If you are having a problem with test anxiety, then you need to get tested and find out exactly what the problem is, so you can get treatment for it.

Have you done a review course?  You should have a letter telling you your weak areas from the testing center.  That is a place to start on review.

Practicing NCLEX questions is a good place to start.  Do 10 a day in 15 minutes.  Then drop it to 14 minutes when you're getting 100%, then 13 minutes and so on.

Focus on your critical thinking skills. You talk about math; math is black and white.  NCLEX is not black and white, it is shades of grey.

You can get every knowledge comprehension question right and still fail.  NCLEX doesn't care if you know your content.  It cares if you know what to do to care for patients.

Hello

I see you stated that you took the kaplan course.  They suppose to gurarantee you materials to help you pass the test.  If not they suppose  to refund you the money back.  You may want to check into that.  Also just take your time and study from one book and not many others.  It will be better to read from the one you understand the most.  I hope this information is helpful to you!

this is a small portion of a response i gave in this forum under another topic....

what you need to keep in mind is that the nclex test your ability to answer the questions with the information they give you. here is where the strategies come in. the strategies teach you how to go about answering different types of questions - even the questions where the you don't know much about the topic. do as much questions as you possibly can. (by the time i passed my nlcex i probably went through 5,000 questions.)  doing that many questions  enforces the strategies you've learned and builds up your endurance and you also get to learn a lot of content in little tid-bits. if you have test anxiety, work on getting rid of it or at least minimizing it.  when you go for the nclex, panicking is no good. the number of questions that you recieve on the nlcex is NO INDICATOR of whether you pass or you fail. you can get 75, 186 or all 265 questions pass or fail. DO NOT go into the nclex wanting a specific amount of questions. ANTICIPATE ALL 265 QUESTIONS!  if you go in with the mind set of having the minimum of questions (e.g. 75 questions) and the computer gives you questions past that, you are going to start worrying and get stressed out and that is in NO WAY good. answer each question as if it were your last.

I know it's been a few months since this intial post. I graduated in May of this year and last week was my first attempt at the NCLEX but I did not pass. I also did the Kaplan review course which I found some strategies to be helpful but maybe I need more review on certain contents. Review books have been helpful also but I go back to the review sections and have to find other places for practice questions once I write in these books. As for test anxiety, I feel I am ok in that area. I took two months to study and practiced plenty of questions. It took gradual increase in practicing questions, like starting with 1 hour,  then up to 5 hours. I hear the Hurst review is also helpful although I have not looked into that yet. I plan to take the NCLEX again soon so I'm back to reviewing and do what I can.

I hope your testing goes/went well.

 don't feel bad, you will pass, i have tried more than twice, still trying to pass nclex. ihave the same problem, anxiety. it doesn't mean i do not know the answere, iam still trying, will not give up, iam answering as many questions as i can and write notes for those i need to pay more attention. GOD bless you.

I graduated last year from the LPN program and have failed the nclex twice, I hope to take it again. Sometimes I just want to give up and not take it again for fear of failing yet again. But then I think I spent two years and I did graduate its just a test keeping me from becoming  a nurse. I want so bad to be a nurse, I keep studying alot. But seeing other students graduate at work  and passing there boards on the first try makes me a little jealous of them.  I will keep taking the test until I pass it. Its good to hear about other people having trouble just like I am.

My suggestion is to try Saunders NCLEX prep book and CD-ROM. It really helped me. I also took Kaplan and failed my first time around. I had a total of 205 questions. I found that the CD-ROM that came with Saunders have a lot of very hard questions and it really helps to read the rationales. Another thing is to try meditation to relax and decrease your anxiety level. I re-took my NCLEX-RN and passed with only 75 quesions. I personally believe that by studying from Saunders, it has really prepared me, although i did study 4 hours every morning up to the day of my exam. Best of all luck to you.

Hi Erincas, I dont know how long ago you wrote about this.  But hopefully you passed your nclex, that test can really be tough, as it should be.  Test anxiety affects a lot of people.  I think the best possible thing that i have found to help is taking practice tests.  I have my cna training students and my nursing students take practice test after practice test.  I actually found a lot of books for practice at barnes and nobles and borders books.  Hopefully that helps, and good luck.  You will love nursing!