Passing the NCLEX

This was one of the hardest exams I ever took.

It wasn’t even the Qs that were the most difficult part about it, but my mind.

That negative self-talk. The anxiety. The stress. The worry.

“I’ll be that one person in the cohort who doesn’t pass.”

Everyone says ‘You’ll pass,’ ‘You’re smart,’ but I’m afraid of not meeting their and my own expectations. It’s an endless cycle or overthinking and trying to study your brains out and being too anxious to focus on anything else.

But I did it. And you can too.

I used UWorld and did Qs every other day. The days that I did not do Qs, I was going over the rationale and doing content RW. My schedule would be:

Practice CAT (computer adaptive test)

Go over rationale

Content RW

Repeat

My CATs were 85 Qs each. The more Qs you do, the more practice you have with answering NCLEX style Qs. They also had NGN Qs and that helped so much. Don’t choose an answer you aren’t confident in for SATA (bc you can lose pts).

Be confident! You went to nursing school for a reason and passed. You know your stuff. Calm down. Breathe. As long as you study well, you’ll pass.

But it is OKAY to go out sometimes, meet up with a friends etc. I most certainly did. I spent time with family, took a weekend trip to Lake Havasu, and met up with friends for lunch. It’s good to take a little break and relieve that pressure of the exam.

Good luck!

#nclexstudying #nclextips #nursingstudentlife #nclexhelp

I’ve noticed some ppl saving this post, so I thought I’d add more study tips and advice.

Out of all the Q banks I experienced, ATI is the hardest, but I dislike their layout. It makes it hard and inefficient to RW the rationale. You constantly scroll up and down bc the rationale, Q, and your answer doesn’t fit all in one screen. HOWEVER, the ATI Comprehensive bk was useful when reviewing content that I needed to brush up on. This one was the most expensive. (I was required to buy it for school).

UWorld was the next hardest. I loved the layout. It’s simple and user friendly. They also have short lesson vids to refresh ur knowledge. The rationale included pics; much appreciated by visual learners like myself. This is the 2nd most expensive. The assessment that comes with the subscription is VERY USEFUL. Def take it a day or 2 before the exam.

Archer is very cheap, has a similar layout to the NCLEX, and user friendly schematics. They show your place along the ‘passing curve’ and whether you changed ur answer from a correct one or incorrect option.

While I did study almost every day until the exam, the day before my scheduled NCLEX exam date, I did no studying. I let my brain rest and simply hoped all that I studied and did to prepare myself for the day would be enough.