Winging the NCLEX

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I know that there was a thread on that before but it was a couple years old so I wanted to ask if there was anybody current, but has anybody winged the NCEX and passed?

I'm taking my NCLEX tomorrow morning and I graduated exactly 5 weeks ago. I haven't done much preparation. Just only did a couple questions here and there. I also read over maternity and newborn but that's about it. Everyone has been telling me to study but in my mind, I'm kind of treating this like the SATs. I'm just going to read over test taking skills, lab values and developmental milestones and then call it a night. I get nervous before any test but I'm not feeling stressed or worried that I'm gonna fail. That's probably the only thing I have going for me. If I do, then oh well try again. It was my fault for not preparing in the first place.

Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

I did. I tested about a month post graduation. I passed in minimum questions in less than 30 minutes. I test well and quickly. I always have. Early in my academic career (elementary school) I was taught excellent test taking skills and efficiency and the logistics of tackling questions. (Kind of like the Kaplan Decision Tree). My content was all covered in my nursing school education combined with being a compulsive reader (I actually read every page of each of my textbooks. Probably one of the first to have ever done that in the history of my school).

Even so, I walked out of my exam having no idea if I passed or failed. I turned off the countdown clock. I had no idea I finished so quickly until the proctor said something. (I walked in worried because I had a critically ill family member.)

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Well....kinda late now to make this inquiry, don't you think?

You're already registered, so you'll test. And you'll pass or fail, but at this point nothing WE say can matter anyway.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I tested 3 weeks after graduation. While I didn't exactly "wing it" I didn't study much content. I figured that I'd had all the content I'd need from my program, and in that regard, I was very much right! I spent a couple weeks doing questions from Saunders 6th Ed and NCLEX 4000 just to really get into the mode of parsing NCLEX questions. The content review that happened along the way was essentially accidental because of my study strategy. It definitely worked. When the exam started, it was easily apparent that I knew the answer... and things got progressively more difficult from there. As I have stated in previous posts, I was done in 75 questions and just under an hour and I passed. There were many questions I didn't know the answer to, but I was able to figure out the answer from the general knowledge I possessed already and going through the question (and answers) calmly and coolly. At some point, I'm sure I started getting 50% right and wrong answers, representing my limits. The one thing that the NCLEX is very good at doing is giving you one of the most difficult exams of your life. If all the questions are easy, one of two things has occurred... one is that you're below standard or two, your knowledge base is so wide and complete that even the most difficult level questions asked aren't near your limits. If that's the case, your program would have essentially been a formality for you.

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My friend took it right after she graduated and didnt study....passed with 265Q - very risky in my opinion lol

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well i ended up passing it lol. i had 77 questions and finished in ~90 min. thanks for all the feedback and well wishes!!!

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