Hey guys congrats to all who have accomplished this task in which was no easy feat. And to those still aiming for victory it will soon be yours. I did not do Kaplan, although I really wanted to, I did not have the money. I wanted to do the Kaplan Qbank... I did not have the money. However, I did do Saunders Comprehensive (the blue book). I had this book since my first Med-Surg course in nursing school so its been my companion for quite some time. Although I thought that this (Saunders) would just not do, it did! The questions here were very much like the ones I answered on the NCLEX. I mainly did the CD-ROM at home which has a little over 4000 questions on it. The wonderful thing about it is that you can identify your weaknesses such as a particular content area (cardiovascular, renal, pediatrics) or nursing processes (assessment, planning, implementation, priority or pt teaching) or question level (application, analysis) and even alternate questions (select all that apply and order of process) (and answer questions that are based on your weaknesses.
I did not have a lot of time to study. I'd already accepted an intern/Graduate Nurse position with my employer, and I was given 60 days to take and pass the NCLEX upon accepting the job. So I'd been busy with orientation, not to mention I had to and still am taking Critical Care classes with tests, and quizzes every week, on top of managing a household and a family, all grouped together with trying to study for boards. I'll be honest in saying I may have answered a total of 700-1000 questions maybe? And this was probably over a period of 3 weeks whereas I should have easily cleared 700 questions a week. I took the exam style questions each time I studied (100 question max) and I read throuh the rationales carefully each time I received my score at the end of each test. This took approx 2 hours per 100 questions. I'll admit I could have done better if I'd started studying more consistently when I got out of school answering at least 300-400 questions a week which only would have been 100 questions a day x 3-4 days a week. I technically had 11 weeks to prepare for this test and I only effectively utilized 3 out of 11 of these weeks to prepare for this exam.
I answered 130 questions (not 75) I got 2 drug calculations questions, 1 or 2 pediatric questions, quite a few pharmacology questions maybe 12-15 (although fellow friends who'd taken it had bragged they'd only gotten between 2-6). I take it that was a weakness for me which is why I kept getting them. I got alot of priority, and pt teaching questions which seemed to make up the majority of my test, about 6 select all that apply and 3-4 psych questions. I got quite a bit of endocrine questions like 10-15 (Hypo-Hyper thyroidism, Hypo-Hyper parathyroidism, DKA, Diabetes) some Gastrointestinal 5-8 (dx procedures, cirrhosis, and pancreatitis) and a few questions that involved diet or interpreting lab values (3-5).
I know everybodys test varies and is based on how the previous questions were answered but I hope this helps someone taking the test soon. There is no way to study for this test. Answer as many questions as you can, read the rationales, if you find that you keep getting questions incorrect in a particular area of content its ok to jot down notes of particular disorders or procedures so that you can refer back to the book during your down time to just read through some key points. But don't spend too much time going back to read. You learn by answering questions, even if you don't know the answer don't feel like Man I need to read about this, answer the question anyways because you will come across many questions on NCLEX that you don't know the answer to so get in the habit of making an educated guess. Make a cheat sheet along the way pertaining to lab values like your electrolytes, amylase and lipase, digoxin levels and troponins so when you've got some free time, you can just run through them and thats pretty much it! Try not to stress, relax while you are taking the test, take your time, take a break when its offered try deep breathing techniques, don't allow your head to get cluttered with thoughts like, if I fail, my family will be... if I fail my co-workers will... if I fail I'll be so.... RELEASE THOSE THOUGHTS, THINK POSITIVELY, STAY FOCUSED... If the test goes beyond 75 questions remember YOU ARE STILL IN THE GAME SO MAKE EVERY QUESTION COUNT! Good Luck!!!!!!
