Took my Nclex-PN

[Doyouevenlift]

Ive been lurking this site for a few months now, ive loved the useful information you cant really find outside of a public healthcare focused forum. The one thing though is how much the exam was hyped up to be some horrible dilemma, many posts of failing and "I went home crying because I didnt know how it went". This pretty much was the sole reason for my anxiety leading up to the exam, well that and the amount of info "out of left field' that I would come across on exam cram or nclexpn3000. I had rented the latest Saunders book, used the free NCLEXPN3000 link, did a few hundred questions, Hurst review lessons and a copy of Exam Cram. I ended up only cramming 2 days before and casually studying on and off for a 1 week. Mostly because I know a few students who passed and they werent the best students....if they could pass it cant be that hard (I was still anxious because of all the posts come test day though). The Saunders book was all encompassing but one heck of a long journey to tackle the whole thing (does anyone actually read the whole thing?). I ended up skimming through and answering some of the questions on major chapters. Hurst review was great! I wish my instructors would teach like this haha. Quick, concise information that is easy to understand and GREAT for reviewing, I watched a few of the chapters I felt I needed a review on and were my weakness *cough I hate OB and PEDS cough*. I walked in with 3 hours of sleep, my stomach churning, and ready to go. Turns out I got mostly SATA and shut off at 85 questions, and even then was very very confident with my answers, having read on here that was a good thing was the cherry on top. I walked out of there completely confident I passed and as of today have paid for the unofficial result of pass (Not risking $200 for the old trick when its now only $8). You cant really say you over studied since its just about impossible to nail down every bit of nursing, but I was worried for nothing and regret not having taken it immediately instead of waiting 2 1/2 weeks. Cant say its a waste either since Ill be using it for the RN classes anyway.

That was my experience, hopefully someone who reads it sleeps a little better before theirs. If there was any advice id give is dont follow my study schedule, doing questions then reviewing rational AND CONCEPTS, Hurst videos are awesome but start them early (20 hours or so), the saunders book not only didnt help me (besides the part about how to answer questions) but it held me back wasting time trying to go through the whole thing while unnecessarily overwhelming me with the whole 1k pages thing. GOOD LUCK!

[DJAYS]

Well yeah...I took it the first time and I thought to myself WOW..I over studied for sure. What I did was everything, but not to many questions. Then when I failed I was disappointed for sure. But what I didn't know was how to answer the questions. I just studied trying to redo school stuff. I got all 206 questions and cpr said rear passing in almost all areas and one in above and one in below. It was a waste of time to read all that stuff again and again , what I didn't know was how to answer the questions right? Like to know what the nclex is asking for. I work in a hospital as a nurse aide where we do almost everything and I forget that we must answer the way nclex world is and also safety is #1 on the nclex. This time I am doing questions and reading them even if I get them right.

[Doyouevenlift]

I can see that, I ignored it since it was drilled into us semester after semester. Knowing how to answer questions is the key to answering the ones you have no idea about. I was taught it was Airway--> Breathing--> Circulation--> Safety--> Pain. Go through your questions and if you get it wrong dont just assume you memorized the correct answer, look up the reason why (was it a lab value, pathology, procedure) and study it. The question probably wont be the same one, but you could come across the same subject.