Unsure where to start

[TheJitterbugRN]

I graduated with my ADN in May 2017, and intended on taking my NCLEX the following July. Tragically, in June 2017, shortly after graduation, a man who was like a father to me took his life, and I can't even articulate the devastation that followed. November, one of my uncles took his life after struggling with a cancer diagnosis. Then in December, one of my best friends made an attempt at taking his life, and we nearly lost him as well.

As a result, I unfortunately struggled with an episode of really deep depression and anxiety over the last year, and it had crippled me in several ways, but especially in feeling like I was not in a good place mentally and feeling overwhelmed and unable to concentrate well enough to study for the NCLEX.

However, now I am finally in a much more positive place, and motivated to continue my nursing journey. I am now struggling to figure out where or how to start studying again, and probably re-learning a bit, and would greatly appreciate any advice anyone has for me. I've also emailed my former advisor and my program's clinical director seeking their help. At times I feel unsure with how to move forward with obtaining my license and start my career, but I am so ready to finally do it.

[YRRN]

Hi, I hope that all is well. Taking that time off is necessary. Preparing for the NCLEX can be strenuous and involves a lot of focus. You made the right choice to wait. Chances are you might not need to review too much material, the NCLEX isn't necessarily content heavy. It doesn't expect you to know everything in the world. But it does expect you to understand how to navigate through situations. If anything, I suggest just going through slides/notes from your fundamentals class.

Register with your board of nursing for an ATT (which gives you permission to test) and sign up with Pearson Vue to schedule a date. Usually this takes 4 weeks. During this time you can start studying while you decide on a date to take the test. Usually between one to two months is good.

When it comes to the NCLEX, I felt like Kaplan really gave me that nclex experience. But UWORLD is great in terms of content and rationales.

What ever resource you use, give yourself of month or two of just doing questions. 75 questions at minimum a day; you want to finish all the questions that you have in your resource before taking the NCLEX. Try to do as many questions as you can in a row (as if you were taking the NCLEX) and then review afterwards. Review the rationales for questions you got wrong and right. Give yourself of schedule of when to do questions, with maybe 2 days off. I suggest taking the practice tests/questions in a quiet area and try to take it around hour/time you scheduled yourself to take the nclex (i.e. scheduled yourself for 8am then start studying at 8am). Once you've finished your question banks, consider redoing your incorrect questions and going through those rationales again as well. The day before and the day of the NCLEX, take the day off and relax. Review notes if you need but honestly just relax because at that point you should be prepared (tired of studying) if you've followed through with everything.

[Jakko12]

Hello, I'm so glad you are so positive and at a better place currently in your life, For NCLEX there are a lot of courses out there but a few stand out like The Pharm Professor (ThePharmProfessor(dot)com). Comprehensive descriptions and methodology explained really works. A must for all NCLEX students.

I took this up and am very happy with the results myself.