I passed!!

I want to update and complete this blog with the good news that I passed the NCLEX! I hope that reading about my experience has been helpful and that you, too will pass the NCLEX! I feel grateful that I had an excellent nursing education and spent enough time reading and mostly practicing questions. Before the test I felt extremely nervous but ready to get it out of the way and move on from studying. I felt calm during the test and took my time thinking about each answer choice and many times making educated guesses. My test shut off at 75 questions and I had a really good feeling when I left. It was definitely a challenge that all RNs go through and move on from. I am now looking for jobs and hoping for the best!!

One Week to Go!

This time next week I will either be taking the NCLEX or finished! The bulk of my prep has been taking 100 question tests where I score in the 70's. I'd like to see improvement however I've been extremely consistent so far. I've studied pedi, maternity and pharm to some extent although pharm questions definitely make me nervous! Overall I feel like I am on track. I still need to work on getting up early. Tomorrow I will do a dry run (wake up at 5:30, eat a healthy breakfast, get dressed and take the T to my test site) and see how long it takes me. Then, I can come back home and take another practice test. I am generally an evening person so I should plan on getting up early and "waking up" well before I am expected to do some heavy thinking. Today, I overslept, ate breakfast, dressed, and took a practice test. The rhythm is there, I just need to start 2 hours earlier.
I'm feeling a little nervous and I'm sure cranky to those around me. In general I feel positive and ready to move on from the NCLEX. I'm not thrilled about re-starting the job hunt because the market in Boston is not very encouraging. I have confidence that I'll find something eventually and am praying that it will be a good experience. I will do what I can on my side and hope for the best! This time next week, I will be even closer to putting RN after my name- the start of many initials I hope!

Breaking Through

I finally broke through my 68% wall. I am now taking daily practice tests of 75-100 questions in one sitting (which was hard for me at first) and am in the 70-80% range, depending on the test bank! I'm concerned with my 8 am test time since I've been waking up late and taking my time getting ready in the morning. I also tend not to be a morning person so my next goal is to train myself to wake up and be mentally awake earlier and earlier. My thought this morning of waking up early and taking a practice test resulted in me staying in bed until the usual time of 9am. It's been so cold in my apartment in the mornings that waking up early has been really hard for me. It's OK for me to wake up early and then leave the apartment but if I know I'll be staying at home it's hard to get motivated to actually get going early in the morning. I have to work on this before test day. Any suggestions?

The Wall

It is clear to me that I need to buckle down a lot more. I've been answering practice questions and being lazy about reading from my review books. So far I've been doing questions 80% of the time and reviewing the other 20%. Mainly because I am not in study mode and still on vacation mode from the holidays. I'd like to bring my ratio to 50/50 today. No unnecessarily cleaning the house, laundry, going out to dinner, talking excessively on the phone, etc. It's difficult to sit and read for hours and mentally feel like I've needed a break from that after grueling finals and non-stop studying in nursing school. On the other hand, I have a pretty incredible vacation waiting for me after I take the boards, where I will do some quality relaxing instead of small bouts of relaxation/avoiding studying.
I can not longer feel overconfident because I seem to have hit a 68% wall with the CD I'm studying from. I like Mosby's test bank because they are challenging and a fair representation of what I think I'll see on the NCLEX. I'd like to work on content and strategy and get my percent into the mid-70's-80. My short term goal is to do more reading and reviewing and maximize my time before I take the real thing.

Reassurance

Over the past couple days, along with working at the job at lot more than I should, I've focused on my areas of weakness (pedi, ob). Today I plan on reading up on pharm. While studying, I've done practice questions and much to my chagrin scored lower than I wanted to & much lower than my testing average in nursing school. On practice tests, I am consistently in the 68% range and at times would score in the 80's depending on the test bank. I suppose some book's questions are harder than others. I googled about what percent correct passes the NCLEX and found than passing is 50% correct depending on the difficulty of the questions. Somehow, I did not believe this. Was I already in the passing range with a consistent 68%?
Yesterday, I went to day 1 of the Anderson Review course (http://www.nclextestprep.com/) which was excellent. There, they reconfirmed the 50% that I found and discussed the same level of difficulty theory. The NCLEX tests minimum competency and will present questions bellow, at and above minimum competency. As long as the tester is above the minimum competency benchmark at 75-200+ questions they pass! We discussed test taking skills and strategies for one of the hardest topics tested- prioritization. In nursing school and in practice tests I have struggled with these types of questions. We individually answered 20 questions where 12 correct equaled passing. I scored a humble but sufficient 13 correct.
I am now feeling extremely relieved that I am on the right track! I will aim for an 80% but won't beat myself up if I don't reach that goal every time. This isn't school and I don't need to get an A on this test. I want to be as prepared as possible.

I scheduled the NCLEX for January 22nd! Anderson recommends 100 hours of prep time and other sources say taking 5,000 test questions. I have less than 3 weeks so from now until then studying and practice tests is my job and life! Afterwards, I'll be laying on a beach in the Bahamas with my sister!!