"Study the problems, not the material" any truth in this?

I think that would depend on how comfortable you are with the material. If a question is looking for you to know the treatment of Addison's Disease, for example, and you don't remember exactly what that is and several answers look good then you will be in trouble. So, I'd personally advise doing both - studying content areas and answering questions related to those areas as you go.

Nooooo! If you know for certain that you are fuzzy on acid base balance or lab values or major classes of drugs or s/s of certain disease processes you should definitely do a little brushing up. You don't have to totally re-learn everything, just maybe crack open your textbooks and do the chapter-end quizzes or any disc resources again. You can use all the rationale tricks and decision tree methods you want but if you really don't know squat about the content that'll be of little help. My graduated class just took a 2 day seminar from a Kaplan rep and she was pretty emphatic about doing a little review of concepts that you have trouble with.

Ummm...NO...and here's WHY:

While it is understandable how studying content will make one comfortable with the physiologic process, it MAY NOT adequately prepare you to CHOOSE the right nursing intervention.

NCLEX success is dependent on how the test taker can choose the right intervention given; it is not only based in knowledge content, but safe, effective care, prioritization, assessment, care coordination.

I studied all the above for the exam, and I focused on the subjects that I had difficult answering.

Being comfortable in choosing nursing inter receptions is more of a priority in the boards and even in your practice...there are reference books, etc, to help you be able to familiarize the disorders, what to look for, but, again, it's the nursing care that is paramount. NCLEX is concerned about nursing care.

Make sure you familiarize yourself some of the previous posters said: lab values, Maslow's needs, prioritizing, preparing pt's for tests, how to handle an adverse reaction, when to notify the provider on changes with patients, in ADDITION to knowing about a patients duagnois.

I agree with all the above responses.You have to master your content in and out doing a ton of questions is helpful but you have to understand what NCLEX needs from you.

I remember when I tested a few months ago the questions were so vague and trust and believe me it is a totally different kind of test.

I am from Canada so no NCLEX, however, when studying for the CRNE, this is what I did and this is the advice I give to students preparing to write theirs. The CRNE study guide came with a practice exam and this is what I tell them to focus on. Is there something similar for NCLEX?

Rationale:

1) If you don't understand the question, you don't know the answer, so read carefully, ask yourself "what is the question actually asking", and get used to the wording of questions and a feel for what types of answers the test wants.

2) there is no point getting bogged down studying years worth of material. You will know it or you won't, but what you know should make up for what you don't. You just need to pass.

I think you should review on content that you feel you are lacking in and do a lot of questions in all areas to be able to assess how much you know.