Some insight on passing the NCLEX

i give credit to this wonderful online community for providing me with a lot of useful information since i've joined even before i started nursing school. so, i'd like to share my own experience and insight in terms of preparing for the exam.

i passed the nclex after 75 questions. i was bombarded with over 20 satas to point that i sometimes got 2-3 of them in a row. i had some priority (who should the nurse see first), 1 drag and drop, 1 exhibit, 1 ekg strip, some infection control, and a lot of "which one of these statements/situations should the nurse be most concerned?".

due to some circumstance in nursing school, i was held back a semester. so by the time i graduated, it has almost been a year since i took med-surg ii which is taken before our last semester. i knew i had forgotten a lot of my content knowledge. to remedy this problem, i did the hurst online review. it took me about 2 weeks to go through the videos. after doing some practice tests with either the saunders cd or nclex 3500 and scoring in low 50s, i realized that i still needed to review more content. that is when i decided that i needed to start reading the saunders comprehensive review book, system by system. after about a month of studying, i felt confident with my content knowledge. my parents bought me the kaplan on demand subscription afterwards, although i was actually planning on getting ncsbn. it took me 3 weeks to go through the q trainers and the question bank. i didn't actually get my att until a week after getting kaplan so i scheduled my test date to give me ample time to finish the kaplan questions. this is just in summary.

my conclusion after taking the exam is that you do need a strong content foundation. nclex can be brutal if you don't know your stuff. yes, you do need to utilize good critical thinking skills and strategies with their higher level questions. but, you ain't gonna get to those higher level questions (which is what you want to aim for and need to know content for them too, anyway) if you cannot answer their lower level questions if you don't know your stuff. i found that a lot of their easier questions seemed very basic. but if i didn't know them, i couldn't have possibly gotten any of them right. i also say this because with many of the sata questions that i got--even though some were very basic--it's easy to get the question wrong since each answer choic deals with whether you know the statement to be true or false.

first thing you need to do: you need to assess where you currently stand. do an assessment test. it can be from any resource that you have (saunders, nclex 4000, etc.). it doesn't have to be specifically an assessment test. just do any practice test. this is very important if you want to know whether you do need to review your content or not.

these are some points that you need to think about:

did you get a low score? (when i first started, my score from saunders was low 50s. so my opinion is that 50 to low 60s is low. but not every resource's questions are written in the same level of difficulty. try to use your judgement with whatever you have).

did you find that with more than half of the questions, you just didn't know about the topic that the questions were asking?

with the questions that you got wrong--did you get more of than half of them wrong because you lacked the proper nursing knowledge to answer them or sort of remembered something but got them wrong anyway?

if you answered yes to any of these questions, then you most likely need an intensive content review. if you are an auditory learner and, i would recommend hurst review. if you have the attention span and patience that i have, i would recommend that you read the saunders book. you don't have to read everything at once. do one system at a time. do them in the span of two days if you have to--as long as you really study and understand the concepts. i don't like to memorize. but there is a long list of things that you really need to know right off the bat. i find that if i understand the concepts then memorization comes as second nature.

now, if you do well in these tests and with the questions that you get wrong...did you know about the topic of the question but ended up picking the wrong answer anyway? then you probably need help with test-taking strategies. you may want to invest in kaplan.

however, if you're confident with your content knowledge, test-taking and critical thinking skills, you could probably get away with just doing as many questions as you can before the test.

hurst review: i can't really praise hurst enough for getting me started with a good nursing foundation. it was only when i did hurst that i really understood fluids & electrolytes and the endocrine system. i never needed to memorize the signs and symptoms of hypo and hyperthyroidism. i could answer any cushing's and addison's questions because i had memorized and understood the effects of glucocorticoids and aldosterone. it took me two weeks to go through all the videos and fill out my worksheets. marlene is hilarious and the lectures are not in least bit dull. it takes a few minutes to read one system's worksheet, so i read through them often and it really helped with retention. i will say this though: hurst doesn't cover everything. it's not a bad thing if you still know half your stuff. but, if you were like me a few months ago, then you might want something more. however, i will note that got to answer a few questions on the nclex because of what i remembered and learned well from hurst. this was all from late december through early january. i never got to do their practice tests because i went right to saunders.

saunders comprehensive review 5th edition: i owe most of my content knowledge to this book. i firmly believe that if i didn't use this book to review my content and just used kaplan, i would have failed the exam. i dedicated 1-3 hours everyday just reading one system. if i was getting tired and found that i wasn't really reading anymore, i stopped and continued the next day. after finishing a system, i would use nclex 3500 to answer 10-50 questions just on that system to help retain information and see if i actually learned something. if i was getting more wrong that right, then i read the system again. everyday, i would also answer 50-100 questions (either study more or test mode) from the saunders software from every topic. i went through this book from mid-january to mid-february. as i got through each system/topics, my scores increased from 50s to high 70s and low 80s.

kaplan on demand: i watched the strategy seminar, test-taking workshop, orientation, and the decision tree videos. in my opinion, those--along with their questions--are kaplan's selling point. their content videos are kind of dull. (sorry barbara irwin lol) at this point, i was done with my content review. it was three weeks before i took the test. i did the diagnostic test, q trainers, readiness test, and most of the question bank. when i finally got to the question bank, i just did 50 questions a day. i really learned how to put their test-taking strategies to use with my good content foundation. i think that kaplan assumes that you already know your stuff because their questions are tough. they are honestly tougher than the actual nclex. test-taking strategies are useless to you if you don't have the content knowledge to rationalize with what you know. i owe some of the questions that i recognized on my nclex exam to kaplan from what i learned by studying their rationales. i also owe it to them for my abilities to be able to tackle almost any priority question.

for those who are curious and want a comparison, here are my kaplan scores:

diagnostic: 65

qt 1: 64

qt 2: 69

qt 3: 59 (

qt 4: 63

qt 5: 65

qt 6: 62

qt 7: 62

readiness: 66

qbank average: 61

i understand that not everyone has the time in their hands like i did when i was reviewing. also, you don't have use the resources that i used. if you study your content right (i really can't stress this enough), learn good test-taking strategies (kaplan strategies book could suffice if you dont have money to shell out for the course), and practice as many questions (saunders, exam cram, nclex 4000, davis, etc.) as you can before your test, i'm confident that anyone can pass the nclex. you don't have to do 100s of questions every day. that's just crazy. if you can only do 50, then just do 50--as long as you study the rationales for every question, whether you got them right or not. also, if you cannot afford kaplan and need practice on priority questions then i recommend lacharity's prioritization, delegation, and assignment: practice exercises for the nclex examination 2e. do what works for you.

lastly, i read the study guide compilation i found twice two days before my test. it was extremely helpful especially the infection control mnemonics. (https://allnurses.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8697&d=1310274877) ****

good luck everyone!!

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