Hello everyone, one year ago I posted a topic on here fretting about failing the NCLEX twice in a row. I am here to give some chin-up advice to those who may be in the same boat.
First of all, allow me to introduce my situation. Throughout the nursing program several things happened. I was in a car accident, a family member passed due to cancer, I lost a fiance, switched jobs 3 times and so on and so on. Somehow, by the skin of my teeth, I forced myself to finish the program and as of December 2012 I had my BSN. YAY! The worst was over, right? Absolutely not.
Now, I have anxiety. I'm not talking stress, like what you get when a big test comes up or bills are due or tax season is closing and you just realized you never turned yours in! I'm talking about clinical, diagnosed anxiety. That nasty stuff that sticks with you forever and a day. That said, I never had test anxiety before...
As the days to the NCLEX approached I began to feel more and more fearful. I became angry and upset at first and then it developed into physical ailments such as nausea, vomiting and a migraine headache. I went into the test, got all 200-something questions and failed.
The second time around I studied my brain off! I spent hours every day reviewing thousands of practice questions from every book and website I could get my grubby little hands on. The second test came and went and again, I failed.
At this point I was desperate. Michigan law says you have three tries before you have to sit before the board for them to tell you if you have three more chances or you need to take more courses! I panicked. I won't lie.
This time I stopped myself. I took a course through Kaplan and I sat after class discussing with my instructor about why I wasn't passing. I got all the questions in class correct and I had good reasoning behind why I chose the answers I did. I had the formua down in my brain and my priorities were spot on, so why wasn't I passing!? 4 years of school wasted because of... because of what?
My instructor would just smile and say, "Liz... you're fine. There's absolutely no reason why you should be failing this exam. You'll pass. You'll be fine, you just need some confidence."
So after that she would stop and tell me every single day that I was going to pass and that I had no reason to worry. I kept telling myself, every day after that class, "I will pass, I will get my license. I will pass, I will get my license. I will pass, I will get my license."
Before long I had forced myself to actually believe I was going to pass.
