General Information
Are you ready to take the test? If it is the NCLEX or the HESI, make sure you have done all your preparation before test day. Do you think you can pass the NCLEX without studying? Maybe you could but if you fail you must wait at least 45 days to take it again and you have to pay for another exam. If you fail the HESI you will have to pay for another test any many schools only give you two tries. The best thing to do is to be prepared and I am going to tell you how. If you are wondering who I am, I passed my HESI on the first try with a 991. I also passed my NCLEX on the first try with the minimum number of questions.
When to Test?
If you are taking the HESI, your school probably has a pre-set date for you that you can not change. If you are scheduling your NCLEX exam, it is imperative that you schedule as soon as your school has given you a passing grade and sent your information in as ready to test. The testing centers often fill up quickly and the longer you wait to test, the lower the success rate is of passing the test. I recommend waiting no longer than one month after completing school to take your test. You might be asking why? It is simple, the information will still be fresh in your mind, and we all know that with time we forget details and those details could be detrimental to your test results.
How Do I study?
First, you have to take into consideration that passing the NCLEX test can and will change the rest of your life. You will certainly be able to get a nursing job and with that comes money and potential for career advancement. Since you see how important it is, you should understand why I recommend you take 1-2 weeks off of work and study 6-8 hours per day. Sound excessive? If your career is riding on it, what is the difference than all the studying you did while in nursing school? You should have been studying daily for 1-2 years right? Well, now you are cramming all that information into one huge nursing test that can and will change your life for the better. Make sure you have a quiet place at home, food to eat, something to drink and several of the NCLEX books. Do not waste your time reading over your text books, you have already been through them and most of them provide the information but do not put it in a clinical setting. I also recommend that you utilize study CD’s that come with the book. The NCLEX CD questions can break up the monotony from doing all that book studying.
In the end if you made A’s and B’s, 30-60 hours of studying should ensure a passing NCLEX or HESI. If you made lower grades, I would make sure you study closer to the recommended 60. Make sure that when you study for the NCLEX or HESI you have several books of questions so you can understand the information and are not just memorizing the answers. It is just as important that you read ALL the rationales to every question so that you can fully understand the information and be able to answer a similar question.
What Happens Next?
The HESI test will give you immediate results so you can hopefully have instant gratification. If you happen to fail because you neglected to study for 30 hours, you will have to re-test based on your schools policy and pay about $50 to re-take the HESI. The NCLEX on the other hand does not give you instant results and you have a usually short but painful wait ahead of you. The results take 2-3 days, sometimes less sometimes more. You will be notified by mail but you can also go to your states board of nursing and put in your social security number to see if you have been granted a license. It does cost to check this way but I was able to find out I had passed a mere 48 hours after my test and way before the mail came! In the meantime you will be wondering did I pass or did I fail? I have heard that if it cuts off around 78 questions, you either did so good there was no need to test you further or you did so bad there was no need for you to continue . If you get more questions than 78 or so, the computer needs more info because it has not decided if you know enough and it will continue to test until a decision is made. In my experience, everyone I have talked to that has received 78 questions did in fact pass. I would say about half of the people I have talked to who received more questions than 78 passed while the other half failed.
Don’t Give Up
I just wanted to end this by encouraging you not to give up! I personally know two people who failed the test and never re-took it. These two people spent so much money and so much time in school and have nothing to show for it. I find it disheartening because both of these people are smart and wonderful people. If you fail, study the 30-60 hours and use 3-4 different NCLEX books and take it again. It will cost a couple hundred dollars to re-take it but don’t make excuses, find the money to make the money! Please do not give up! We need nurses out there!
