NCLEX news and some study tips!

So I haven’t posted in a while, but I have really good news. I passed my NCLEX and am officially a registered nurse. Some people gave me some really good advice and others asked me for some tips to pass it so I figured I would make a post out of it. Sorry in advance this is definitely a long post!

NCLEX study tips

• ·      Try and schedule your test at the part of the day you function best. For me this was a 2pm test 3 weeks out after getting my ATT, rather than waiting another week and taking it at 8 am (requiring me to get up at 5 in the morning). However, considering I am not a morning person at all the afternoon test was the best testing time. Another area of scheduling is to schedule your test the right amount out that you have time to study. I was initially concerned 3 weeks wouldn’t be enough time to study and it definitely was a couple weeks of intense studying but I think if I had done it later I would have gotten bored and procrastinated.
• ·      Make a playlist. Studying is boring and no fun. You would rather be at the beach or crafting, hanging out your friends or eating a sleeve of oreos and watching Netflix. But you will have to study so make a playlist. Make one that motivates you, that drives you, but one that isn’t so loud you can't focus. Maybe Classical music helps you stay focused and stimulate your brain, maybe it’s rap so you can make catchy raps to memorize lab values. For me it was mostly Radical Something songs, because every day before clinicals for all my blocks I listened to them and they calmed me down. Seriously ask the people I carpooled with, I didn’t care that I had to drive clinical mornings, I just had to put Radical Something on. But if you are one of the unfortunate people that can’t focus unless it’s 100% quiet, I’m sorry, but really you have an advantage at the actual test. 6 hours of silence is painful.
• ·      Make your drug cards in Nursing school and hold onto them. Actually just own the information the first time. But if you didn’t it’s okay. Just learn them now. You have to know Lithium levels, Digoxin levels, and Insulin peaks, durations, onsets, etc.
• ·      Make a plan. Don't just go with oh I’ll study this week some time. Actually schedule from this time to this time I’m going to do 50 questions. And find a way to be accountable. Cramming for NCLEX does not work.
• ·      Start in your weak areas. Spend more time on these areas. If you’re really strong in one area chances are you will still be strong in that area after you own the new information.
• ·      You will probably have a freak out moment. Or two. Or several. There will come a moment when you realize your 4 years of undergrad all comes down to this test. All your sleepless nights, all the parties you didn’t go to so you could complete assignments, all the friends you lost because nursing school consumed your social life, the scholarship position you gave up because it took up too much time in comparison to nursing school, the trips you didn’t take up, the Easter you didn’t celebrate because you didn’t want to risk not having enough practicum hours, all the blood, urine, sweat and tears you gave to nursing school, all lead up to this one test. This one test gets to define if you are a nurse or just have a nursing degree. It’s scary, you will flip out, but you also will get over it because this is what you sacrificed everything for. You fought through all the problems, you made all the sacrifices because you are meant to be a nurse.  So yes you will freak out but you will also pass your NCLEX. It may not be on the first try, but you will do it because you can do it, because you believed you could.
• ·      Do a lot of practice questions. Kaplan NCLEX review was required through our school program and the single advice everyone gave me was to do all the questions in the qbank and the question trainers. The more practice you have with NCLEX style questions the better, that way you wont get caught up on question wording.

On Test Day

• ·      Get enough sleep. This may be easier said then done as stress may be getting to the better of you but do the best you can. Use relaxation techniques to help relieve stress to help get enough sleep.

• ·      Don’t try and cram more information before you test. It’s okay to review lab values or look over something you think needs clarification, but don’t stress yourself out trying to fit in a full study session.
• ·      Get to your test center early. There’s nothing worse than adding extra stress to an already stressful process. And it’s very hard to re-center yourself when you’re rushing into the test center.

• ·      Probably the best advice someone gave me was to just really take your time on the first 75 questions. The rationale behind this is if you take your time and get enough questions right you won’t have to do all 265 questions.

• ·      The other advice I was given was to use breaks often or anytime you needed to re-center yourself. This advice didn’t work well for me because once I get in the testing mindset breaks keep me from being able to focus as well.

• ·      Just so you know when your test is over it goes to a black screen, don’t panic.

After your test

• ·      Someone told me to wait until I got home to do the Pearson trick to see if I passed. I couldn’t wait that long so I did it on my phone in the parking lot of the test center.
• ·      If you are not aware of the Pearson Vue Trick, you go back in and try to sign up for another test refilling in all the original information, if you get a pop-up that says sorry our records indicate you’ve already signed up for a test you supposedly passed, if it lets you sign up again you supposedly failed. But if you don’t get the pop-up don't panic, a lot of time people don’t get it and still pass.
• ·      If you’re state participates in the quick results system, do it. The peace of mind of knowing whether or not you passed is worth the $10 or so. If you’re state doesn’t participate like California, You will survive the 3 days to two weeks. Someone told me to wait 3 days before even checking the California website but My results showed up after 2 days so don’t be afraid to check it early.
• ·      Do some form of activity to keep your mind off of your results, for me that was watching a whole season of new girl.

Once you find out your results

·      If you passed, Congratulations! Now go out and celebrate! May the odds be ever in your favor to find a new grad job.

·      If you failed, I’m sorry but take a minutes to relax. Your life is not over, you are still meant to be a nurse. You wouldn’t of gone through 4 years of nursing school and made all the sacrifices if you weren’t meant to be a nurse. Take some time to study and retake it and don’t worry you aren’t the first nurse and you definitely won’t be the last to have not passed on your first try. After all it is the hardest test you will take in your nursing career.

So I hope this helped and if it didn’t I at least hope you enjoyed the memes.

And just because I love memes and I probably would still marry Ryan Lochte besides his intelligence deficiency.