The Way I Study for NCLEX

I started to study nursing by myself about a year and half ago. First, I bought a very heavy textbook for NCLEX, which stands for National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination. It has over 900 pages!

I studied with it, but I didn't know many vocabularies in this textbook. I was wondering how I can remember such difficult medical vocabularies. It felt very difficult because I didn't know medical vocabularies at all in English. And also, my English level was not good enough. I wasn't used to reading difficult English sentences. So, I changed the way I study.
I found someone's blog. The blogger was a Japanese nurse, who was studying to get CNS and NP, which stands for Certified Nurse Specialist and Nurse Practitioner respectively, at an University. So, she has already passed NCLEX. She mentioned in her blog that she had difficulty in understanding the meaning of each question because of medical vocabularies. Then, she changed the way she studied and started to study medical terminology. It took 6 months for her to finish the terminology textbook. But, she never forgot the vocabularies she learned because she learned combining form, suffixes and roots. This way made it easy to memorize long medical vocabularies.
This is the medical terminology textbook she studied.

I followed her methods. I bought the same textbook and studied it. It took 9 months for me to finish becuase I was busy to keep up with my ESL class. So I didn't keep studying for a long time. :P
But I think the textbook really helped my study! Even now, my vocabulary is not perfect, but I can easily understand the meaning in most cases. I think I just need to continue studying.

After finishing the terminology textbook, I restarted studying the textbook for NCLEX, which I bought first. I thought that I need two months to finish each chapter considering that I needed more than two months before. I could finish the first chapter in about a month.
By the way, I go through all the questions of each chapter three times, and I restudy terminology at the same time.
This year, I have been trying to do my best. So, now I can finish each chapter in a week! I can't believe that! I never imagined I could do it so quickly! I feel more comfortable staring at these difficult questions. I feel that my studying has been paying off. :) But I'm afraid whether I can keep my study for next semester or not. It's because summer semester usually keeps me busy, and I'm going to take more advanced classes. So, I should study as much as I can now considering how busy I will be during summer.

The blogger, who I mentioned, got CNS and NP and graduated last December! I really respect her hard effort!
I don't know whether I can be a RN or not. But I can feel my studying has been paying off. I feel my goal is no longer unrealistic for me.