You're probably worried about the NCLEX..dont...seriously. Here's what I did!

Nursing Students NCLEX

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So your about to take your exam in 1 week. You can't get any sleep. You wake up have a coffee and study from morning to night. This has been a ritual for you for a month. Question by question. Rationale to rationale. All skims your brain. All for that one day...where you are placed in a cubicle and forced to take the NCLEX, among many who are after that one goal...just to pass.

I just took it...and honestly...I STRESSED WAY TOO MUCH. I lost so many hours of sleep, time, and precious moments that I won't ever get back. All for what? That one day. So I promised myself after I passed I would write about it and help anyone who was going through the same thing I was. I know how you feel. Any time your stressed you hop on allnurses.com to read about how people experience the NCLEX, or read up on study tips...I did the very same thing...but what I really wanna emphasize is that..you really need to JUST RELAX.

I passed with 75 in 3 hours (HAHAH I took my time)..Here's what I did

I took Kaplan. And I'm sorry if you don't have Kaplan..but I think this is the MAIN reason I passed. I didn't review any content after I graduated. NOTHING...never read or even watch the videos on the Kaplan site. ALL I DID WAS QUESTIONS.

I did the entire Q bank, around 100-150 questions a day for 3-4 weeks. I finished all the trainers. I ONLY did the management and kaplan exams for the focused review section. Main thing is JUST DO THE QUESTIONS AND READ THE RATIONALES. That's it. SIMPLE. I talked to so many people that passed the exam...and that's ALL they did. You don't have to buy Saunders, Lipp., Hursh..or whatever they call it.. All you need is KAPLAN. KAPLAN teaches you in a way to answers questions not necessarily the content. It teaches you critical thinking skills. You don't have to read up and refresh on content...everything is in the rationales..believe me..that simple.

Oh I also used the study guide which can be found here https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3379554/-Nclex-Study-Guide.pdf

This guide is GOLD...take it to the gym..take it to work...mnemonics works..seriously..like SPIDERMAN (droplet precautions) how can you forget that.

The NCLEX is EXTREMELY similar to KAPLAN. I'm so happy I purchased it. It's a small price to pay to calm your nerves down. EVERYONE who took KAPLAN passed..its pretty much a guarantee. I walked in there scared...came out confident as hell. KAPLAN is hard...so it helps to prepare you for the worse. I don't care that I paid 200$ for KAPLAN..I rather pay that then self teach myself to answer questions the right way.

This is not a hate post to all the other studying methods out there. But I TRULY believe that KAPLAN works. I'm sure people have passed without the Kaplan. But if you really want to pass...and you want it badly...just take Kaplan you won't regret it.

Good Luck

Kaplan is made to be hard so that when you take the real exam its easy. I'm so happy I took Kaplan. Stick with Kaplan, I don't care if you got a low diagnostic score...so did I. But I stuck through it, and what do you have to lose..they give you your money back OR let you take the course again. I STRONGLY believe in Kaplan...as many of my classmates passed with 75 questions..no sweat. Believe me...Kaplan's questions are the closest your gonna get to the NCLEX..period. Our valedictorian once told me..."You have to study like how you take the test..that's all I do." And that's what I did. Have faith in the program you went to. Have faith that 2-3 years of hard work studying information..IS STILL IN YOUR BRAIN..because it IS! Stick to ONE material, because your going to overwhelm yourself.

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Congrats on passing but all these posts that say NCLEX is so easy. I passed with 75. Don't worry about it. They are starting to drive me insane. All of us on this board went to different schools and had different educations. Out of the people in my class that have taken it 1/2 have passed and 1/2 have failed. The ones that passed were our 4.0 students and the ones with a previous medical background. I finished school with a 3.87 GPA which means nothing. I got 45% on the Kaplan diagnostic exam and only knew for sure a few questions. I moved on to Hurst because Kaplan was not doing it for me.

You cannot give a blanket statement because we went to different schools and had different teachers. Some people had a much better education then others.

That being said I am open to suggestions on study tools. I am now listening to Hurst a second time but it is still not sticking. I want something to supplement Hurst.

Kaplan is NOT good for content. Continue using Kaplan for the Question Trainers and QBanks and use Hurst for content. You're in the right track.

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Just a question, if you repeat the questions and your score gets higher is that okay or is it the initial score that is a true refection if you are ready to take the test.

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

If the scores are higher it's because you've learnt some of the material you got wrong in the first place.

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Kaplan is made to be hard so that when you take the real exam its easy. I'm so happy I took Kaplan. Stick with Kaplan, I don't care if you got a low diagnostic score...so did I. But I stuck through it, and what do you have to lose..they give you your money back OR let you take the course again. I STRONGLY believe in Kaplan...as many of my classmates passed with 75 questions..no sweat. Believe me...Kaplan's questions are the closest your gonna get to the NCLEX..period. Our valedictorian once told me..."You have to study like how you take the test..that's all I do." And that's what I did. Have faith in the program you went to. Have faith that 2-3 years of hard work studying information..IS STILL IN YOUR BRAIN..because it IS! Stick to ONE material, because your going to overwhelm yourself.

Most the students in my class used Kaplan and as I stated half have passed and half have failed. Of the people that failed I spoke to them asking if they did all of it. Everyone I spoke to that failed in 75 questions using Kaplan did all the q trainers, all the videos and did 80% or more of the qbank. Two of them did 100% of the entire program including all of the qbank. And one girl that failed, graduated with a 4.0 which like I said means nothing. It just shows that the school is bad.

If you don't have the content you have to learn it first. I am not getting rid of it but using something else until I am ready for Kaplan. I am giving myself 3 months to prepare and if I am not ready I will reschedule. I only want to take NCLEX once.

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Kaplan is NOT good for content. Continue using Kaplan for the Question Trainers and QBanks and use Hurst for content. You're in the right track.

Thanks. Do you have any other suggestions for content?

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Thanks. Do you have any other suggestions for content?

The Saunders Comprehensive Review book. Not sure if you have it already or not but it's an excellent book. Everything is broken down in a way that makes it understandable. And of course your textbooks if you can actually read through it without falling asleep.

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Just a question, if you repeat the questions and your score gets higher is that okay or is it the initial score that is a true refection if you are ready to take the test.

If you read the rationales after you take it initially and then take it again then that is a false score. Simply because the answer is stuck in your mind from seeing the correct answer.

But if you take the test and don't look at the answers/rationales for any of the questions you got wrong (or right for that matter) then it means that you have learned more and would be considered a true reflection.

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The Saunders Comprehensive Review book. Not sure if you have it already or not but it's an excellent book. Everything is broken down in a way that makes it understandable. And of course your textbooks if you can actually read through it without falling asleep.

Yeah I have Saunders. We used it our last trimester. The people in my class that failed NCLEX with Kaplan used Saunders and passed.

It's a giant outline to me which I don't like. I need to pull it out but I will use it in conjunction with Hurst.

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Congrats to all who passed wheter it was the NCLEX PN or NCLEX RN. I'm sure both were just as stressful to prepare for. I just took the NCLEX PN and passed at 85 questions which took me a little under 3 hrs. I was fine going in but sitting there in front of that computer I seriously began to have one of my panic attacks :no:. I had to refocus my train of thought and do my deep breathing exercises, all the while hoping no one noticed me freaking out!!! LOL But I to be honest I used only the Saunders cd test bank to study and devoted at least 1-2 hrs a day to it, passing with mostly 59-65%. I still don't think that they (meaning the school/instructors) prepare you for the fact that it can be extremely nerve racking but truly possible to pass the NCLEX. I know for sure that when I go to take my NCLEX RN, I at least will have an idea of what to expect and hopefully not have an extreme nervous break down like this time around. We should all be very proud of ourselves for achieving such a rewarding goal of becoming a nurse whether PN or RN. :w00t:

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.
If you read the rationales after you take it initially and then take it again then that is a false score. Simply because the answer is stuck in your mind from seeing the correct answer.

This is true but it can be a good thing if it stuck in your head and your able to apply the answer to other questions worded differently. This is where having different test banks helps. I had Saunders and Hogan at home and then access to NCLEX 4000 though the school.

So rotate them if you can as your getting better. I found the actual nclex questions were worded very simply compared to all the practice ones which could trip you up by thinking its a trick question it's probably not. Answer the question in front of you not the one you think they are asking ;)

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Hi - Thank you for your post. I take my NCLEX in two weeks and am feeling very uneasy about it. You definitely gave me some confidence back!

I was wondering if you could direct me to where that study guide can be found? Since I cannot access it when I click on the link :/

Thanks so much!

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