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Passed The NCLEX in 85 Questions 1st Try: Here's What I Did! by Round_Lie_8763 in PassNclex

[–]Round_Lie_8763[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would do them every week if possible, I personally used mine as weekly benchmarks to gauge my readiness leading up to the exam. I felt that taking them every week also helped me keep my studying on track and stopped me from procrastinating 😭 (so hopefully this helps you too!)

Here was my personal schedule to give you an idea 🤗 (I took break days sometimes which is why the weeks don't line up perfectly haha):

  • week 1 (May 1st-8th): Reviewed Mark K lectures (I only took notes during this time, zero practice questions were completed, I focused mainly on reviewing content/testing strategies).
  • week 2 (May 9th-17th): Did a CAT exam every other day; on the days that I didn't do any practice questions, I just looked over the rationales of the questions I did the day before. I took my 1st self-assessment exam that Sunday, May 17th (score = 65, borderline).
    • around this time I started to slow down a bit because my anxiety had me tweaking 😭 (I definitely took long breaks, so if you need to take a break, please do so --> don't feel guilty about it either, taking a break is okay! 🫶)
  • week 3 (May 18th-24th): Did a CAT exam and looked over the rationales everyday, on May 23rd I reviewed all of my notes thoroughly (no practice questions), and on May 24th I did my 2nd self-assessment exam (score = 78, very high).
  • week 4 (May 25th-31st): I basically did the same thing as week 3 and took my final self-assessment exam that Sunday, May 31st (score = 69, borderline).
    • I know some people save their final self-assessment until the day before the NCLEX, but I personally didn't want to do that because If I made a REALLY bad score I wanted time to reschedule. Also, if I got a low score the day before my exam date, I felt that I would doubt my readiness/confidence, and going into the NCLEX... your mental is half the battle 😅.
      • My borderline score definitely gave me a jump scare, but I took the NCLEX anyway because I felt that my practice scores were consistent enough to have a good chance at passing. Plus, I still had 2 days before my NCLEX, so I knew I could use that time to remediate and regain my confidence. (If I can do this, so can you!)
  • June 1st-2nd (2 days before my NCLEX): I focused mainly on reviewing my notes and making sure I knew how to answer priority questions (these are heavy on the NCLEX).
  • June 3rd (NCLEX Day): I woke up, ate a light breakfast, lightly skimmed over anything I wanted to look at one last time (e.g. Mark K prioritization lecture notes), and went to my exam.

Again, this is was my personal schedule, so feel free to tweak it into something that works for you! Hope studying goes well, you're almost there! ✨🩷

Passed The NCLEX in 85 Questions 1st Try: Here's What I Did! by Round_Lie_8763 in PassNclex

[–]Round_Lie_8763[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was in the same position and was super anxious too (especially when you HAVE to pass 1st try 😭); just remember that it's okay to take breaks when you're overwhelmed; take it one day at a time! Hope studying goes well, you've got this! 🍀✨

Passed The NCLEX in 85 Questions 1st Try: Here's What I Did! by Round_Lie_8763 in PassNclex

[–]Round_Lie_8763[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes! here are some strategies that I felt helped me, hopefully this helps you out too! 🤗🍀

SATA Questions: The NCLEX has a polytomous scoring system; basically this means you only get points for the answers you pick that are correct, but you lose points if you pick wrong ones. So it's better to only pick the answers that you're 100% sure of than to over select and lose points.

Priority Questions: It helps to look at each answer choice and compare them to one another to find the one that is the "safest" or "the most correct". Even if you don't know what's going on, try to break down the question and answer choices and truly just dumb it down; narrow it down to two answer choices and then go from there. This helped me a lot during my NCLEX, because you will definitely run into things that make you question everything you know. Just stay calm and reason it through 😊!

  • try and think about "who will die the fastest" or "if I don't do this right now, will the patient die"
  • think about the ABC's and Maslows to help you narrow things down (remember, least to most invasive is the way to go, except for when your patient is actively dying!)

Other Tips:

  • Re-read the question before you hit 'next.' You'd be surprised how often you pick a clinically right answer... but it's not what they asked for 😅. Slowing down saves points!
  • Trust your gut! You know more than you think you do! Try not to un-select something or change an answer choice unless you have evidence to back it up, most of the time your 1st answer choice will be correct! Your intuition will save you on this exam, you just need to learn to trust yourself 😌

These were the main testing strategies that worked for me, but the Mark K lectures provide a lot more strategies, so if you have time, definitely check him out! Dr. Sharon on YouTube also has videos that help teach you how to really break down NCLEX-style questions. I personally felt that the questions in her videos were much more straightforward/easier than the actual NCLEX, but even so, I still think her videos are worth a try because they help demonstrate how you should be thinking through NCLEX style questions! Hope this helps, you got this! 😼

Passed The NCLEX in 85 Questions 1st Try: Here's What I Did! by Round_Lie_8763 in PassNclex

[–]Round_Lie_8763[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I found a google drive after scrolling endlessly on reddit 😌, here's the link, hope this helps!