r/NCLEX 54m ago

Help us update r/NCLEX's Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources

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We're updating our community's list of the Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources, and we want your votes and experiences to help decide which resources make the list.

If you could vote for the paid NCLEX resource you found most useful, which one would you choose?

Poll options:

  • UWorld
  • NCLEX Bootcamp
  • Archer
  • Mark Klimek
  • Kaplan
  • ATI
  • Other

We're not necessarily looking for the "best" resource for everyone since different study styles work for different people.

If you have a minute, drop a comment about why you voted for your choice. What did you like or not like? Was it the qbank, rationales, NGN case studies, CAT/readiness exams, or content review?

If you voted Other, let us know what resource you used!

Your votes and comments will help us update the community's Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources.

Please be respectful of everyone's choice and experience. There's no need to put down someone else's resource just because it didn't work for you. Keep the discussion helpful and respectful, and please remember to follow the r/NCLEX community rules. This poll will be close in 3 days.


r/NCLEX Feb 26 '25

CPR Explanation

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A copy of this post is saved to Google Doc: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LhjDc-4SHCPFyrV5v6GvmVcvBDhMP9VU-Mlgfx_ve_Y/edit?usp=sharing).

I give full permission to copy, share, distribute, etc.

Greetings! I am Extreme_Growth, and I have written this document to give some speculative information regarding the Candidate Performance Report. It will be a lengthy read so if you are not up to reading this document and just want advice on how to study for the next attempt on NCLEX, just skip to the TLDR (the last page of this document). 

Disclaimer: My explanation of the Candidate Performance Report will be quite speculative and will sound judgmental perhaps (apologies in advance). I admit that I do not know what you know and I can be off my rocker. Just know that overall, this is just my explanation (which can be wrong) and this isn’t a comprehensive document that lists everything especially in regards to client needs. For example, in health promotion and maintenance, there is more to the topic than maternity, peds, and newborn like contraception, cancer screen+prevention, etc. but I will not go into those things when talking about health promotion and maintenance. It is, after all, impossible for me to list everything to know for each client need. This document is just to give a greater understanding or idea on what the Candidate Performance Report is saying according to my interpretation. 

To pass the NCLEX, you must be “above the passing standard” for most (if not all) client needs. To be “above the passing standard” on a client topic, you must answer at least 50 percent of the questions for that client need correctly. If you got “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” in a client need, you got less than half the questions for that client need correct. And getting most of the client needs at “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” is a fail for the NCLEX since less than half the questions on the NCLEX is answered correctly overall.

The explanation for each client topic is going to assume that you went “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” for each client need on the Candidate Performance Report. If you got a client need that is “above passing standard” and you are sure that you know that client need, feel free to skip to the next client need. Either way, I hope the explanations for each client topic helps give an idea on what to look out and study for. With that said…

Management of Care

Your prioritization like what patient to visit first may be off the mark. Make sure to understand that things like ABC priority don't always work. For example, a patient with some new acute breathing problems like shortness of breath doesn't take priority compared to a patient with potential life threatening complications such as a sudden end or disappearance of pain for appendicitis (risk of peritonitis). 

Then you need to make sure to know which tasks to delegate to the unlicensed assistive personnel (UAH) and licensed practical nurse (LPN). Like don't give tasks involving teaching and evaluation to LPN. And some delegation questions can get tricky. For example, you may be given a LPN and a UAH to manage. Then the question may ask what tasks to give to LPN, but if there is a task like ADL such as feeding the patient is listed, it would be wrong to pick that assignment since you have an UAH to do that task-making the LPN feed the patient is considered a waste of personnel resources. Instead, the LPN should do other things that the UAH cannot do like administer meds.

Safety and Infection Control

Make sure to brush up on PPE, types of precautions, what diseases are airborne, droplet, contact, etc., (mnemonics like MTV for airborne, SPIDERMAN for droplet, etc. can help with memorization-google it up), what equipment to use for each type of precaution, etc. Of course, make sure to know what to do with fall risk patients (like removing rugs from the floor, keeping bed alarms, maybe dim lights at home, etc.) plus other unusual circumstances like meeting a drunk nurse unfit to work (report to charge nurse/supervisor) and so on. All these things are part of safety and infection. 

Health Promotion and Maintenance

You will probably need to do better on knowing maternity, newborn, peds, etc. since it mostly focuses on those topics since they are naturally connected to growth and development. So know the milestones of newborn like double weight at six months, triple at 12 months, first word at 12 months, able to roll at around 6 months, etc. And make sure to know Piaget and Erickson's stage of development and how it applies to the care of the patients especially peds. For example, toddlers have autonomy vs shame/doubt so if you were trying to assess a toddler, you should offer a binary choice like offering them juice to drink while examining them. As for maternity, plenty of things to know about them unfortunately. Will need to know things like presumptive vs probable vs positive signs of pregnancy, Naegele's rule, GPAL, milestones like first fetal kick at around 16-20 weeks, certain tests like glucose test to check for gestational diabetes, etc. 

Psychosocial Integrity

You probably are struggling with therapeutic communication like knowing the right thing to say to the patient or patient's relatives. Will need to work on that and pick words that encourage patient to express their feelings or opinions like "Tell me how you feel about this procedure" "What do you think about...?" etc. Don't ask why (that is confrontational and can lead to defensiveness), don't give false reassurances like "it'll be alright", etc. 

Or maybe you're off the mark for interacting and dealing with psych patients for bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. Always remember to at least ask if they are thinking of hurting themselves and perhaps be mindful of things like a patient with schizophrenia tends to have delusions and paranoia which can make things tricky like if trying to give meds to them for example.

Basic Care and Comfort

You will need to know some things like positions and when to do them. Do you know when to use the Valsalva maneuver for example? To slow down heart rate and for patients with cardiac conditions like supraventricular tachycardia. Then you have sims position for applying medication on someone’s anus. That kind of stuff. And of course, it is not just position, there’s things like nutrition-like not giving pregnant women swordfish and mackerel, banning turkey on patients prescribed MAOI even if it is Thanksgiving, etc. And some patients truly require special care like having to make sure dental hygiene is kept even if the patient can bleed easily in the gum. Oh, and make sure the patient have their incentive spirometer-can’t have pneumonia and atelectasis running around. 

Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies

Ugh pharm, hard to prepare for that one. You would just have to get good at knowing the suffixes like -lol drugs are beta blockers, -pril are ACE inhibitors, etc. as well as knowing some commonly used drugs for certain diseases like rifampin for TB as well as knowing their known side effects (rifampin makes urine, tears, and sweat colored orange/red). Make sure to know your antidotes to common overdosage situations like acetylcysteine for acetaminophen, protamine sulfate for heparin, vitamin k for warfarin, diazepam and thiamine for alcohol, etc. By the way, be aware that NCLEX might throw a question or two on some random mysterious drug that probably doesn’t exist if you later try to google it up. But if you see something like cockalol, you would have a good idea on what it is…right?

As for parenteral, it mostly involves in the care and maintenance of central venous catheter. So make sure you know what to do for situations like if you experience an occlusion or blockage. And of course, keep an eye on situations like sudden stoppage of parenteral nutrition which is a big uh oh-hello potential hypoglycemia.

Reduction of Risk Potential

This is where your monitoring, teaching, or other interventions to prevent complications probably fell short. For example, how would you prevent something like falls? Probably by teaching the patient to remove factors that can cause falls like nonslip sock, rugs away from floor, handle bars in bathroom, etc. Of course, it can involve more complex things like preventing or managing sepsis (do interventions like blood culture, full spectrum IV antibiotics, etc.) and knowing potential complications and problems such as thyroid storm after thyroidectomy, compartment syndrome after some fracture and bruise, etc. 

Physiological Adaptation

As for this one, you would probably need to do more studying into commonly seen diseases and problems that nurses face like COPD, heart failure, lumbar disc herniation, diverticulitis, intracranial pressure, etc. 

Clinical Judgment

According to NCLEX, you don't know what to do when something happens. Like what do you do when a patient goes into seizure? Hopefully, you would know to make sure to keep the patient safe, guide the patient to the floor, make sure the patient airway isn’t obstructed, etc. Or how about if a patient suddenly has ventricular tachycardia? Well, hopefully you know to first check for a pulse before doing anything else like defibrillation…But yes, deciding what action to do in a situation is clinical judgment.

Recognize Cues

This is the first question of a 6 question case study where you would highlight the “cues” or sentences/parts that are considered relevant to the suspected problem or disease. In other words, a fancy SATA question. So you probably overhighlighted and lost points for highlighting the unimportant cues. As a general test taking strategy for SATA questions, you should only seek to highlight the cues that you are 100 percent sure on. If you aren’t sure about the importance or relevance of a cue, then it’s best to skip that cue for the sake of preserving points on the NCLEX exam. 

Analyze Cues

The second question. It usually ask what disease or problem you suspect. And you might’ve messed up by confusing diseases for one reason or another like maybe two diseases might share similar signs and symptoms (pneumonia and left sided heart failure both have crackles) or mixed up on the diseases like confusing Addison with Cushing (which one is low adrenal and the other high adrenal?), etc. Either way, need more work on identifying the problem and disease if this isn’t passing the standard.

Prioritize Hypothesis

This is the question that asked for the complication or another problem. Remember the question or the sentence “The patient is at risk for developing (this complication) as evidenced by (the proof)”? Well, this one is easy to get wrong if you got the wrong disease or problem. To answer this one correctly even if you got the disease or problem on second question (analyze cue) wrong, it is best to look at whatever available data is given to you like diagnostic result, lab result, etc. and find the abnormal. The abnormal will be the proof and important clue to finding out what complication or other problem. And also, you might also then have “second thoughts” and potentially realize that analyze cue is wrong and be able to salvage the rest of the case study too due to having a tendency of getting more information at this stage.

Generate Solutions

This is the question where you see a list of interventions and pick which interventions are “indicated” (the ones that will be done) and contraindicated (the ones that won’t be done). At least you get a fifty-fifty chance on each intervention if you don’t know anything. But in all seriousness, should do some content building on knowing the interventions if not able to identify which interventions is needed for a problem or disease. So you will go back to knowing your meds, knowing your basic care and comfort, etc. 

Take Actions

The fifth question is where you’re asked things when implementing the interventions. It can be something like a question about what you do before you do an intervention like administering a med. And it normally is a SATA question of things to do before the intervention. So you would normally do things like grab vital signs, check patient’s home meds, etc. Like any SATA question, underselect or don’t pick ones that you aren’t sure about. So again, maybe you highlighted too much stuff and lost points there.

Evaluate Outcomes

Finally, on the last question, you either didn’t select the answers that showed signs of improvement for the patient properly, didn’t teach the patient correctly when they got discharged, etc. 

Congrats, you made it to the end of the explanations on the Candidate Performance Report. I hope you now understand CPR better and pray that the information you read is useful. So how should you study for the NCLEX? Well, I don’t really know the exact answer but…

TLDR:

My advice is to do 25 traditional questions in each client need along with 30 NGN or five case studies per day (a total of 130 questions per day) on a good quizbank like UWorld for about two months. So it would be like this:

  1. 25 traditional questions in safe and effective care (this is management of care and safety+infection control combined)
  2. 25 traditional questions in healthcare promotion and maintenance
  3. 25 traditional questions in psychosocial integrity
  4. 25 traditional questions in physiological integrity ( this is pharm+parenteral, basic care+comfort, physiological adaptation, reduction of risk potential combined)
  5. 30 NGN questions or 5 case studies

I also advise watching “NCLEX Crusade International 7 Day Training” videos on Youtube to understand prioritization better and know how to approach the NCLEX questions. Watch very carefully on how Renier thinks-he will speak out loud his thought process when doing a question and you should try mimic it and practice his thinking process on the quiz bank and eventually the NCLEX itself.

With that said, I wish you best of luck on your next attempt for the NCLEX. 

FAQ that is very unimportant:

  1. Who are you? Are you a tutor, instructor or professor?

I’m just a random redditor called Extreme_Growth. And no, I don’t teach for a living.

2) Why did you write this?

I saw a lot of posts on r/NCLEX that show CPR so why not. Besides, the world needs more nurses anyway.

3) Did you pass NCLEX, when, how many attempts, how many questions, etc.?

Yes, I passed NCLEX on the first try in 85 questions for Valentine’s Day this year.  

4) Do you offer tutoring for NCLEX? Can you tutor me?

Sorry, I’m not a good tutor nor do I have the time to do so. Feel free to pm or comment directly on reddit though and ask me anything. I can’t promise I would know the answer for sure though.


r/NCLEX 20h ago

I passed!

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Took my exam 9/5 and just got an email from my state board of nursing that I passed! I finished the exam in a little over an hour and stopped at question 85. I graduated from one of the top 5 nursing universities in my state and felt extremely prepared by my university prior to taking the exam.

The Mark K lectures saved my life! I listened and took notes on all of them EXCEPT the endocrine lecture (honestly don’t know why I skipped this one I think I was just over the lectures by the time I got to this one).

I also used Archer 5 days prior to my exam, did 4 CATs and 3 predictors and scored very high and pass on all of them. I will say my NCLEX looked VERY similar to archer questions, ESPECIALLY the case studies.

Best of luck to anyone studying out there! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

Officially a BSN, RN⚕️


r/NCLEX 5h ago

My Registration cannot pass through

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I do not know how to proceed. It keeps asking me to fill in the blanks but I cannot do it because it does not allow me too. PLEASE HELP!


r/NCLEX 6h ago

Shut off at 85

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Recently took my nclex and it shut off at 85 questions. I got lots of full case studies(at least 5 I think or maybe 6, I can’t quite remember). I got standalone case studies and lots of SATA and ofc multiple choice. I remember crying during my exam because of stuff I’ve never heard about. Ughh I can only pray from this point on. I think the odds are in my favor 🙏🏾


r/NCLEX 5h ago

Discouraged and anxious

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I’m scheduled to take the NCLEX in about a week and I’m feeling really anxious and discouraged.

I’ve been studying consistently for weeks using Bootcamp, usually around 9 hours a day. My overall score is currently 66% with their target being 62%. My readiness exams have gone from 61% Borderline → 67% High → 70% High. I’ve also been scoring mostly in the 70s on my comprehensive exams. However I try to get “really high” on my readiness exams but I NEVER get them.

Objectively, I know I’ve made progress, but I still feel like I’m not doing enough. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m honestly burning myself out because I don’t know when to stop studying. Even when I take a break, I feel guilty and think I should be doing more.
The anxiety makes me feel like if I stop studying, I’m going to forget something or suddenly not be ready.

For anyone who used Bootcamp, did you have similar scores or feel this way before your NCLEX? Did you feel ready going into the exam? And how did you know when to stop studying and actually let yourself rest?


r/NCLEX 14h ago

Do I have a high chance of passing the NCLEX tomorrow?

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I've been doing ATI and the various Uworld, Mark K and Bootcamp resources. I feel like I'm stuck in the 70's but I feel like I just can't squeeze anymore studying in. I feel confident but scared. I got a 96% probability of passing on my ATI comprehensive back in nursing school so I'm hopeful? I guess I just need reassurance.


r/NCLEX 6h ago

Should I reschedule my nclex ?

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I take my PN nclex this Wednesday. so today I did two cat exams on ATI board vitals. These are my scores the 88th one I did first with 66th one I did second back to back. I got a 95% on my comp predictor but then Ionly got a 79% on virtual ati predictor. Am I good to take my exam or should I reschedule?


r/NCLEX 9h ago

Canada NCLEX Results

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Has anyone here taken the NCLEX from Canada? How long did it take to get the results? Alberta, BC, Ontario? Trying to figure out how long I am going to have to wait


r/NCLEX 11h ago

ATT validity

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I'm a retaker and I would like to plan out my retake a little bit more. Does anyone know how long the ATT will be if I apply for a retake under California? My first ATT was valid for 1 year but I want to know if my next ATT will also be valid for a year?


r/NCLEX 23h ago

How many NCLEX study resources do you actually need?

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At one point I had so many NCLEX resources open that I was spending more time deciding what to study than actually studying 😂

I had videos, notes, qbanks and random YouTube stuff everywhere.

Eventually I stuck mostly with questions, rationale review, and targeted content when I noticed a weak area. I also added NGN and prioritization instead of only doing regular questions.

I used Bootcamp here and there, mainly for extra case study practice, but I don't think you need to use every resource people recommend.

How many resources are you guys using right now? I feel like I see a different answer every time I ask lol.


r/NCLEX 21h ago

Ultimate NCLEX/ RN school resource dump

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r/NCLEX 18h ago

am i ready?

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hi y’all i’ve been a lurker of this subreddit for a while just trying to see what other ppl have done. based on my stats am i ready? i take it very soon and it’ll be my second time taking it 🥺


r/NCLEX 19h ago

What’s next after passing NCLEX?

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Hi guyss. I passed my nclex this Aug and now, di ko alam ano magiging nextstep ko. Di ko alam kung ano magandang agency na applyan. Baka po may masssuggest kayo :((. And kung may money naman, is it better ba mag direct hire?


r/NCLEX 1d ago

california people Nclex-rn to license timeline

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california people- I took my nclex on the 1st and saw I passed on the 2nd when i looked at the brn status page. But I still havnt got my license and its the 6th. Anyone else facing this issue right now??


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Passed NCLEX last year and still haven’t figured out my USRN path

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I passed my NCLEX last year, and I honestly thought I’d be much further along by now. It’s been over a year and I still haven’t gotten anywhere with the US process

I initially wanted to go for direct hire instead of going through a staffing agency, mainly because I didn’t want to be tied to a contract. But so far, I haven’t had any luck getting accepted for direct hire positions

Now I’m starting to feel really pressured because some people around me who passed NCLEX much more recently already have staffing agencies and are moving forward with their plans. I’m genuinely happy for them, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel like I’m falling behind 🥲

I know everyone has their own timeline, but it’s hard when you’ve been waiting for more than a year and still don’t know what direction to take

At this point, I’m considering working outside the Philippines first while waiting, since I know the US process can still take a long time anyway. I just don’t know if that’s the right move or if I’m just getting frustrated and trying to do something anything so I don’t feel stuck

For those who passed NCLEX a while ago and took the direct-hire route instead of staffing, how long did it take you? And for those who eventually went with a staffing agency, do you feel like it was worth it?

Honestly just looking for advice because I’m starting to feel so lost about what my next step should be


r/NCLEX 1d ago

did anyone take their exam saturday 9/5?

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my application status on the brn hasn’t updated :( idk if it’s cuz i’m a repeat test taker or because it’s labor day weekend??? just super anxious because i did the pvt and got the good pop up


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Bootcamp and Uworld

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Test is on Sept. 9th, I hope these results are accurate.


r/NCLEX 1d ago

From failing at 85 to passing at 150! Don’t lose hope!

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I failed my first NCLEX attempt at 85 and it was devastating. You hear people say all the time “if you didn’t pass at 85 you must have done horrible”!
And that narrative kept me down for a bit. I even had to post pone a job start date due to this unfortunate event. However, I picked myself back up and kept going. I knew it I could make it through a BSN program with two kids and being over 30, I could surely get through this final boss of an exam!

First time around I used strictly Uworld and did questions and CAT practice exam. Hot take….but I didn’t feel like Uworld was anything like the NCLEX and didn’t prepare me personally enough for it.
My partner swears by it and loved it for his NCLEX prep years ago, but I just didn’t have the same experience and that’s ok!

Second time around I used Bootcamp, mark k lectures (12 mostly), and Dr. Sharon videos. This combo was by far better for me and my studying, and I felt like Bootcamp was so much similar to the NCLEX! I was actually thrilled to see my exam didn’t stop at 85 after the trauma of before! Ha! I knew I still had a fighting chance! All this to say, if you’ve failed before, truly just keep believing in yourself and finding what works for you. You can do this. I am rooting for you! 💜


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Took the NCLEX yesterday

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This was by far the hardest test I’ve taken ngl 😭😭. My test ended at 85 so I either did very good or very bad. I had Archer and Bootcamp and in my opinion those platforms readiness exams were nothing like the real exam. The NCLEX had procedures and disorders I literally have never heard of and I graduated from a very well rated nursing school. Be prepared as pretty much all the questions have two answers which could be correct. In terms of next gen questions I had 0 bow tie and only one chart question. It was a ton of SATA, delegation, and what not to do. I don’t mean to scare anyone but this exam really banks on your ability to be a good test taker.


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Cat exam inconsistent results

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I feel my cat exam was not a mix of everything but I am not sure if I should give my exam tomorrow


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Should I reschedule without proper notice? Please help

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Hey guys, my NCLEX is on Tuesday and yesterday I started feeling very unconfident about my ability to pass after doing two uworld CATs and seeing the difficulty scores were 1.02 and 1.03 with about 80% correct and ending in 85 questions.

My three previous CATs ranged from 1.12 to 1.25 and two uworld self assessment were “very high likelihood of passing” but as my test date nears I’ve been noticing my content gaps and struggles with prioritization and am overall not feeling good about the Tuesday test at all.

I really want to reschedule but since tomorrow is a holiday I’m worried that I’ll get penalized since it’s less than a business day, even though the option to reschedule still shows up on Pearson. Is it worth attempting to reschedule?? What should I do


r/NCLEX 2d ago

Am I good 😭

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I keep going up to 150 and stay in the 80s with above 65% score


r/NCLEX 1d ago

Are low qbank scores actually a bad sign for NCLEX?

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I used to let one bad qbank score ruin my whole study day lol.😂

Eventually I started caring more about what I was getting wrong and why instead of just staring at the percentage.

If I kept missing the same topic, I'd review it and do a smaller set of questions. I also added NGN case studies and prioritization. I used Bootcamp for some of the case studies, but mostly just rotated between whatever resources made sense for the topic.

Some days my scores were still rough. I just stopped treating every percentage like it was predicting my NCLEX result.

Do you guys pay more attention to qbank scores or how well you understand the rationales?


r/NCLEX 2d ago

PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS GOOD IM A REPEAT TEST TAKER

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