Passed 1st time... AND 2nd time

I didn't use any of the online review courses, just books and a few online resources. Saunders (4th ed Q&A, 5th ed content review), Lippincott's Alt format Q&A, Hurst (just the book, it's 2008 I think), Exam Cram content book, Davis Q&A.

The infection control tips from here, and reading posts here led me to the QTrainers that were posted online and NCLEX 3500 online.

I spent about 10 hrs/week studying for about 5 months. More than about 2 hrs at a time is just too much, information gets muddled more easily that way. (And I do generally take a few min breaks during that 2 hrs too, same reason.) Your brain is wonderful and amazing, give it a chance to carefully file away what you are learning. Just like a paper filing system, if something is properly filed and correlated with other things already in the file, you will be able to find it and pull it back out when you need it.

While I'll start another thread with a detailed review of each of those sources (at least from my point of view ), I have a few study suggestions to offer, hoping they will be helpful to someone.

Study smart, it's not so much about the time you spend, it's about filing away that info carefully. So you are letting your wonderful brain make connections between what you already know and new info. When you come across something that is new info about something you already know... such as... you already know that hypokalemia is K+ less than 3.5, maybe you run across that that can cause a U wave on the ECG and want to remember that. Ok, stop there. Write it down, draw it out, picture it vividly in your mind. Spend a couple of minutes on that. I had a hard time with Cushings/Addison's and which one had high or low K+. So, I pictured the C for Cushings and the letter K+ below it. Every time I read something about Cushings, I pictured that, so now no problem remembering that when I need it.

When you have some fact or item that has two sides, like that Cushings has low K+ and Addison's has high K+... don't stress over trying to remember both of them. Pick one, whichever has some feature that makes it easier for you to remember it (I picked Cushings with K+, just because C and K make the same sound).

Use whatever mental picture, rhyme, trick that works for you and spend a little bit of time picturing it, vividly, intensely. You need to get it past short term memory and into long term. Short term memory is about 18 seconds long, so you have to take the time to get it past there. The more vividly you picture what you want to remember, the easier it will be to remember.

Ok, so you've picked the one that clicks for you, pictured it, gotten it into long term memory, what about the other one? Well, the other one is the other one. You don't have to spend the time to make another picture, get that first one imprinted in long term memory, then the second one is just the other one! This works GREAT with any opposites.

If you are using a source that has questions divided up by topic, try reviewing the topic, at least briefly, in a content review book, then do the questions on it. Use the questions as a learning process. You can even look up the answers you don't know as you go. It isn't a reflection of what you knew off the top of your head, true, but remember, studying is largely LEARNING, use a comprehensive practice test once in awhile to gauge how you are doing with improving overall.

That was really a big help to me with doing practice questions. It was a reminder that I didn't have to know everything (and we just can't know it ALL), and practice with questions that I might know only a little, or nothing about and how to handle that. When I first started studying, at a question I had no clue on, I'd feel immediate panic. Sometimes I found myself frantically picking something and moving on (usually wrong of course!).

Don't go there! If you read a question and think, hm, really? I have no clue. Deep, slow breath. Ok, read it again. Read both question and answers. Still no clue? Maybe it's a med you never heard of (there are so many, it's pretty likely to happen) and asking about side effects, or pt teaching about it. Another deep breath. Is there any info you can infer from the question or answers, like do you recognize anything about the generic or trade name? Does the age, condition, history of the client tell you anything? Usually you can come up with some hint that will help narrow your choices. Ok, so what if you narrow it to two choices and still pick the wrong one? Forgive yourself, make a note of that particular drug and something to remember about it, and move on.

I kept trying to remind myself that NCLEX isn’t really trying to trick you, it’s trying to find out if you can avoid killing somebody the first week! (And I did think that the NCLEX had fewer “tricky” questions that a lot of the practice question sources. Hopefully this can help and encourage someone, and I’ll be posting a detailed review later today or tomorrow of all the sources I used that may help others determine what will help them the most.