With welcoming the new year, also comes excitement and anxiety revolving around upcoming graduation and licensure in the next few months. It is hard to believe that this is the home stretch and my nursing school journey is almost complete. I am beyond excited to see what this next chapter of my life will bring and finally getting to work my dream career as an RN! I am most excited to feel like I am actually making a difference in the world, and in the lives of my patients. I’m so excited to dive right in and take my preexisting knowledge and continue to learn as much as I can. While I am excited for this transition from student nurse to registered nurse, I am also nervous and anxious. I am nervous that I will make mistakes, but at the same time I know that mistakes are how we learn and I will have other nurses that will be able to help me out. Becoming a registered nurse is also something that will be brand new to me, and I know that I will not be perfect at it right off the bat, but not being absolutely perfect at something gives me intense fear and anxiety. However, at the same time I am aware that this fear is unrealistic as I already know that I will not be perfect right away, and it takes a lot of experience and practice which makes me excited to learn more and further my career.

When it comes to studying and time management, I have developed a plan that I think will work well for me. Before I know it, it will be time to take the NCLEX. Throughout this next semester, I want to work with my professors to develop a review binder for the NCLEX with important course work and notes that I have done thus far to create a big review packet. In addition, I want to keep doing practice quizzes and tests, at least one every week to help me prepare for the exam. Towards the end of the semester and closer to the NCLEX exam, I want to be doing longer length practice exams every week to increase my preparedness. I will help myself stay on track by keeping a written schedule, and reminding myself that with each practice test I do, the closer I am to passing the NCLEX and becoming an RN – the best motivation!

After completing the ATI Nurse Logic 2.0 Modules, I have learned some more testing strategies that will definitely help me improve my ATI and NCLEX scores. The first testing strategy that these modules have reiterated, is the importance of taking my time with each question and FULLY reading ALL the question and answers. I have noticed that sometimes I have a tendency to read through questions and answers way too quickly, not allowing myself to fully comprehend and answer correctly. Another testing strategy actually came from a professor who said to only pick the answer that is 100% correct 100% of the time, and that has really helped me. These modules had some questions that I did not know, and I just did a random guess which hurt my scores. But then looking back at the answer rationales, I realized that if I just took a little more time on the question I most likely would have answered correctly. All in all, these modules gave me a little wake up call to employ proper test taking strategies on all my future ATI assessments and eventually the NCLEX, and more motivation to keep practicing and studying!