by akronstudent17

I have heard that you should do atleast 3000-5000 questions (with reading rationales of course) before you take NCLEX. Has anyone done that and still failed the first time? I figure I will have done atleast that if not more by the time I test, but am still worried that might not be enough. Any feedback would be great.
Thanks,

Carie

Re: 3000-5000 questions

I was told in school to do a minimum of 3000 questions. I know some people that did at least 3000 questions and failed. I've heard of people doing very few questions and passing. I think I may have done around 2300-2500; about 1300 were written, and the rest on cds so I'm not sure. I passed the 1st time in 75 questions. However, I also made notecards of labs, and other pertinent info for the diff subjects/ depts of nsg. I think it all depends on the person.

The reasoning for doing so many questions is to become familiar and comfortable with how questions are written, and because as I was told "you can only ask and answer a question in so many ways. The question may change, but the content remains the same". It does help you learn.

Personally, I used Saunders NCLEX Review, made notecards of the "pyramid points" and took their little quizzes. Quite time consuming, I gave it up after I got to the Peds section. Then I took up Mosby's Review Questions. I did Almost 1/2 the book while using the CD before I ran out of time. I would answer all the questions to a section, then highlight each correct answer as I checked them making sure to read the rationale for why each available selection was right/wrong (even the ones I got right!)...You'd be surprised how many new things you'd learn from the rationales. Then each chapter has quizzes that I'd take and see how well I did. Then I'd move on. When using the CD, you can choose the difficulty level. Most of the time I answered only "hard" questions, but then moved to "med. difficulty" questions to see what they were like (sometimes you can't tell!). Then like 2 days before my exam, I popped in a Saunders Q&A CD and used that as it doesn't go by body systems, but by content areas (i.e. health and safety, etc..).

I say all this b/c even though it's an earful, it shows that it is all in how you learn, and how you prepare. What works for one, doesn't always work for all. I didn't and wouldn't focus so much on the number of questions you need to do, but rather how you go about doing the questions you can get done. I made the most out of what I could get done, with the time I had. Sometimes I got a lot of Qs done, some days I didn't, but I always had my notecards with me to review and my book was my best friend (it really did go wherever I went!)...It paid off in the end. And most of all, you can't forget to RELAX on test day! Hope this helps.

Re: 3000-5000 questions

When I do questions, I make notecards or write down in the notebook what I missed and then I go back later to read what I missed like 30 minutes before bed every night or getting up 30 minutes earlier every morning to just read things I miss. I also read every rationale for right and wrong questions. Hope this helps. Good luck on your exam.

Re: 3000-5000 questions

I also agree that you shouldn't focus so much on the amount of questions, but on the content of the rationales for both those you get right and those you get wrong. It is the quality of your studying that will win for you in the end. Good luck.