Passing the NCLEX
It’s that NCLEX time of year again. While most of us are stressing out about Christmas, I know there are a select few of you who are stressing out about NCLEX. I want you to know, it’s not as bad as you think. I actually wasn’t too nervous about taking the NCLEX back in 2004. In fact, I felt pretty confident. Why? Because my nursing school had a good passing rate. Something like 92%. That means that 92% of the students from the previous class had passed the NCLEX on the first try. While I wasn’t at the tippy-top of my class, I knew that my grades were respectable. Perhaps even admirable. So statistically speaking, it would be very unlikely that I wouldn’t pass. In the end I think passing the NCLEX comes down to three factors:
- NCLEX Practice questions. Take lots of them and when you do, don’t get bogged down by the details. The point of taking the practice questions is to get you to think like a nurse. As a nurse you will have to prioritize everything you do, and therefore the questions are formatted as such. So many questions boil down to prioritization (i.e. You have 4 tasks. Which one should you do first?) And that’s where your ABCs come into play…
- ABCs. Airway, Breathing, Circulation. Live it, love it, learn it. So many questions are based on this hierarchy. So even if you come across a question with a drug or a disease that you’ve never heard of (I’m not gonna lie to you – it happens) you can always try to pare the question down to the ABCs.
- RELAX!!! I can’t stress this enough. I think there are some pretty smart cookies out there that fail just because the get themselves all in a tizzy before they take the test. Don’t be that student. You will have ample time to take the test. Just take a deep breath before every question, and give it your best shot.
And finally, congratulations to Not Nurse Ratched, RN(!!!), who passed the NCLEX early and inspired me to write this post! Creative Commons photo courtesy of Nicole St. John
