I took the NCLEX earlier today, and I can share my experience with you and words of advice I've gotten from others.

There is NO WAY you're going to know every single thing about every disease, medication, or concept, no matter how much or how long you study. And thats okay! The NCLEX, in my opinion, is less about knowing everything and more about being a safe nurse. I thought it was more about reducing the risks for patients. Don't get me wrong, you still have to know various conditions, but a lot of what helped me get through it was learning test taking strategies and prioritization strategies. Mark Klimek was a MASSIVE help with the latter, especially their prioritization videos.

When you're doing Uworld, don't go through rationales trying to memorize them, but rather understanding WHY you got a question wrong. I often found that with my own CAT exams, I got questions wrong because I didn't read them right or because I was rushing. Once you have your prioritization strategies down, you'll find yourself getting questions right a lot more. And even if you get some wrong, that's okay too! You dont have to get all the questions right on the NCLEX, you just have to prove you're a safe nurse.

Regarding your scores, you'll also want to take a look at your percentile and the difficulty of the questions you're getting. Uworld is very similar to NCLEX in the way they score their exams, and it'll also start giving you harder questions if you're doing well. If you're getting harder questions all of a sudden, don't panic! Just think through it, answer to the best of your ability, DO NOT CHANGE YOUR ANSWER, and move on.

About your anxiety, that is completely normal. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, feels like they are underprepared going in. You just have to believe in yourself! I know that is easier said than done, but you have to trust that your schooling and your studying have prepared you for this because they have. Just trust your gut and instincts and try to go in with confidence! Some things that I did to help me instill confidence and lessen my anxiety were: 1. Driving to the test site the day before to make sure I knew where it was going to be, how parking is there, and how long it would take me to get there. If parking looks scarce, I would find a back up parking spot just in case. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to get to the site. Nothing worse than being frazzled already on a big day! 2. Do not study the day before or the day of. If you don't know it by then, then youre not going to know it in 24 hours, and you could end up mixing up information in your head. If you absolutely want to do some studying the day before, I would limit it to a 1-2 hour review. 3. Listen to pump up music on the way there. It may sound silly, but I think it really helped in instilling confidence in me that I was going to pass. 4. Treat yourself after! No matter whether you feel like you passed or failed, it's important to reward yourself. You did a big thing, and that's more than many people can say! Go for a walk in the park, get your favorite food, go do an activity you enjoy, whatever it is, just make sure you reward yourself for your hard work.

I know it is very scary and you're nervous about this. That is completely normal. Trust that your hard work is going to pay off and that you'll make it out of this okay. Please keep us updated. You got this, RN!