What I did...

Published

Sorry for the long post in advance :up:

Like many of you reading this post, I too read so many posts prior to my exam date. Sometimes it was to get study tips and other times to motivate myself to keep studying. I graduated at the beginning of May and took NCLEX-RN 6/24. Most of my friends and classmates took the exam right after graduation. I, however, decided not to follow the crowd and scheduled my test at a later date because I'd rather wait to take it and have a better chance at passing it the first them than rush to get it "over with" and have to retake it.

During the program, I was an A & B student, but boy was it hard for me. I was the student that would be up at 4am studying for a test that started at 8am (not by choice). For whatever reason, my brain takes longer to memorize things than my younger classmates :yawn::down:. Long story short, there were several times I truly questioned if I was cut out for this, but my passion for the nursing and my AWESOME husband kept me going :inlove:

After graduation, I took about 3 weeks off and then finally started to tackle some nclex prep books. Like many, I too didn't know where to start or what to use to prepare, so I came here and narrowed down my sources to the following: Hurst, Kaplan, Saunders, and PDA. Hurst was great for basic content and because it's repetitive I managed to get some stuff drilled into my head. I also did all the 5th day material. Kaplan was an integrated resource we had throughout the nursing school so I had access to all of its tools. I did all question trainers and about 60% of the Qbank (reviewed every question). Saunders, I only read like 10 chapters and those mainly consisted of topic I wanted to brush up on because we probably covered those topics at the beginning of the program. PDA, I only did the first 7 chapters and the last 3 not the case studies.

When the test date came around, I took half the day off the day before and tried (TRIED!) to relax. I was blessed to have gotten the lovely "blue screen" at 75Qs. However, I had no idea if that was a good or bad thing. So like the patient person I am, I rushed to my car to grab my phone and do the PVT :sarcastic: . I got the good pop-up right and now my official results that I am an RN :nurse:.

To end this loooong post, I wanted to just encourage those waiting to take the test, to use the study tools that work for you and not what has worked for other ppl. Identify your weaknesses and focus on those. There are many sources out there, but only you know what works best for you. Go into the exam expecting to do 265 questions, but hoping for 75. Don't worry about which friend passed or failed... NCLEX will stump even the smartest student because it's not all about what you know, but how you use your judgment and critical thinking skills. Like many others say, you will never feel ready, so be confident in your abilities and trust that if "God brings you to it, he will bring you through it." Hope this helps someone. Best of luck to everyone and congratulations to those that have already succeeded.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

CONGRATULATIONS...I am the one of many in searching all nurse for suggestions and some support..so your long post is helpful to me..how far does your kaplan online review helped to you.???

Up Vote Up Vote ×
CONGRATULATIONS...I am the one of many in searching all nurse for suggestions and some support..so your long post is helpful to me..how far does your kaplan online review helped to you.???

Kaplan helped me prepare for the difficulty of questions. Actually I was expecting to see harder questions than what I saw on Kaplan, but found the questions on nclex to be much more straight forward. I didn't use Kaplan's review guide. Instead I supplemented it with the yellow Saunders book.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Sorry for the long post in advance :up:

Like many of you reading this post, I too read so many posts prior to my exam date. Sometimes it was to get study tips and other times to motivate myself to keep studying. I graduated at the beginning of May and took NCLEX-RN 6/24. Most of my friends and classmates took the exam right after graduation. I, however, decided not to follow the crowd and scheduled my test at a later date because I'd rather wait to take it and have a better chance at passing it the first them than rush to get it "over with" and have to retake it.

During the program, I was an A & B student, but boy was it hard for me. I was the student that would be up at 4am studying for a test that started at 8am (not by choice). For whatever reason, my brain takes longer to memorize things than my younger classmates :yawn::down:. Long story short, there were several times I truly questioned if I was cut out for this, but my passion for the nursing and my AWESOME husband kept me going :inlove:

After graduation, I took about 3 weeks off and then finally started to tackle some nclex prep books. Like many, I too didn't know where to start or what to use to prepare, so I came here and narrowed down my sources to the following: Hurst, Kaplan, Saunders, and PDA. Hurst was great for basic content and because it's repetitive I managed to get some stuff drilled into my head. I also did all the 5th day material. Kaplan was an integrated resource we had throughout the nursing school so I had access to all of its tools. I did all question trainers and about 60% of the Qbank (reviewed every question). Saunders, I only read like 10 chapters and those mainly consisted of topic I wanted to brush up on because we probably covered those topics at the beginning of the program. PDA, I only did the first 7 chapters and the last 3 not the case studies.

When the test date came around, I took half the day off the day before and tried (TRIED!) to relax. I was blessed to have gotten the lovely "blue screen" at 75Qs. However, I had no idea if that was a good or bad thing. So like the patient person I am, I rushed to my car to grab my phone and do the PVT :sarcastic: . I got the good pop-up right and now my official results that I am an RN :nurse:.

To end this loooong post, I wanted to just encourage those waiting to take the test, to use the study tools that work for you and not what has worked for other ppl. Identify your weaknesses and focus on those. There are many sources out there, but only you know what works best for you. Go into the exam expecting to do 265 questions, but hoping for 75. Don't worry about which friend passed or failed... NCLEX will stump even the smartest student because it's not all about what you know, but how you use your judgment and critical thinking skills. Like many others say, you will never feel ready, so be confident in your abilities and trust that if "God brings you to it, he will bring you through it." Hope this helps someone. Best of luck to everyone and congratulations to those that have already succeeded.

So helpful thank you!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion