Took NCLEX, not sure what to do...

mstein86 · Aug 17, 2013

So I got the official results back today, I was at above passing on one area and at near the passing standard on the other areas. I think I will stick with kaplan and lacharity for now.

teacher08 · Aug 17, 2013

Nalon1
Finally, Let's look at some statistics. There are sevschool states in my state with 97% - 100% pass rates. Is it a supernatural phenomenon that all the stars were aligned and they just so happen to have admitted thousands of students year after year that have an uncanny ability to not be nervous? How did these colleges figure out how to weed out the brilliant students that were destined to freak out and fail upon sitting for the big one? I just have a sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with good preparation...

In my most sincere, sweetest, and very much understanding voice, I state:):

Statistically addressing 97% - 100% college and university pass rates, initial student enrollment must be taken into consideration and reflect the actual graduating class. For example, if 100 students are initially "enrolled", with 25 students "graduating", and subsequently 23 "passing the NCLEX" on the first attempt will most definitely yield a high pass rate for the college or university.

Does it mean the institution was successful with educating 98% of its students? OR did the institution fail to educated 77% of its students? The latter is rarely expound upon. I do realize NCLEX pass rate is based on students who are allowed to sit for the exam the "first" time during that specific school year.

In all honesty, not one person on the face of this earth can definitively say why any individual was "unsuccessful" with passing the NCLEX or give a definitive "solution" related to passing the NCLEX. Culturally, spiritually, cognitively, emotionally, mentally, and personally WE ALL have different stress levels, various personal issues, and learning styles.

There are various equations as to why an individual may have been unsuccessful with passing the NCLEX: illness, death in family, self-esteem, unprepared, emotional and verbal abuse, dyslexia, anxiety, working to make ends meet, etc. Personal issues presents differently to us all, as to how we handle stress and resolve those issues as well.

Therefore, to question how anyone could fail, or shouldn't be allowed to sit for the exam various times, or to say "it's a minimum competency test and I don't understand how a student could......" is unkind, belittling, and degrading (not to say you exhibited any of the aforementioned).

We walk OUR OWN path and do the best we can with what is presented. Thereafter, we assist others by lending a helping hand to assist with reaching their goals and not an unyielding and hindering path.

However, I do wish you well in your future endeavors as a nurse. :yes:

mstein86 · Aug 17, 2013

Very well said teacher08

StudentForever77 · Aug 17, 2013

teacher08

Wow.

"Does it mean the institution was successful with educating 98% of its students? OR did the institution fail to educated 77% of its students? The latter is rarely expound upon."

It means the institution did their job. They redirected students that may not have chosen the right career path. They didn't dangle a carrot for the sake of profit. They recognized achievers and then invested 110% effort into making them successful. Such a school would have taken someone like the OP and scooped him/her up and provided the tools for success - not just book smarts...everything necessary for success (yeah...a school can do more than throw a textbook at you)... It's mind boggling how people love to shoot down good schools...

"In all honesty, not one person on the face of this earth can definitively say why any individual was "unsuccessful" with passing the NCLEX or give a definitive "solution" related to passing the NCLEX. Culturally, spiritually, cognitively, emotionally, mentally, and personally WE ALL have different stress levels, various personal issues, and learning styles."

I agree. That's why your school is important. A good school can help make learning and passing an exam the "least" of your worries...or it can add to your nightmares.

"Therefore, to question how anyone could fail, or shouldn't be allowed to sit for the exam various times, or to say "it's a minimum competency test and I don't understand how a student could......" is unkind, belittling, and degrading (not to say you exhibited any of the aforementioned)."

The plat de resistance. Just WOW. Yes I would love for you to locate that "quote" you fabricated here... NCLEX is a minimum competency test. That is a fact. Not opinion. But to combine that statement with your own twist...and such a twisted one, at that... interesting. You can put a thousand words in parenthesis and decorate it with a hundred smiles... misquoting someone so you can stand on your soapbox is... well you can finish this sentence on my behalf.

I suppose you're saying I should have refrained from posing "philosophical" questions and instead bathed the board in repetitious suggestions of Saunders and Kaplan books... Everyone knows about those and for those that don't they can quick search it in no time. Maybe you're saying I should have been more emotionally sensitive with the OP? Yeah, perhaps asking what people think of their school isn't the bleeding heart reply you expected. The point I made (and somehow you didn't get) is that if you're taking the NCLEX multiple times, I wonder if it's not so much "You" anymore...and a lot more "the school." So I've actually been taking blame OFF these students...quite contrary to your...(non-implicating, of course) word salad. Finally, I'm not complacent and I do want to figure out why folks fail... Handing out "I'm sorrys" doesn't help someone do better next time. But when you start to dig in...ask the questions that people don't like to ask (don't like to answer)...peel the layers back...only then do you find the real problem...and only then can you help someone reach their goals. Otherwise you're just giving them a bunch of fluff...over...and over and over again...each time a student doesn't pass NCLEX...more fluff. If, for instance, someone replied to my message with, "I felt like mental health was impossible... I don't really know the meds... but somehow I got an A." Well then we're getting somewhere...and now I might be able to suggest something useful... The most useless thing you can do is NOT ask questions, get out your photocopied sheet of generic nursing diagnoses you used for the last 5000 people this week that didn't pass NCLEX, paste them in, and expect wild change or improvement.

And so now I will conclude with a series of uplifting smilies and a reminder that the above statement was written with love and all sorts of happiness and peace. :-) :-) :-) :-)

teacher08 · Aug 17, 2013

You're absolutely correct. Minimum competency is a fact. Never implied it was not. I clearly and respectfully understood your point. I agree that some instructors fail to properly educate their students. I agree with you that the student has a responsibility to put forward the dedication to succeed. I agree with you that the point is to find out what personal issues are preventing the individuals from succeeding. Those are imperative questions to ask and that is why I indicated the various levels of stress, etc. to present as an example. Nothing more.

When I indicated the aforementioned was not geared toward your statement, that's exactly what I meant. It was regarding derogatory statements that some individuals post. Not you at all.

Also, I wish I could have a soapbox, it would be targeted to underperforming academic programs who fail to provide adequate resources and who fail to meet the individual needs of students.

At the end of the conversation, you are free to ask and make statements regarding whatever your heart desire. It's unfortunate that we all are unable to clearly decipher the tone in which material is present on forums and via text and that is why my initial statement was to set the tone of my statement.

In all honesty, I do not perceive your comment as being mean or angry. If you feel as though I have attacked you, discredited your opinions, or lashed out at you, I wholeheartedly apologize.

StudentForever77 · Aug 17, 2013

teacher08 -

Absolutely no need to apologize... I just wanted to make sure that my intent is clear. Thank you for your kind reply... I certainly hope that I didn't come off as a jerk. You're right - it's tough to communicate effectively here... In an non-sarcastic way, "You don't know me!" I'll tell y'all this, though; I think very BIG, I advocate for change to the point that sometimes I hurt feelings, it is woven into my extracellular matrix to help people, I'm passionate, determined, direct, Christian to the core, and I am committed to others to the extent that I would literally die for you. That stated, here's what I'd like to "do" on this board...

I want to figure out what's really broken - because by telling people ATI sucks and Hurst rocks and Kaplan is essential and you're just stressed...those are good tips but doesn't add up - because for every hater of ATI there is someone that swears by it... I think the suggestions are well-intention-ed and appreciated...but I just want to go deeper.... Determine the cause of the bleeding rather than stick on a band-aid. Furthermore, the average NCLEX pass rate for first time is ~85%... the average pass rate for a second attempt DROPS a whopping 20%!! So yeah let's get a tourniquet on this thing...but then lets ask the painful questions so we can get down to business.

I want to know:

How is accreditation impacting students' performance?

Were all your test proctored?

Did your exams have a bunch of questions you could find online 20 minutes before taking it?

Did you have to write essays?

Did you learn to research EBP?

Did your profs give you an exam study guide comprehensive enough to pass the exam without reading and REreading the text?

Did they give you extra credit?

Did they give you"credit" on exam questions that were "difficult"?

Were your textbooks geared to the proper level?

Did you have a comprehensive exit exam?

Were you taught stress reduction skills?

Were you taught leadership and organizational skills?

Were you taught to think critically?

Were you given opportunities to overcome "real" stressful situations and learn from them?

I could go on... And yeah, asking and answering these questions can hurt. Who wants to admit they could have cheated on all their exams? (Not saying any of you did!!!!!) Who wants to say that they never learned how to overcome an obstacle? And yeah, I'll be the jerk to ask... Because once we get this kind of stuff out in the open, we can cluster and figure out what to recommend. Maybe it's "You have to go take patho over." May be it's, "Yeah do Kaplan's mental health chapters and you'll do this in 75." Maybe, "Here's a book on reducing stress!" I don't know... but let's start digging because I want every single college graduate to have an equal opportunity to pass NCLEX on try #1.

mstein86 · Aug 18, 2013

This post was suppose to be about helping me pass the NCLEX....

NICUmiiki, DNP, NP · Aug 18, 2013

Nalon1
Im not specifically targeting non accredited institutions. I've never been to one so I can't assume what they do or don't do... that's why I asked.
The NCLEX is designed to determine if you are minimally capable of being an RN. Not expert RN...simply a safe RN. That's it. A school should be able to prepare a student for such an exam. Exit exams and proper Proctored testing throughout the curriculum should be a good predictor of how you will do on the NCLEX. The school's version of preparatory materials should account for nervousness when taking the NCLEX.
As for stress, I agree that it is a significant factor. Some people are biologically rendered incapable of functioning and certainly that can't be pinned on the college. Have you ever made a technical presentation to hundreds...or thousands... of people? I don't care who you are... it's intimidating! One of the finest public speakers I know told me as I was preparing for a doozy that solid knowledge of what you're speaking about will make any presentation easy...and on the other hand, when you aren't insanely prepared, your stress level will skyrocket and you will stumble.... unless you just love that kind of attenion, of course!
In my short time on this career path, I've learned that memorizing lab values or nursing diagnoses or whatever worked for me in my past life doesn't work for these perplexing NCLEX style questions. I've had to learn differently....and I had to learn how to re-learn from listening to one particular professor. Learning online doesn't always give you that enrichment necessary to be successful. ..the school has to foresee that and compensate. Maybe some do...and maybe some don't. ..again, thats why I asked.
Finally, Let's look at some statistics. There are several schools in my state with 97% - 100% pass rates. Is it a supernatural phenomenon that all the stars were aligned and they just so happen to have admitted thousands of students year after year that have an uncanny ability to not be nervous? How did these colleges figure out how to weed out the brilliant students that were destined to freak out and fail upon sitting for the big one? I just have a sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with good preparation...
...the good preparation has to come from the school...not just the student. When it comes to the students... 'you don't know what you don't know'...you have to trust the institution to get you ready.

A lot of schools DO have a pretty good way of weeding out applicants that might freak out during the NCLEX. Many schools require that you pass a comprehensive exit exam in order to graduate. So if a student seems likely to fail, based on the comprehensive exam, the school won't let them graduate. The schools' NCLEX rate is boosted because they only let students who they thought is going to pass the NCLEX take the NCLEX.

SE_BSN_RN, BSN · Aug 18, 2013

A lot of schools DO have a pretty good way of weeding out applicants that might freak out during the NCLEX. Many schools require that you pass a comprehensive exit exam in order to graduate. So if a student seems likely to fail, based on the comprehensive exam, the school won't let them graduate. The schools' NCLEX rate is boosted because they only let students who they thought is going to pass the NCLEX take the NCLEX.

Yep. My school did that, too. We had 10 students in our class, and 5 couldn't pass the exit exam. Why? I have NO idea. They have one more shot, and if they don't pass that, they have to retake the class. I take my NCLEX tomorrow.

SE_BSN_RN, BSN · Aug 18, 2013

This post was suppose to be about helping me pass the NCLEX....

I have a pocket notebook called "NCLEX-RN Notes" a content review and exam prep book I got at Barnes and Noble. Everything you need right there, except for lab values.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Aug 18, 2013

MODERATOR NOTE:

This thread is about helping the OP brain storm for ways to prepare for the NCLEX exam. NOT about schools NCLEX passing reate or state passing rates. If you wish to discuss the system and it's failure please start another thread.

OP check out this threa d it has 2 attachments that on the first post that might help you.....https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/passed-my-nclex-750555.html