NCLEX Success Story | Mary Joy Fernandez, USRN

(Estimated reading time: 5 minutes)

To those who feel anxious and discouraged, I hope my NCLEX success story will change your mind. First of all, glory to God for his unconditional love for us. I wouldn’t be here without His gift of knowledge and wisdom through my journey in taking the NCLEX exam.

To my whole family and especially my husband who has always been there encouraging me to continue to battle on, thank you so much. When I was feeling hopeless, you always had my back.

And to my IPASS family, I also want to thank you all. I wouldn’t be writing this NCLEX success story without your utmost help. To the staff who didn’t give up on me and were always there assisting and giving me pieces of advice, I owe it all to you.

It was January of 2019 when I started my application with IPASS Processing. When I had my review, I would aim to finish at least 100 questions per day. I was doing my very best to prepare myself for the test with UWORLD, Mark Klimek audios, and La Charity as my resources. I took my exam on July 10 in the same year.

Unfortunately, I failed. It wasn’t the news that I expected to receive. I was really sad and disappointed with myself. Thankfully enough, my husband was there to lift me up and pushed me not to give up. On the same month, I went back to Saudi Arabia.

It was August when I decided to start reviewing again, marking still with at least 100 items a day. I subscribed to UWORLD for six (6) months as I’d be back to the Philippines on December for good. This was an opportunity to study even back at home.

Messaging IPASS about retaking NCLEX on February 2020, I received my ATT and had been scheduled for the month I asked for.

The first two months were smooth despite balancing my work and review with a minimum of 100. It was when October came and my routine became just sleep and work again. It had that cycle because of the hospital that I worked at was understaffed and everyone was overloaded. My last hope to review will really have to be the time when I came back.

Coming home, it was a little better than before. Time was keeping up. Though when January came, it turned to just 30 questions per day and often nothing. If ever I answered on UWORLD, the result would be 40% or 50% only.

It was very disappointing. I felt so dumb that I felt like I’ll never pass. With my children and household chores, everyday was busy. Time to review was very hard to find. The big question of passing lingered on my mind. I felt hopeless.

I decided to finally use the first assessment on UWORLD with 100 items in total and got 33% right. It was again a downer to experience.

At this rate, making it sure feels impossible. I can never pass. I took some screenshots of the questions for reference. Their system must have detected it that my subscription was deactivated. I sent an email but there was no reply. The second assessment was truly a loss, especially the entire subscription.

While answering the questions before, I was taking down notes of things. Losing UWORLD, I had no choice but to rely on those.

Twelve days before taking NCLEX, there was no reading anymore. I just told my husband that on my exams, I’ll just be sitting on my chair and answer whatever comes in mind.

It was the night before my scheduled test. As I was reading my notes, a churchmate messaged. I shared to her that I was going to take NCLEX. Then, she asked for prayers for me from our Facebook page. Senior Pastors and other churchmates prayed for my welfare, and I did too.

The day of exams finally came. The anxiety was kicking in and my feet were feeling wobbly. When I got to the computer, the tears started to fall down for no reason. I did not know what to do, so I just prayed and surrendered everything to God.

I started my question with a medication topic. It appeared on UWORLD but because my mind went blank, I wasn’t able to answer it.

It happened a lot of times throughout the entire duration. Even though I was done with the 75 questions, the SATA was not enough. It was on the 96th item that a delegation appeared and I was unsure of my response. On the 97th, it was SATA again and I placed my answer. Right after that, the computer shut down.

I was not expecting to pass with what happened there. I just told my husband that it was gonna be a fail.

With so much hesitation, I logged in that Friday night to see my results. It was frightening but the hope was already lost.

I got an email from IPASS and it just said ‘Result: PASS’.

Thinking it was just a title, I disregarded it. When I opened the email and read their congratulations, I couldn’t believe it! I became emotional and my husband also cried hearing the good news. My father was so proud of the achievement. I could never believe what happened.

The first statement that came out my mouth were words of thanks to God. I was indeed given something unexpected and i couldn’t be happier.

Despite failing most of my reviews, and taking the NCLEX twice, I finally passed. I know it isn’t the ideal NCLEX success story but it was worth all the hardships. It was really a lesson to just have faith in God. He will truly give what’s for you at that right time. Just pray and He will listen. This blessing will truly be of my debt. Thank you, God.

Remember to never give up. Just trust in Him and everything will fall to its right direction.

Mary Joy Fernandez, USRN