How To Pass The Nclex After Failing (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)

I’ve helped hundreds of repeat test takers finally pass their NCLEX exam (both RN and PN).

The secret?

A lot of repeat test takers don’t realize that there’s always an organized method to passing any exam, especially the NCLEX.

Many don’t know that there’s a combined number of different factors that promote and significantly increase the likelihood of success as opposed to just constantly trying new things.

For example, you studied for the exam with a question bank, failed with near passing results, then studied again with content review and failed again with worse results.

Why?

Because you just tried something completely different without evaluating what you did before as well as ALL the factors that may have contributed to you not passing.

So what are all the factors that lead to passing the NCLEX?

Let’s talk about it.

Here’s What Nobody Tells You About Passing The NCLEX After Failure

Passing the NCELEX is a process.

And when you exclude all the parts of the process whether you realize it or not, you’re not going to pass the NCLEX.

And the problem is that you haven’t been told what the process is and what all the factors are.

My Core Belief

To pass the nclex you must have a solid foundation.

There’s no shortcuts to this.

And every time you take the nclex and don’t pass it, it only reveals you have a weak foundation.

What You Will Learn

This is the exact system we use to take struggling repeat test takers to licensed nurse graduates.

To give them the “aha” moments that finally helps them see what they are missing and retrain them to think differently so they can pass their exam.

Join a proven framework specifically designed for repeat test takers so you can pass your exam with ease.

By the end of this post, you’ll know:

Why you didn’t pass before
How repeat test takers should approach the nclex
The best way to study for the NCLEX
The step by step blueprint to studying the exam after failure

This isn’t about luck. It’s about learning the system.

And I’m going to show you exactly how I did it.

How I Cause My Students Who Have Struggled To Finally Pass

Why I See Other Repeat Test Takers Fail

One of the biggest mistakes of a person that takes the NCLEX and fails is that they don’t spend any time truly evaluating what they did wrong.

Reason 1: They Don’t Review Their Candidate Performance Report (CPR) results

The first step is to review your Candidate Performance Report (CPR) results.

Many don’t review their Candidate Performance Report (CPR) results and sometimes it’s because of emotional reasons.

They can’t stand the sight of their failed results.

Some even throw their results in the trash.

Which is a big mistake.

But you need to study this so you can see what you are struggling with the most and then work on those areas.

The areas you want to give the most attention to on your results are the Below Passing areas.

These are the specific categories that you need to spend time learning the CONTENT not just doing practice questions.

Below passing means that you are significantly poor in that area and need to focus on comprehension through content, not reinforcement with questions.

Doing questions early on is only going to slow you down even though it psychologically feels better to do questions.

Let’s take a look at an example.

This is a real student’s CPR results who received below passing in only one area and in this case it is Psychosocial Integrity.

She sent her results and she told me what she was planning on doing next was to try a completely different strategy than what she did before and she was going to rush to schedule to take her exam again soon without doing a real deep dive into what she did wrong in the first place.

Instead, through our help, she was advised to review her weak areas and reapply the same strategy she used the last time.

And guess what happened?

She passed the next time.

And like I have mentioned before, it’s not just about doing ONE thing, there’s multiple factors that play a role into each individual student’s success.

For example, you can study all the right information AND use the right strategy but also if you do not study with the appropriate amount of time, you can still fail your exam.

Let’s look at those results again.

As you can see above, the recommendation on the bottom of the page is also that the student spends a minimum of 1-2 months in studying before retaking the exam.

And I promise you, I have seen so many students disregard our advice because they are in a hurry and they fail and are disappointed again and lose so much traction all over again.

Reason #2 They Don’t Actually Know The Content

There’s a lot of nursing graduates that study, study, but they don’t actually remember or retain anything.

I know because I have interviewed them.

So for example, they will share with me how they literally just spent 8 hours in the library studying last week but when tested and asked this week what they remember, they can’t actually verbalize what they know.

And when you are working as a nurse, your job involves a lot of teaching and education, you have to be able to actually say what you know, not just read it in a text book or on an answer key.

Let’s do a quick test right now.

Without, googling it, looking at your books, notes, asking chatgpt or anyone you know, say outloud everything that you know about CHF starting with the pathophysiology all the way to the medications and all the appropriate nursing and medical interventions.

Stop and really think about it and SAY it out loud.

All done?

How much were you able to say?

Did you cover the signs and symptoms? Risk factors?

All the drugs aside from lasix?

Or are you catching yourself googling CHF right now?

If so, this is a sign your foundation is not strong enough to pass the nclex TODAY.

And I can tell you this confidently because CHF is one of the most common diseases in nursing that every test taker and nurse should absolutely know.

My Method

Regardless of how long you’ve been out of school or the number of times you have taken it, you have to have that full understanding to pass.

And this is where I introduce my Level Up Method.

You can watch a short video explanation of the method here.

See, the difference that separates those who pass their exam and those who don’t, is that they’ve mastered ALL the steps of this method…whether or not they realize it.

It starts first from the bottom up starting with the Patho Level.

The patho level means that you understand the basic anatomy, physiology of the human body and pathophysiology of the 89 most commonly tested disease processes on the nclex.

And if we’re looking at categories on the nclex? This would be physiological adaptation and health promotion and maintenance.

Content Level is now the next sequential step you should understand which means you understand the treatment of those diseases.

You understand what is and are the pharmacological therapies and interventions of those diseases which includes the medications itself.

This also includes treatment in regards to safety and infection control practices as well as mental health therapies and precautions.

The third level is now Nursing Level.

This level is now also how well you THINK like an actual nurse.

How well you understand the nurse’s role whether RN or LPN and what is appropriate in most situations especially using the Clinical Judgement Model for the RN exam.

This includes being able to recognize complications before they happen through reducing potential risk.

Being able to manage, prioritize and delegate appropriately between other staffing personnel and finally understanding the basic care and comfort measures of every patient based on their individual needs and diagnoses.

And these first three levels is pretty much the actual content of all eight categories on both the NCLEX-RN and the NCLEX-PN exam as seen in the picture below.

And then the last level of the four levels to passing the NCLEX is now Test Taking Level.

This is the level that causes SO many repeat test takers to fail.

Why?

Because they all want to rush to this level and just completely ignore the previous levels.

This level is all about building up your critical thinking and test taking skills.

This level is about how well you actually answer different kinds of NCLEX questions.

How quickly you understand what the question is asking you.

And the way you break down a question.

This is the cement that only works once you have mastered all the previous levels (which includes all eight categories) and ONLY once you have mastered the previous levels.

Otherwise you will find yourself taking the NCLEX over and over and over again.

You want to know the level though that keeps many repeat test takers stuck?

It’s the FIRST level, the Patho level.

Because when you have been out of school for a number of years or after a couple of tries, this is the knowledge that is FIRST to go from people’s minds.

It’s the content in this level that people forget rather quickly.

And once again this level is all about understanding how the body works normally (anatomy and physiology) as well as how the body is altered or changed because of the disease process they have (pathophysiology).

So you can for example spend all day studying CHF signs and symptoms, CHF risk factors, even CHF medications.

BUT, if you don’t even truly understand how the heart works normally (anatomy and physiology), then all that information about CHF will be hard to remember, especially when it’s exam time.

And it’s this level that is so fundamental to actually retaining all the content and then being able to translate it into answering NCLEX questions correctly.

Ready To Learn My Exact System To Pass The NCLEX?

You’ve just learned the same framework I used to teach our students how to finally pass their NCLEX exam.

So far you’ve learned.

Why you didn’t pass before
How repeat test takers should approach the nclex
The best way to study for the NCLEX
The step by step blueprint to studying the exam after failure

But now you need the exact materials into an organized structure so you can confidently take and pass the NCLEX the next time.

And that’s why you need our NCLEX Success Refresher System For RN or LPN Success 2.0 For LPNs.

Here’s what you will get inside of either programs

Our entire step by step system to passing the nclexx exam using the level up method
Complete and thorough video and audio tutorials to educate and teach you the content in a way that you can actually retain.
Hours of visual content videos
Multiple assessment with rationales
Downloadable visual cheats sheets inside of the modules
BONUS: OUr 700 Questions Question Bank that not only includes practice questions but video and audio lessons to teach you how to correctly breakdown NCLEX questions.

JOIN HUNDREDS OF TESTIMONIALS HERE