Throughout the different ATI assessments, I tried to take longer per question. I have always been a fast test taker, and while that has not been a big issue for me, I have realized that it does make it easier for me to miss important aspects of questions. Along with trying to take longer on questions, I tried to read more thoroughly through each answer. Since I am prone to taking an exam fast, I typically look at keys words in the answers that I am looking for. While this helps me most of the time, along with not taking enough time, I tend to not read the answer completely. I feel as though I have improved as the semester progressed, especially with receiving a 92.7% on the comprehensive final.

When identifying content gaps and learning from them, I mostly used the remediations. It was hard sometimes because it felt as though the answer wasn’t what was fully said in the question. But for the most part, using the remediations helped because it was often something small that I had forgotten or was able to show me when I changed my answers. I personally preferred the remediations where we had to write out the question, why we got wrong and why the answer we chose was correct/incorrect. I liked this way of remediating as I was able to look at the actual question I got wrong and apply the information again. Looking at differences as the semester progressed, I would say that at first I liked the three critical point remediation because it was “quicker”, but soon realized that I benefitted more from those other type of remediation.

As someone who has been working almost every weekend for the past two years in nursing school, self-care has been something of a joke. This has been something that has always been hard for me. Specifically this semester though I really wanted to figure out something that worked for me! When I have the free time, or the time to spare from school work, I tried to pick up reading again. I used to read a lot when I was younger, and enjoyed it, so I decided to start reading the Harry Potter series again. I believe that this has helped me to better prepare myself because I think it is extremely important to be able to separate work from private life, especially in a profession such as nursing.

Looking at the skills I’ve developed and the things that I have learned this semester will help to continue my preparation for NCLEX and transition into practice following graduation. I feel like I have learned a lot, not only from school, but about myself this semester. While I thought at the end of last semester that 456 would be the death of me, this semester was more mentally challenging than anything. Continuing to use the techniques I have been using to take the ATI assessments while studying for the NCLEX, is only going to help me further and help me to retain what I study. Being able to explore further what self-care strategies work the best for me will help me most when I transition into practice.