Week 1
Hi, my name is Lindsey C. I graduated from a local community college December 2021. I took my NCLEX in January of 2022 and was unsuccessful. Looking back, I had a bad experience with nursing school. I lost a lot of confidence during my time in nursing school. Leaving the testing center, I cried my entire hour drive home, and for many days after. I still am so disappointed in myself, but this class gives me hope that I will be successful in my next attempt.
Week 3
We are mid-week 3, I’m feeling a little more confident than I was two weeks ago. I think the reading, Nick’s amazing teaching strategies and practicing questions daily is really helping. I am starting to see good results in my UWORLD quizzes. I try to do 75 questions a day, but at minimum the 50 Nick tells us to do. I feel like I’m better at recognizing answers as they come up and why they are right and other answers are wrong. Nick is so great at doing things repetitively so that you remember them and explaining things you might not understand. He holds you accountable and always motivates you to understand things that he might not have time to go over. Just the other day he told us how to study information we might not understand as much by reading and then practicing questions on those topics and if you still don’t understand read it again. I feel like my area of weakness is pharmacology so with his encouragement to study topics you don’t want to; I’ve taken it upon myself to make flashcards. I learn best with flashcards, and I really want to become confident on this topic. Also, Nick says if you can understand how drugs work then it makes learning diagnosis easier, so this to me just must improve. I think Nick is the best though, at building confidence. He is our number one cheerleader, and it makes me want to do better and succeed!
Week 5
So we are now in week 5. I don’t know if it’s just the anxiety of the upcoming text or adding of new information, maybe both, but I feel like I’m losing confidence / not doing as well on my UWorld questions. My scores are still staying at average for the most part, where before I was consistently above average, but seeing the slight decline is really frustrating to me. I do however feel way more prepared going into my exam this time than I did my previous attempt. I feel like this time I will be successful, I just need to calm my nerves and think through each question – without overthinking each question.
Week 6
During week 1 I had mentioned that I attended a community college for nursing school, where I lost all confidence due to the educators spending more time belittling students and reassuring us on how little we actually knew. After a long 6 weeks working together, Nick has proven – that if you actually take the time to teach, it can be understood.
It was, honestly, very tiring trying to keep up momentum and energy during this entire 6-week course. Luckily, Nick and the other classmates were always there to help keep energy levels high and show encouragement, even on days we weren’t in class. I really tried to give all my focus and attention during these 6 weeks to my daily questions, the reading and studying drugs. Just practicing everything we learned in class, outside of class. After 6 weeks of GRINDING, it seems like its paid off. My pre-assessment to starting this course had me ‘borderline’ passing and in the 29th percentile. After 6 weeks of really dedicating allllll my time to preparing, my post assessment gave me a ‘very high’ probability of passing and I was in the 96th percentile.
With only a week left until I test, I’m still nervous/anxious. That feeling of leaving last time and crying my entire hour drive home and then a few more days after, is not something I ever want to experience again. I will continue to do practice questions, review drugs and my notes from class. Overall, during the last 6 weeks I have definitely gained more confidence and knowledge and all the hard work shows. I’m excited (and anxious) for my next attempt but feel 1000x more prepared.
Post reflection passed NCLEX
Officially Lindsey Cook, RN and it’s all thanks to you! This feeling is so surreal. Sitting for boards, and leaving the testing center, this time around was the complete opposite experience than my first attempt.
Going in I was anxious but a lot more confident. Nicks 6 weeks of teaching was more beneficial than my 4 semesters of nursing school. The 1700+ UWorld questions I completed during the 6 weeks definitely helped to build my confidence, your teaching style drastically increased my knowledge but overall, Nick is just encouraging and positive and that gave me the most confidence. Knowing someone who is watching your progress, telling you that they believe in you and have “no doubts” you will pass – that built my confidence the most.
Coming out of boards, I didn’t immediately start crying so I think that was the first positive sign. My exam cut me off at 75 questions and I was truly in shock. My first attempt I got the max of 145 and it took me the entire 5 hours. (I remember submitting my last question with 30 seconds left.) I thought there’s no way I went from getting all 145 to the minimum of 75, but after the disbelief wore off, I just knew there was no way I failed at 75 questions after the weeks of work I just put in. I called Nick immediately to tell him how it went, and he too was confident that I had passed, but in his words “killed it”. We compared how differently I felt this time around to last, and with that all I can say is – Nick is unlike any NCLEX prep instructor out there. Sometimes a “review” for 3-4 days isn’t enough. If you’re struggling with test anxiety, confidence, knowledge, remembering content, or studying strategies (or all the above, like me) then Nick is the teacher for you. He is so passionate about what he does, and he truly wants everyone to succeed. I can’t thank you enough Nick, for working with me and helping me to reach dreams! Anything I can ever to do help you, just let me know.