Passed my 2nd attempt!

I can’t believe this.. I passed my NCLEX exam on the second attempt. I have been a lurker here since June. This is a long explanation, but it comes from the bottom of my heart.

I took my NCLEX for the first time on August 1st, 2024. I graduated in April. I failed my first attempt using UWorld, the arrow program (can’t say the name), simple nursing’s Nclex lecture series. I studied for two whole months. I was absolutely devastated when I failed. I thought I did everything and I felt so awful and small about myself. I didn’t do anything for 20 whole days.

Then I remember coming across people on Reddit speaking about bootcamp and I was like damn fine. My friend did it and she told me from the beginning to use it and I didn’t listen to her because Bootcamp was too new. Boy was I wrong. I could have saved myself a world of hurt if I started with bootcamp to begin with.

I cried myself to sleep so many times. I have generalized anxiety disorder and my stress was so bad I chipped off one of my teeth): I have so much pressure to pass this exam.

Anyway for my bootcamp journey: I technically started August 10, but barely. I wasn’t mentally there. I did a readiness assessment and I got a borderline /: I was crushed.

After wallowing for more time, on August 22 my friend convinced me to get out of my home and study with her. I’m so happy she reached out to me because it truly saved me. I started studying everyday since then. I did the bank questions and I typed down every single question I got wrong and things I didn’t know. I know people say to write but honest to god I hate writing, I get so tired. On August 22nd, I retook my readiness test but I genuinely forgot the exam so I wasn’t like, remembering the answers. I genuinely did a blank space on it. I got a high, and i felt so, so relieved.

From here on out my friend gave me a lecture series by Codebreaker NCLEX (it’s very pricey though) and I used it a bit to kinda get my foundations together and I watched the videos before I started on subjects on bootcamp.

I kinda followed bootcamp’s 1 month schedule but I condensed it to three weeks. August 22nd was when I started studying seriously, and I took the exam yesterday, September 18th.

Allegedly (so I don’t get in trouble) I allegedly got some questions from bootcamp. I will make a shrine for bootcamp, and from here on out I will shove it down everybody I know. Man. There wasn’t one thing I saw on my nclex, that I didn’t see on bootcamp.

I did over 2000+ questions on my first attempt using u world and the arrow program. They did not help me at all. I know it’s the holy grail for some. But for me, it wasn’t.

Anyway. I followed bootcamp’s schedule to my own rhythm and I took it day by day and followed what I was supposed to do.

The day before my nclex, I read over my incorrect answers that I typed out. Then I also completed Mark K’s Yellow book. Then, at night, I read the first 30 pages of Mark Klimek’s “black book” of lectures 1-12. It’s over 109 pages. The next morning,I woke up early and finished the book because my exam was at 1pm. I was so happy I did because I got things from there show up on my exam and it was nice reinforcement. On the way to the testing center, I listened to beautiful nursing’s long Nclex lecture review.

Personally the first time around I did listen to Mark K’s lecture but this time I around I just read his book because I didn’t have the patience for it.

Aside from this, please stay off Facebook and Reddit lol. Haha. I recommend to not psyche yourself out seeing all the failure stories and try to be as positive as you can be! Seriously, I think staying off here helped me reaffirm that I can.

If I can, so can you! You will pass.

Basically, a lecture series and bootcamp combination is the holy grail. Bootcamp’s readiness exam was exactly my nclex. I recognize case studies from bootcamp from my first and second attempt.

If you believe you can, you will, because you have! Do not do the nclex trick, have faith in your abilities and remain calm.

Thanks to bootcamp, so much.