You ARE smart enough to PASS !

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Hi everyone,

Id like to share my story on here with hopes I can inspire and help those who have yet to face NCLEX. Throughout nursing school, I was pulling just average grades. I have always stuggled very much on exams, and was content with 'C' grades--just as long as I passed the class and clinical, I was happy! Our school had us do ATI, and I never scored in a high percentile the first time Id take the exams. As you can imagine, I was deathly afraid to face NCLEX, and I felt quite confident that i would FAIL the first time I'd take it. Since I've always been just an average student, I signed up for Kaplan NCLEX-RN Complete with hopes it would help me pass NCLEX(our school offered it at a discount of $350). I have to say I wasn't crazy about the classroom portion of the Kaplan course; BUT, the Question Trainer and Q-Bank portion of Kaplan are phenomenal. The questions are much more difficult than actual NCLEX questions, and the rationales are extremely helpful. Three of my NCLEX questions were very similar to Kaplan, if that gives you a better idea. I PASSED NCLEX with 75 QUESTIONS ON MY FIRST TRY!!--and Im here to tell you that if I can do it, SO CAN YOU! I am not here to promote Kaplan, but I truly believe Kaplan is the reason I passed. I believe its better to consistently practice more difficult questions than thousands of easy ones. For those who have Kaplan, I repeated the Question Trainer exams 3 times each. I read and reviewed the rationales carefully and made sure I understood WHY I got the question wrong. My scores were in the 40-50's %, but its not what your score is--its what you LEARN from the practice exams. Keep practicing difficult priority questions, know your ABC's, labs values--and you can't go wrong. YOU WILL PASS NCLEX. Best of luck to you all ! Aloha!

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Thanks for such a positive message! Yay, another Kaplan Konvert heard from :)

Congratulations to you, Ms. RN!

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Congratulations to you! You are an inspiration :) And yes!!! I took Kaplan as well and i also felt that it helped me pass my first time. Good luck with your new career! :):balloons:

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You 2 are sooo sweet...thank you =) (its definitely a HUGE relief ) lol

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Specializes in Step-Down Vascular, Renal, ESRD.

You know what ---Thank you. Your post have really made me feel a little better. I am also redoing the the Q-Trainer over. My scores were 59 - 66. Before I read your post I really felt unsure. But now I feel a little better. I am going to continue to do my 100 questions per day and really go over the rationales until the two days before my exam. I feel that I can critically think but I want to make sure it is still there for my exam, so I am going to redo questions.

Again thank you. You have made me feel a little more confident.:lol2:

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

Thank you for your post....just what I needed at this time! I am scared to death to put it mildly! I paln to keep chugging away until Aug 20th....I test on the 22nd. Just found out another one of my classmates took it..all got 75 q's. Lord please let me pass!

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The last few days before I sat down for NCLEX, I did all 7 Question Trainers again. Even though it took several hours, it was still fresh in my mind on test day. Watch out for words such what to do FIRST, what is ESSENTIAL...big difference! Kaplans Q-Trainers 5-7 were great for learning how to answer these types of questions..ALSO, I forgot to mention that if you have Q-Bank, there are 3 SAMPLE NCLEX exams--also extremely helpful since the majority of them are priority questions. Good luck...prayers are on the way !

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Specializes in None...YET!.
The last few days before I sat down for NCLEX, I did all 7 Question Trainers again. Even though it took several hours, it was still fresh in my mind on test day. Watch out for words such what to do FIRST, what is ESSENTIAL...big difference! Kaplans Q-Trainers 5-7 were great for learning how to answer these types of questions..ALSO, I forgot to mention that if you have Q-Bank, there are 3 SAMPLE NCLEX exams--also extremely helpful since the majority of them are priority questions. Good luck...prayers are on the way !

Congrats,:balloons: and Thanks for the tips/great advice!

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Specializes in HemoDialysis.

thank you for the words of encouragement...that makes me feel better...I also bought the Kaplan RN complete with the Qbank.....I've maxed out the Qbank and I also did the Qtrainer twice...I'm hitting 50-68% the first time I did the questions and about 80-90% the second time around. Now that my test sched is fast approaching, I'm doing the questions all over again...I didn't really focus much on the content review because I cannot retain those information anymore especially now that Im out of school. And besides, our instructor from Kaplan told us that this is not the time to go back to our books. Instead, we should practice tons of questions and utilize the strategies...I also did the NCSBN questions only, not the content review...The rationales help me more in terms of retention of information. Im so glad that I checked in tonight...It will keep my anxiety level at a moderate level...I've been unsure on how to prepare for the NCLEX. I thought Im not preparing myself well enough...But now Im confident hearing your story...thanks so much...You really made it clear to me that Im doing the right thing and never lose my focus with my review.....I will go for it....

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Specializes in LTAC, Homehealth, Hospice Case Manager.

Congratulations!

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Specializes in BICU, STICU, SICU, CCU, NSICU, CTICU....

YES you ARE SMART! just tell yourself that! I took my NCLEX on Aug 4th and felt like an idiot! oh wait i am an idiot! but I passed! lol! just relax and remember YOU ARE SMART! YOU KNOW NURSING! one helpful hint is to TAKE your TIME. I spent 2 hrs on 75 questions! what's sad is I ended up with 265 questoins! grrr! well anyways good luck and I pray you don't get 265 questions! 5hrs and 11 mins of hell!! haha!

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