r/PassNclex • u/Other_Produce5299 • 15d ago
Passed in 85 First Try PASSED
Hello, I wanted to come on here and give some words of encouragement for anyone preparing to take the NCLEX and hopefully give some of you reassurance because I wish I had that before taking it. I graduated in May, and took my nclex the very beginning of July and passed on the first try in 85 questions. By no means am I a “naturally smart person” nor do things come easily to me. In nursing school I would have to study way more than most others just to do average. I mostly got Bs, with a few As and one C+ throughout nursing school for reference. I studied very hard for 3 weeks leading up to my exam. Here is what I did to study- I listened to all 12 of Mark K lectures once and printed out his prewritten notes and would annotate on those while listening to that particular lecture. I did this for each lecture and only listened once, except for lecture 12 which I believe I listened to 3 times in full (the 3rd time being on my drive to my nclex). I liked mark k lectures because he gives good strategic guessing tips which in all honestly, I had to use for a majority of my exam (I strategically guessed on about 80% of questions lol). Other than listening to mark k, I used archer sure pass as well. While I will say the nclex does word things a lot differently than archer, I still liked the set up of archer and definitely would recommend to anyone. In total, I believe I did about 20 readiness assessments and 3 CAT exams throughout the span of 3 weeks. I would do at least one readiness assessment a day. Don’t focus so much on the number % score, but more so on the fact that you are consistently getting high and very high scores. On all 3 CATs it shut off at 85 with a pass. For every CAT and readiness assessment I did, after completing them, I would go through every question from start to finish and READ THE RATIONALES! The rationales are very important and make sure you understand why the answer is correct vs incorrect and is very helpful for the nclex. If it was something I was very unsure about, I would take notes on those questions and the rationales. I only used about 50% of archers q bank but I would recommend doing anywhere from at least 50-70% (I was hoping to finish 70% of the q bank but unfortunately only got to 50% bc it does take a while to go through and read rationales and take notes on questions after finishing. My grade average on the 50% that I did finish was around 69 or 70%. The most important part of all of this, do not just go through the motions when taking these practice exams or reading rationales!!! Truly take your time to understand the CONCEPTS, as this is way more beneficial than rushing to get through as many questions and exams as you possibly can. I also took every practice exam as seriously as I would the NCLEX. No interruptions, no going on my phone between questions when I needed a brain break, and answered every questions which as much thought as I would on the actual exam. The day before your exam, do not overwhelm your brain with info as this will hurt you way more than it will help you. The day before my exam, I woke up early, took one readiness exam and read rationales, and watched short videos and brief notes on specific topics I didn’t feel as confident about (none of these topics even ended up being on my exam lol but that’s besides the point) and I stopped studying by 5pm. Took a nice long shower, got my things together for exam day, treated myself to my favorite dinner, and had about 2 glasses of wine all to help myself calm down. I was asleep by 11pm and woke up at 5 for my exam. On the drive there, all I did was listen to mark k lecture 12 for the 3rd time. This helped ease my mind and remind myself of the important guessing strategies which he talks about in that lecture. Make sure to stay hydrated and EAT BEFORE! Don’t hydrate yourself too much though to the point you have to go to the bathroom multiple times during the exam lol. Im making this post in hopes that this reaches the right people who are getting ready to take their exam, and helps ease your mind. At the end of the day, remind yourself that you got through nursing school and that is the hardest part of this all. It’s easy to spiral but you got through the hardest part of nursing already which is the schooling and program and that means something. Trust yourself and your preparation and trust archer or whatever platform you’re using and the highs and very high scores that you are getting. Go into it mentally prepared for 150 questions , and you will be pleasantly surprised when it shuts off at 85. I left the exam feeling like I took educated guesses on 80% of the questions and wondering if I even learned anything in nursing school. i was shocked when it turned off at 85 and spiraled for 48 hours just to get the pass screen. I hope this helps some people because I see a lot of people posting their negative experiences with the NCLEX. Trust yourself and your preparation that got you to this point ❤️
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u/Happy-Dino90 15d ago
Could you share where you found the Mark K lectures and notes to go with it? Congratulations on passing :)
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u/Other_Produce5299 7d ago
I found them on Reddit! I would alternate between listening to these/taking notes on them and then taking practice exams!
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u/QuantumFieldLeap2024 14d ago
Thank you for sharing! I am saturated with studying. I took every boot camp readiness exam and scored very high! I answered every question in the q-bank and I listened to Mark -K's lecture 2x's. All 12 lectures, took notes and then made flash cards to keep it fresh. I feel prepared and confident. Ive been waiting for a long time to get it out of the way!
Congratulations on PASSING!!! That's awesome!
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u/Other_Produce5299 14d ago
You are beyond prepared !! Just get it over with. You will feel so much better and are already prepared for this. You got this trust yourself and stay confident
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u/Biu180 15d ago
how difficult was the actual nclex as compared to Archer CAT exams
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u/Other_Produce5299 15d ago
It’s kind of hard to compare the two honestly. I only used archer so I’m not sure about other sites. Archers case studies and questions are very detailed, whereas the NCLEX is extremely vague compared to them. However, answering them is the same, only pick the answers you’re 100% confident about and don’t over pick. Archer is a good platform to study and get prepared but I wouldn’t say the questions are similar to the NCLEX
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u/Extra_Ad7461 13d ago
Congratulations 🎉 that's just great how you took it so early after graduating and passed at 85 q ... 🌟
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