any free time. I work 2 part-time jobs...equalling about 35 hours a week. When not working, I take of the house, our daughter, and everything else while my wife is teaching.

I didn't take any of the NCLEX prep classes...was studying from the Evolve website associated with my varied textbooks. Going over NCLEX questions associated with each section of a textbook. I really focused upon Med-Surg, Critical Care, Psych, Peds, and OB. Thought I was ok with the Fundamentals....guessed wrong!

According to the Candidate Performance Report, performed Above the Passing Standard in 2/8 areas...Near Standard in 3/8...Below Standard in 3/8.

Granted I was anxious, moody, nervous, unsure of myself during the weeks prior to the exam...the day before I tried to relax and just calm myself and rest before taking the exam in the morning. I wish I had some more questions to try and raise my score!

Feeling a little depressed and unsure of myself! Especially having graduated with a 3.2! HELP?!!

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What is used to prepare for the NCLEX-RN was PDA by LaCharity, NCLEX 3500, Kaplan strategies book 2012-2013 and Saunders only when I ran across a topic I didn't know or was unsure of. I had to actually get out of my house to study and answer questions because my house is my comfort zone and I couldn't focus there. I has many other resources to use but I narrowed them down to avoid feeling overwhelmed. I studied for about 3 weeks prior to my exam for about 8 hours a day and skipped studying on days I felt overwhelmed. For me, practicing questions helped more than anything. You will pass next time. Have faith, believe in yourself and most importantly, PRAY! You can and will do it! I hope this helps. If you have any questions, I'm here to help! Good luck to you!

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*Sorry for the typos in the previous post*

Also, the NCLEX 3500 is free online. It has a section where you can practice alternate format questions which is really good and I felt it helped me a lot since my NCLEX had tons of SATA, drag and drop and picture questions!

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I agree with the suggestions made above. I did not use Kaplan strategies but was using Kaplan course but this was not helpful to me at all. I found most useful to be NCSBN and NCLEX 3500 for questions and Saunders for content. And since you just graduated I would suggest doing as many questions as possible for at least 3 weeks. These are just my suggestions and what worked for me. Best of luck to you in the future! Do not ever give up. Take some time for yourself however long that may be in pick yourself up, stay motivated and tell yourself daily that you will pass this time!

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One word: KAPLAN. Sign up, do the live review. Don't look at this as a bad thing, view it as an experience and at least you now know what to expect. Good luck!

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Specializes in Perioperative Nursing.

My two cents, practice questions daily, read the questions carefully (so you can eliminate obvious wrong answers), and understand the rationale.

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