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Hello Future NCLEX-RN Test Takers:
I passed my NCLEX-RN exam on the 1st time by the grace of God. I graduated from RN school two months ago in early Dec 2011. I really studied hard the entire way through LPN-RN school. I worked full-time, plus I have two small children. My program offered a LPN-RN bridge program part-time 18month program, which included one to two nights a week of class, and then we had 12 hour shift clinicals on the weekends. I really studied hard and I had to be very didicated as well as structered because I had to work full time. I used the Saunders 5th edition NCLEX-RN book to study, my school also participated in the ATI program, which was great, so I utilized going back through all of my ATI materials. Shortly after Christmas I enrolled in the Learning Extension 5 week program, which was recommended from my instructor at school. My school also offered the ATI predictor which we were required to score in the 90th or above percentile, and I was in the 98th percentile. I stayed very dedicated to doing 100 test questions each day, and about almost a month and a half out I was perhaps doing around almost 300 test questions a day. Stuff that I did not understand I went back in reviewed. Through the learning extention I only did the test questions, I felt like I already new the content so I focused mainly on test questions. Study, Study Study, its very important to understand the content before you can only do test questions. I also leaned on GOD, because he got me through nursing school, so I had to continue to trust and believe in him to get me through. If you do your best, GOD will do the rest.
Hello everyone i am doing nclex rn 5 weeks course, i have a question how well are you all doing on post tests, what percentage? thanks
Hello
I am currently enrolled in your 3 weeks subscription but my question is, is it possible that i can extend into 5 weeks subscription instead? cause i haven't finish reviewing the contents yet,the reason i took the 3 weeks subs.becuase i thought i can't extend my vacation at my work place since they give me some extension i wanna use more my time to study at ncsbn online before taking my exam and i am planning to re schedule.
so pls. let me know if my request of 2 weeks extension, in total of 5 weeks is fine I really appreciate it if will be granted. Thank you for your reply too. Have a good day!
I'm not much into posting in forums but I figured I should share my studying strategies that could possibly help others too.
I took the NCLEX the second time last January 10, 2012 and just found out today that I PASSED (officially)!!!=) I did the Pearson Vue trick that same day (Jan 10) about 3-4 hours after my exam and I got the good pop up saying "Our records indicate that you have recently scheduled this exam. Please contact your Member Board for further assistance. Another registration cannot be made at this time." The trick works..the first time I took my exam and failed, it went straight to the credit card page and I was able to make another exam registration.
I graduated last May 2011 and took the Kaplan 2-week review class in June. I DID NOT have any study plan or whatsoever and just relied on doing questions on Kaplan's Qbank. I DID NOT review any course content and did not even bother opening my course book. In other words, I wasn't taking my review preparation seriously. I was working full time and preparing for a wedding at the same time. I was only doing about 50-100 questions a day from the Kaplan qbank. I got married on August and scheduled my exam for Sept 23. I can honestly say that I wasn't prepared when I took my exam the first time. The screen shut off after 75 questions, and I know right there and then I was a FAILURE. I was DEVASTATED, felt HOPELESS, and even planned to not sit down in that testing center EVER AGAIN. I got traumatized just by seeing the testing site.
With the help of my husband, family, and friends, prayer, encouragement, and support got me back on my feet again. I left NY to join my husband for a business project in DC. I started to look through my stash of reviewers and stumbled upon a brochure for NCBSN Learning Extension NCLEX review. I decided to sign up for a 3-week review course on November and started reading through the course syllabus. I remember I read through all of the Management of Care, Safety and Infection Control, Health Promotion and Maintenance, and Psychosocial Integrity. I spent the WHOLE day reading through the material and got so exhausted with so much information. I figured I gotta have a STUDY PLAN so I started talking to ToyaRN here in learning extension community. She gave me very helpful studying tips and even shared some study cards. With her help, I was finally able to devised a STUDY PLAN.
I decided to start from a fresh slate and used Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN for my review by systems. I followed NCBSN's syllabus and started with cardiac system. I did one system each day then pharmacology for that specific system the next day, and spent about 6-8 hours of studying. I did EVERY single question for the chapter review in Saunders and I supplemented it with other review materials:
1) NCSBN Learning Extension NCLEX 3-week review - I had to sign up for another 3-week review course because I ran out of time. I did ALL practice tests, read EVERY rationale, and I made sure I repeated each set of test if I didn't get 75%. I was only averaging 55-75% on my first try. The questions are VERY VERY similar with the one on the actual NCLEX examination. The question format and choices are very close to what you will have in the NCLEX. The week before my exam, I did a retake in some of the practice exam sets just to review some of the information and rationales.
2) LaCharity's Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment - I finished all 8 chapters for review. This one is specifically recommended for prioritization questions. Every time I finish a system in the Saunders book, I made sure to do the questions in La Charity's book for the specific system.
3) NCLEX RN Exam-Cram (3rd edition) - I did all the practice exams in the book and got an average of 65-79% on each set of practice exams. The format of the questions and the level of difficulty is also similar to what you will have in the NCLEX.
4) NCLEX 3500 - This one is online and FREE. I did a lot of the Select All That Apply questions from here and it really helped me in my exam. The format of their SATA questions was very similar to the ones I had on the exam.
It would really help if you have a study plan for the NCLEX review. Doing a lot of questions really helps too, even when you're on the train or even before you go to bed. The day before my exam, I reviewed some of the topics that I need to refresh on like some GI disorders, endocrine disorders, cardiac, etc. I made sure I know my lab values too. Most importantly, I PRAYED long and hard. I asked God for wisdom and trusted Him more than ever. I scheduled my test at a different testing location this time to avoid any anxiety attacks.
The day of, I went on the internet and God reassured me with this inspiring passage - "Prayer is the difference between the best YOU can do and the best GOD can do." I tried hard to calm myself and reassured myself that I will walk out of that testing center with the title RN on my name. I said a little prayer before I touched the computer. My very first question was about Hep C and what situation would need follow up. The other topics that showed up in my exam were end stage renal disease, Huntington's disease, breast cancer risk factors, pancreatitis - what is important to ask during assessment? does the client have a high fat diet?, Cogentin side effects - urinary retention and decreased sweating, "-triptans" - is used for relief of migraines, Hib vaccine common side effects for an infant, Hemorrhagic CVA common S&S, Dilantin (phenytoin) common nursing interventions and s&s, Hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism - common s&s (these were both SATA questions for me), postmortem nursing care (I had no idea about this so I would make sure that I would read on this too), insulin administration and peak times (I had a drag and drop question for the insulin administration), physical assessment on abdomen (drag and drop question). These are some of the type of questions that I got. My exam stopped at 77 questions, 22 of it were SATA, 2 drag and drop questions, 1 illustration, and about 10-15 prioritizing questions. I started my exam at 8:30am and I got out 11:40am. I utilized a 5minute break after 2 hours through the exam. I made sure that I read through the questions carefully and thought hard about each question before I moved on to the next.
I hope these study tips/pointers would help others. It was indeed a long journey...with discipline and dedication, you will achieve the same success. You can also SLAY THAT NCLEX DRAGON! Study hard, trust GOD, and BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN! Do your best and God will take care of the rest! You got through nursing school, and NCLEX is just like those other exams you've had in nursing school. With the right attitude and preparation, you will get through it too! God bless!
- thread posted January 6, 2012 by notgivingup
I took NCLEX on JAN 3rd and found out yesterday that I passed! I did the peasonvue trick and got the pop up the same day but needed to see the results for myself to seal the deal. IM so excited i took NCLEX 3 times and did not pass. I was depressed I finished school back in DEC 2010 I wanted to give up and remain an LPN but my family wouldnt let me. I ran into someone who told me about learning extension I signed up for 3 weeks. I was working fulltime and ran out of time so I signed up for 3 more weeks and scheduled a date for my test. I prayed and studied everyday when learning extension was over I had a week left before my test. I began to review notes and do questions from my CD's. the day before the test I didnt do anything but relax and enjoy time with my family. I went to bed early and was ready the next day during the test i stayed calm and when i wasnt sure about an answer i took my time to pick the best choice. when it asked me if I wanted a break I took it. I came back answered 6 more questions the last one i knew for sure what the answer was and my computer cut off. Went home did the pearsonvuetrick got the popup but still waited to see the results. Learning extension helped me reading the post from others that were in my same situation motivated me. My test had 20 SATA. one drag and drop,cardiac,DM, addisons,and priority.
How do you retake tests in the NCSBN-RN? It says go to your scorecard and click "retake" but I haven't found the scorecard or a button anywhere that says "retake" - when I go back to the module and click on the posttest, it just continues to show what I've already done! Help!
Hi everyone! I just took the NCLEX second time around on Friday and found out Monday I passed :) This journey was indeed a tough and bumpy one but I am glad it's all over with! The first time around I took the NCLEX I knew I wasn't going to pass- it was something I had to go through and experience to see what it was going to be like and what kind of test I was having to take. I am sharing my experience hoping to help anyone that is in the need of guidance like I was.
How I did it the First time?
The first time I took it I wasn't serious at all! I know that sounds crazy because my entire future depended on this one test but I had just recently got engaged so I was on cloud 9! The first time around was a trial and error! Soon as my computer stopped on question 78 I knew this was it- I failed. I can honestly say I didn't do anything right! I used Hurst review book for content (watched their videos which went along with each section of the book) and Kaplan to do questions (having said this- these resources are excellent to use I just didn't take advantage of it 100%). I depended more on the content part then doing questions- BIG MISTAKE!
Second time?
I honestly feel like you need to do content and questions equally! As much time you spend on content you need to spend on questions and vice versa. Obvioustly, start off doing content first and then questions- because if you don't know your content well and you start doing questions you won't know where you stand in terms of which areas you're weak in. Second time around I basically used the same resources but added NCSBN online course and NCLEX 3500 questions. I did content thoroughly- once again using the Hurst content book which is really good because it divides each topic into chapters and gives you the pointers you need to know for the test it's not there just to look pretty. Then I did each and every single question from Kaplan's review course. All 7 question trainers including pre-test and readiness test and ALL of the Qbank questions. I did about 150 questions a day. Depending on how I was doing on the questions if I felt like I was missing a lot of the Renal or Cardio questions a lot I went back to my Hurst book and reviewed that section of the book again to improve my scores. If you see a trend- missing a lot of questions from a certain topic please go back and review it again! Don't keep doing questions because you can only learn so much from that one question you need to go back and review that section. After I finished Kaplan I signed up for NCSBN course for 5 weeks to have enough time and to work on my own pace! Through NCSBN I only did questions didn't do content at all! Although I did skim through it just to see how its presented how much info it provided and it's way too much considering the fact that I was done with content I didn't want to nor did I have time to review NCSBN's content so I went ahead and did ALL the questions provided. I also did NCLEX 3500 questions. Last couple of weeks I used NCSBN and NCLEX 3500 question I did around 300-500 questions a day (keep in mind I didn't touch content at all!) I got 165 questions on the second try.
Did NCSBN help?
Def. did help a lot and yes NCLEX questions do have the same format and style of questions you see on this site. I honestly can't say the same for the content since I didn't use it.
Important pointers:
-I can't stress this enough- regardless of how many questions you get right- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review the rationale for each and every single question you do doesn't matter which resource you use to do them! It's critical you understand WHY you picked the answer you picked- if it was for the right reason or not! So please review the questions you got right and wrong that helps a lot and by reviewing rationales you're reviewing content again in the fastest way possible! It's only benefiting you rather then causing you any harm I promise. It is time consuming (depending on how many questions you are doing) but well worth it!
-You need to have faith! Second time around was even more stressful all these negative thoughts were ALWAYS and constantly going through my head. Most important piece of advice I can give you- what my fiance told me- "You need to believe in yourself if you don't then no one else will" That honestly kept me going- the love and support! PRAY every single day and I can guarantee you will get through it with flying colors.
-You don't know how many questions you're going to get on the NCLEX so please be prepared to take 265 which can be a possiblity and use your time wisely.
-Resources I used: Hurst review book (content), Kaplan review course questions, NCSBN course questions and NCLEX 3500.
If you need any help- more details- please message me and I will def try to help you! Lastly, I want to give a special thanks to everyone on this site whom I messaged and helped me out!
Im having a hard time focusing. I failed my nclex the first time because i didnt do a review. Now its been about 6months now i just got my att to test Im so nervous i havent even schedule a date yet & I have to do so before march. I started reviewing on this site on the 10th & usually on my first try for each post test im getting 60's 65's & 70's this is really making me nervous. My biggest fear is failing on my second try. Does anyone have any advice for me?
- thread posted December 19, 2011 by Nurse Keisha
I too had to take the test a second time . I took the 45 days and used that as a remediation to study and prepare in my weak areas. I got 118 questions and it can be done if you trust and believe in God. Praise God!!
hello,
Somebody here from New Jersey whose preparing for this nclex rn exam too? thanks