Kaplan and NCLEX...CANNOT get over 50%. Suggestions?

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Hello everyone! I'm taking my NCLEX in two weeks from now and I have been studying a lot of hours everyday. My studying consists of Qbanks and reviewing the questions as well as watching videos, taking in-depth notes and studying my notes. This is all through Kaplan. I can't seem to improve on my test scores...I keep getting 48%! It's so annoying because I keep hearing that I should try to get scores above 50% and I was only able to do that twice (I took 9 practice exams already). I don't know what else to do and so I was wondering if you guys have any tips for me? Please, anything would be greatly appreciated!!

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Specializes in Pediatric, NICU.

Is it content you're lacking or maybe you need good test taking skills. It's happened to me many times in cases where I would choose wrong answers over right ones because I lacked nclex-style critical thinking skills. Give uworld a try also. It's helping me more than Kaplan did.

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Some of the NCLEX practice questions on Kaplan are so ridiculous and sometimes I never ever heard of the topic before during nursing school. It's questions like those that make it difficult to get over 50% because I just have absolutely no idea. I heard that the actual exam has easier questions though so I'm hoping I can get over 50% then since I am so close to getting 50% now. I'll keep taking exams and practicing questions though...hopefully I'll do better in the next two weeks! Thank you for the help! :)

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My best advice is to read the answer rationales, or if your practice tests don't have rationales get some that do. By reading the rationales for the ones you got wrong (or even the ones you get right but second guessed) you can figure out where you're struggling: specific topics, prioritization, interventions, etc. You can't make improvements without pinpointing your areas where you need to improve.

Also, focus your efforts on the topics you know will come up: cardiac, respiratory, diabetes, etc. It doesn't matter if you get 40% on dermatology, because they aren't going to ask you very much about specific skin conditions. However, it's bad news if you're getting 40% on questions about heart failure, COPD, etc.

As an FYI (you may already know), the test is adaptive; the questions get harder as you do better, and easier as you do worse. I passed in 75 questions, and by the end most of my questions were select all that apply related to specific cardiac drugs. Some of the questions (especially at the beginning of the test) were easier than my nursing school tests, but toward the end some were definitely harder.

Best of luck!

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I took Virtual ATI as a prep course and failed my exit exam 4 days before I had my scheduled NCLEX. I FREAKED OUT. I sat my bum down and did hundreds of questions a day. I would recommend investing in a good question bank and just doing as many questions as you can before going cross eyed! Questions really boosted my confidence and helped me memorize content. I took my NCLEX on my scheduled date and passed at 75 questions!

Be confudent, sleep well and always always always go with your gut!!

Best of luck! :)

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