Finally Passed - Third Attempt

Hi! The day has finally come that I can post here with the good news and share what I did each time. I posted here before when I was fresh off the second fail of this godforsaken test and never thought I'd see the day. This might be long so:

First attempt: Archer and Mark K. I lived, breathed, and ate those two resources. Mark might as well be my uncle at this point. Everyone I knew swore by Mark K and said to focus on certain lessons, and they also swore by Archer. I studied every day and even though these are good sources, I think I scheduled my test way too soon in terms of when I started studying and when I decided to book the test.

Second attempt: Archer, Mark K, SimpleNursing (YouTube), and Level Up RN (YoutTube). I was studying even harder because I needed this to go well. I had submitted an application for a job (like the first time around) so I just wanted to pass in order to go in for the interview. I think because I took just barely a week to myself after failing the first time and going hard every day till the second attempt, I was very anxious but knew my content for the third time. Failed again and literally cried for days I thought my family was gonna 5150 me lmao.

Third attempt: I finally caved and got Kaplan and only did Kaplan. I paced myself this time around and didn't kms doing hundreds of questions a day. I saw friends, spent time with my family, traveled, and followed the Kaplan study plan. I think what helped was the decision tree method, watching the videos on Kaplan and seeing how they worked through the questions to get to the answer, and just didn't stress it since I was on my third attempt and I was mentally checked out.

Most importantly: test anxiety. It has always affected me and idk how I made it out of the program, that's how bad it is. Like suddenly I never attended a lecture in my life and I'm also illiterate like? Anyways, I watched a meditation video before I left, and then did the breathing exercise before walking in and during the test. I didn't tell a soul I was taking it and didn't have a job lined up to lessen the pressure and stress that it can have on this test since there are other factors riding on the outcome.