Hello everyone! I am a non-traditional, and international nursing student (previously had another degree in Surgical Technology) graduated from Ohio. I wanted to briefly share my experience taking the NCLEX-RN. Since English is not my first language, I might sound like I'm rambling. I apologize in advance.

I have taken my NCLEX-RN on August 27, at a Pearson Testing center that was located near my house. I have been preparing for NCLEX-RN for almost two months, but seriously started studying for about 2-3 weeks out (just told everyone else that I was studying but actually wasn't lol). I did not exactly do 75 questions per day, like other people on this forum. I only did 50-60 questions per day, about 20 questions without tutor mode on. I did not write anything down, only read the rationales and made sure that I knew why the other choices were wrong.

My concern was, I was only at 22nd percentile when I started using UWorld, and ended up at about 48th percentile the day before the exam. I was panicking and my nerves were shot. I did not take the advice from other people who said NOT to study the day before, and studied my butt off. Guess what. My mind was too fatigued the night before I went to bed, and felt like I'm going to fail.

Well, the exam day came and I was panicking even more than I did the day before. I went to the testing center about 30 minutes before, and found out that there is a long waiting line in front of me. (Quick advice, please go to the testing center at least 30 minutes early if not earlier.) I sat down with the paperwork that they gave me to read over, and when I was called I went up to the front desk and did palm vein check, pocket checks, glasses check (I wear glasses), and they asked to lift my pants above the ankle, to make sure that there wasn't anything there. After, I made sure I asked for earplugs and was situated at a computer.

While I was going through the questions, I felt like I did not know anything. I felt like I guessed my way through the questions until I got to question 40. I told myself that I will have to get myself together, otherwise I am going to fail. As soon as the question number hit 61, my heart dropped. I did not know what to think, and the exam kept going until question 130.

Leaving the testing center, I did not even have the mental energy to drive back home. I sat in my car for 15-20 minutes straight, just staring into the sky. I got the email that says, "Now that you've taken the NCLEX - but you still have questions". I told myself not to do the PVT before the exam, but I couldn't keep myself from trying. Once I tried, I got the "good pop-up". Ever since, I've been scouring through the internet, trying to find a post about a false-positive on PVT. Didn't find one. I told myself that it'll be okay for the next two days and got a little glimpse of hope doing PVT. (PVT is 100% accurate if you get the good pop-up. If you do NOT get the good pop-up, there's still a chance that you might have passed. (about 15-20% chance of passing with a bad pop-up))

After a dreadful 48 hours, I did the quick results and found out that I passed.


All in all, I feel like UWorld can help you to a certain point. It will give you a lot of SATA questions, but on the actual exam, I only had 10-15 of them. One thing I've learned was that every NCLEX is different, because all my friends got at least 20-30 SATA questions on their exam. Also I believe UWorld is a lot harder than the actual exam. NCLEX gives you very vague questions. When you do practice exams, make sure to read the rationales, why other choices are wrong, and when studying look up those disease processes. I feel like this is the best part that helped me study.
If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them! Good luck everyone.

UWorld bank: Q-bank - 2000 questions used, score - avg. 50-60%
edited by on 9/2/2020
edited by on 9/2/2020

Imjust want tomthank you for sharing your experience and most of all.... Congratulations!

May I ask where did you take your exam?

Thank you.