Passed NCLEX in 75 questions first try! Here is what worked for me.

Let me preface this by saying that I was an average nursing student. As and Bs in an accelerated
nursing program, but it didn’t come easy for me. I didn’t study for the NCLEX until after I graduated. I
got an 847 on my exit HESI (850 meant guaranteed to pass NCLEX..rough) and took the max 165
questions in our program’s mock NCLEX exam with a “Minimally Acceptable” result (meaning it was
unable to determine if I was able to pass the NCLEX). On my last day of nursing school I had a
meeting with my program’s coordinator to hear her say she doesn’t know if I can pass the NCLEX
and I needed to buy the Kaplan course to review material. She didn’t seem very optimistic about my
probability of passing. But also that was most of my professors in my program towards any student
who didn’t have a 3.8 GPA.
I started studying the day after my graduation. I looked up here what worked and didn’t work for
people before and decided against Kaplan and stuck to UWorld. I tried Saunders to review material,
but it was so time consuming I skipped reading material and focused on reading the rationales from
UWorld. I can’t emphasize enough how similar UWorld is to NCLEX. Reading the rationales and
doing questions really gets you prepared for how NCLEX wants you to think and how they phrase
their questions and options. I studied everyday for a month.
This is what worked for me: 100 new questions a day. 50 in the beginning of the day and 50 at the
end of the day. Before doing new questions, I’d review my “Marked” and “Incorrect” questions,
around 30 at a time. Every single question I really took the time to learn what made each option
correct or incorrect. Eventually I got the hang of it. ABCs, ABCs, ABCs. Safety. Infection. READ THE
SCENARIOS. Person with 100.4 fever and 10,000 WBC with pneumonia? Expected. Person with 105
temp under general anesthesia? Not normal. Headache and hit their head: BLEEDING? Every question
I kept thinking “Which one means imminent death?” and “Which one is a deviation from their norm?”
A good trick I learned in nursing school is “Not in distress = Assess. Patient in Distress = DO NOT
ASSESS (pick an intervention option).” I had a notebook where I wrote down the medical
emergencies (tamponade, AAA, increased ICP) and major assessments for procedures. Towards the
end I was getting 70s on most of them. I’d do some questions from the Lippincott App I bought for
$20 in between, but it didn’t help as much as UWorld did. My exam was on a Friday. I took the first
assessment exam on Sunday with a 69% and a 92% chance of passing. I took my second self-
assessment exam the night before my NCLEX and got an 80% with a 97% chance of passing.
Day of my NCLEX I was in and out in less than an hour and a half, including taking the time to do the
testing questions for the new NCLEX they’re implementing soon. I didn’t take any breaks. I had about
~15-20 SATA that were evenly dispersed throughout the exam since question 6, 1 math question I
got towards the end (easy), 1 illustration, 1 put in order, no audio, around 2-3 peds question, and
maybe 2 OB questions? I didn’t get as many priority questions as I thought, but got A TON of “Which
of the following statements require further evaluation?” or “Which of the following indicates the
patient understands the teaching?” I left the exam thinking I failed because UWorld questions were a
TAD bit harder, so I thought I was below the passing line. Got the good pop up with PVT 4 hours
after my exam. I paid the $8 to get quick results, found out I passed, and treated myself to eating
whatever the hell I wanted for the whole day.
I know this post is very long, but long in-depth posts about people’s NCLEX experiences helped me a
lot to gauge how I should study, so I thought maybe there’s someone else on here who is thinking
the same.
TL;DR: Average nursing student told by the school possibility to fail, did UWorld for a month, Passed
in 75. Believe in urself.

Passed my NCLEX in 75 questions, got my RN License yesterday (self.StudentNurse)

submitted 38 minutes ago by NJMooseRN, BSN

Took my NCLEX 9/26/18 at 8AM EST here in NJ. It turned off after I answered question #75. Pearson VUE
Trick seemed promising nearly at hour 1, 12, and 24 after the exam. I paid the $8 for the unofficial
results after 2 days (which were pass)

Here's how I studied and how the exam went down:

 Uworld, 100 questions a day in sets of 25. Any question I didn't know how to answer, I'd write
down and look up the information after. I completed about 1000 questions and averaged 60%
correct, 40% incorrect (which put me at the 72nd rank, median is 48th rank). Uworld's layout is
almost identical to the NCLEX.

 Pharmacology flash cards I made on Anki. The drugs on the NCLEX will be generic names, which
is important to know!

 The day of the exam I got up at 5AM to make sure I'd make it to the testing center 30 minutes
early. The testing center will seal your phone in a bag and make you store everything in a locker
except your license/passport (which they will stick in a ziplock bag). About 80% of the people
taking the exam with me that day were NCLEX-RN test-takers, which you can easily tell by the
amount of them muttering to themselves things they want to remember. They'll inspect your
glasses and make you pat yourself down and flip your pockets inside out before they let you
take the exam. They provide you with a laminated piece of paper and a wet-erase marker to
write down stuff. Once you fill it up, you can request another one should you need it.

 Pace yourself. You've got a lot of time to answer the questions, there's no reason to be nervous
or rush. The NCLEX questions are easier than HESI and Uworld, remember it's a licensure exam
that's taken in 50 states+canada with a 90% pass rate. The questions are going to be basic and
not have any tricks up their sleeves.

 Breathe. You got this!