Recently failed at 150 using UWorld. I was fully convinced I passed because the exam didn’t seem very difficult and UWorld was great at explaining rationales. Im not using bootcamp and I feel extremely humbled compared to UWorld. Is it normal to feel like this. Im starting to feel my confidence drop considering I got a HIGH on my 1st readiness and high 50s to low 60s on all the quizzes afterwards. Any advice?

to anyone that has failed their nclex for the first time, i promise you will reach your goal of becoming a nurse. trust me, i thought failing my nclex was the end of the world. everyone around me passed their nclex on their first try including my mom, boyfriend and close friends, so when i failed i thought i wasn’t destined to become a nurse. however, that’s not the case. i came back stronger and told myself everyday that i was meant to be a nurse and that i would pass on my next attempt no matter what. if you just found out you failed, take at least a week break. cry and let all of your emotions out. after that one week, get a grip and get to studying because you are getting that license (and you don’t want to waste another $450💀).

what i utilized to study for my second attempt:

bootcamp: this was my main study bank. i watched every single crash course video and reviewed all the cheat sheets. their crash course videos get straight to the point which honestly helped me understand concepts more clearly. i studied subjects individually and then completed questions based on the subject. for example, i would focus on adult health endocrine system by watching all the crash course videos and reviewing the cheat sheets. after i felt confident reviewing, i would do the practice questions and then review the rationales for all questions whether they were correct or wrong answers. also every morning i would wake up and complete the daily warmup.

uworld: my friend gave me her account after she had taken her nclex. i used uworld for the CAT exams and i feel like it gives you a great idea of how testing might be. i only did a few CAT exams which i would score between 71%-86% with the highest difficulty being 1.33. i also would do practice questions on subjects i wasn’t confident in such as management of care (mainly prioritization questions) and OB.

chatgpt: i am usually against AI, but chatgpt was really helpful with summarizing and explaining concepts to me that i had a hard time grasping. i ended up paying for the $20 membership so that i could upload the bootcamp cheat sheets and have it ask me nclex style questions based on the sheets i uploaded. btw i already canceled my plan i do not need to utilize AI that much to be paying for a membership.

dr. sharon: i watched the prioritization playlist the night before and the day of my exam. her tips actually guided me throughout my exam, and i was always thinking about which answer stood out to be the safest option for the client.

pulse check with archer nursing: you can find this podcast on youtube and spotify. i would listen to the podcasts on subjects that never clicked with me such as ep.97 heart blocks and ep. 89 aortic dissection. dr. morgan gives real life scenarios, and those would stick to my brian whenever i had questions surrounding those concepts.

mark k: the legendary lecture 12. as you might already know, he gives great test guessing strategies.

my journey after failing the first time: i ended up just enjoying myself and going out way more than i did when i took it the first time. i even went on vacation for a week. i was living my life and having fun while making sure i was still studying 3-5 hours a day. sometimes 7-8 hours if i had the entire day to lock in. however, there were days that i felt anxious and afraid to fail again. i would cry but continued to hold my head up high because i wasn’t gonna let this exam stop me from achieving my dream. my first attempt was 7/8 and this attempt was on 9/5, so i took almost 2 months to study. i had to wait 45 days anyways but i decided to push it back about 1.5 week because i had a lot of outside factors in my life. i went into the exam way less anxious than my first time because i knew i would be able to pass. ngl tho when it stopped at 85 i was kinda shocked bc i truly thought i had failed again. i was freaking out and i ended up doing the pearson vue trick bc even if i failed i was gonna have to pay for the exam again. i ended up getting the good pop up and in 48 hours i checked my quick results that said i passed! so if you reached the end of this post, please know you only truly fail when you give up. best of luck future RNs ❤️

I passed the nclex in 85 questions using Uworld. The CAT tests on Uworld all stopped at 85 questions for me and I made an average of low 70’s on my tests.
I was scoring high 60’s to low 70’s on the practice tests.

(I also only studied for like a week total using 6 practice tests and 3 CAT tests & didn’t watch any of the videos)

I feel like the CAT tests were pretty similar to NCLEX. Though NCLEX definitely gives less information on normal questions outside of case studies

i thought my entire life was over when i failed at 86. i felt so defeated especially knowing that everyone in my class was passing and getting jobs. you only truly failed when you stop trying ‼️

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. I try to aim for “very high” on the 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?

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. I got a 95% on my comp predictor but then I only got a 79% on virtual ati predictor. Am I good to take my exam or should I reschedule?

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. I got a 95% on my comp predictor but then I only got a 79% on virtual ati predictor. Am I good to take my exam or should I reschedule?

My story!

I test tomorrow, any last minute advice or things you wish you could’ve told yourself before the test? I feel “ready” but also not confident which sucks going into the test day tomorrow, but I know I’ve studied a ton.

I just took my first CAT exam and this was my score. I took a predictor assessment in June and got a “very high” chance of passing.

I’m getting tired of studying but the thought of the exam scares me. While I’m answering the question on the predictor exams, I feel like I’m failing and don’t know what I’m doing. I clearly do because I’m getting decent scores, they just feel different than when I do regular practice questions.

I’m scheduled to take my exam in October, but part of me thinks I’m ready to just get it over with.

Ughhh !! All this is making me crazy 😂😭 any advice on whether I should keep my date or push it up? My only concern with pushing it up is that I’m not 100% ready.. but do any of us feel 100% ready when we test ?

hello poo, i’m a fresh grad po. not yet taking PNLE. Ano po bang iseselect don sa may ‘Profession’ upon signing up sa CEUFast? RN po ba or Nursing student? Wala po kasing BSN grad na option huhuhu

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! 💜

Following up on my before post - I'm retaking the NCLEX this week for my second attempt. First attempt I used Archer and now for this attempt I switched to NCLEX Bootcamp!

These are my current results. I have also been watching Dr Sharon videos on how to better interpret what the questions are ACTUALLY asking.

Any other advice? lol pray for me pls

I feel my cat exam was not a mix of everything but am I ready for exam

HI!

I started my first week of nursing school last Monday August 31st. I’m taking pharmacology, pathophysiology, fundamentals, health assessment (lecture and lab), and intro to nursing professional role.

I was wondering what are some tips you would give to starting out nursing student to prepare for the nclex?

Or how should we go on about taking our notes, summarizing, clinicals, and what not to be well prepared for the nclex?

Or even things you wished people told you when you started nursing school to prepare for nclex during lectures?

Thank you in advance!

• Mark K Lectures: I found a google drive posted on reddit with all the lecture recordings AND typed notes that’s correlate with each lecture! I printed the notes and annotated as I listened. I found his lectures were helpful in simplifying major topics but I understand his teaching style isn’t for everyone. However I would HIGHLY recommend at least listening to his 12th lecture on prioritization. I was given a lot of prioritization questions on my nclex in the context of med-surg and OB patients and found his lecture to help me answer these questions with confidence. (if you’d like the link to the drive message me! so this post won’t get taken down)

• ATI Live Review Assessments/BoardVitals: My school utilized ATI within our tuition and at the end of the semester recommended us to attend the 3 day ATI live review which granted you access codes to comprehensive assessments for each area of nursing that allow you two attempts each assessment. I used these to assess areas needed to study the most when I took each on the first time (scoring around 55-60s). Then used my ATI books and boardvitals in study mode study these subjects. About 2 weeks before my exam I took each comprehensive assessment a second time to see my growth in each subject and was scoring 70s

I liked using ATI because I didn’t need to purchase additional materials for studying. I will say the assessment rationales aren’t great bc they’re either very vague or don’t give a real rationale at all. BUT I found that the rationales for BoardVitals on study mode were much more in depth and helpful to understand the correct answer and why the wrong answers were wrong.

• Free NCLEX bootcamp exam: I didn’t purchase the full access for NCLEX bootcamp, but I used these 1st free readiness exam 3 days before my test bc it truly does simulate the NCLEX experience. I found it helpful for me to get into the mindset of a taking standardized test because i have A LOT of testing anxiety. I scored a 72%.

• My NCLEX Experience: i will admit i was feeling okay at the beginning 20ish questions on my exam but after that i started to see things that i have never ever heard of in nursing school. i was started to feel very defeated by this and was honestly taking a lot of educated guesses towards the end of my exam. i knew people said you wouldn’t know everything but it still threw my off. when my test turned off at 85 my heart completely dropped. my quick results came in 48 hours and i was so in shock to see that i passed i started bawling mostly from relief.

While my studying didn’t prepare me to know EVERYTHING on my exam (because you simply cannot expect that from yourself) doing practice questions along with these lectures did help me learn how to at least make the most educated guesses when i saw something i knew little to nothing about.

i hope this is helpful for someone out there! :)

I'm in my final semester of nursing school and I was told by my teacher to use elsevier and the HESI to study for the NCLEX. I've only seen people talk about uworld, archer, Kaplan, or bootcamp on here. How accurate is elsevier/HESI? The HESI asks about topics that I've learned absolutely nothing about, so that worries me.