what worked for me-nclex x2

I passed the NCLEX after the 2nd try at the end of July and wrote this up for some of my friends graduating now, may 2014. Thought I'd share it since I read SOO many threads on allnurses when getting ready for my test. Feel free to email me if you have any questions I will be more likely to respond via email. [email protected]

Exam cram has a bunch of practice questions it is great. The tips I have read everywhere are to do a full exam before looking at the answers. Sometimes I had trouble doing this. But if anything I would do 25-50 questions and then look at the answers. If you do one question at a time and look at the answer, you are basically "training" in a way that does not correspond to how the NCLEX works. MAKE SURE you go over not only the questions you got wrong but the ones you got right, to ensure you continue to get them right :) and sometimes you get them right even if you guessed. I would go over the answers and if I didn't understand the rationale I would look it up and read the explanation several times. I would take notes on the info in a notebook (very short explanation) I put topics at the top of every couple pages of the notebook so when I put information in it was sorted by body system or various category...whatever works best for you. I took the nclex twice and found that for the first test I took notes randomly in a notebook. It was very hard to review the material before the test. The 2nd time around studying I had sections in a notebook for different categories and took notes on the questions in the right section. MUCH BETTER (cardio, meds, antidotes, pedi, mat, etc). One thing I wish I did was to break down the med section into categories, my weakest area is pharmacology. I bought mosbys med flashcards. I honestly didnt think they were that helpful but they have many pictures to help you remember.

Personally I solely did questions and learned content that way for the 1st test.....which obviously didnt work since i failed. I knew I really needed to focus much more time on content. HURST helped my tremendously. You need to make sure you go over the workbook many times after completion of the course and filling in the workbook. I also had some friends read the saunders book for content and kaplans content book for nclex. (I didnt read either, relied only on hurst. She explains things in a way that MAKES SENSE!) However if content isnt your weak area then I can give you some more question books that were good, such as lippincott. 1000s of qeustions in their nclex book. Some of my friends took Kaplan course offered free through our school. kaplan trainers are used by the kaplan course and are very comparable to nclex questions. Ive been told the last 2 trainers are the upper level nclex questions. If you were to do ANY questions Id suggest doing the trainers.

Some places I found great study tips

https://allnurses.com/attachment.php?...7&d=1310076980

[COLOR=#1155cc]https://allnurses.com/nclex-[COLOR=#1155cc]discussion-forum/nclex-study-[COLOR=#1155cc]plan-817306.html

https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussio...ex-750555.html

http://www.rn pedia.com/home/exams/nclex-exam (delete space after rn...it wouldnt let me paste otherwise.)

https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussio...ex-750555.html

Hope this helps! Take a deep breath, you can do it! Remember, in the end you just need to beat the NCLEX GAME!