Accelerated BSN grad needs advice

suzanne4, RN · Jun 25, 2008

Do not go to 200 questions per day or your brain is not going to retain the information. Brains become overtaxed and forget things. You want to be learning and not memorizing.

3000 questions in my opinion is not nearly enough. should be at least about 4500 to have a better chance of passing.

Your entire prep should focus on understanding what the exam is looking for in an answer.

Best of luck to you.

LuvaBSNRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2008

i graduated from an accelerated bsn program this past may. at the end of this intensely high-paced and cram-packed program i was left feeling burnt out and void of any actual nursing knowlegde. i felt like i was going to have to learn everything i was supposed to learn all over again and purchased saunders comprehensive review with the intent to read it cover to cover. then a couple friends of mine that already passed the nclex said that my time would be more well spent just practicing question after question using the rationales as my review. they said this would be much more efficient than reading the entire book and would teach me to answer the questions and learn from rationales at the same time. i have been doing 100 questions a night and plan on upgrading to 200 soon. by the time i test i will have done over 3000 questions. any thoughts on if this study plan is effective or am i underpreparing

Hello there:

I, too, graduated this past May from an accelerated BSN program (Yay :yeah: for us...lol!!!) I have heard the same thing about only doing questions to prepare for the NCLEX, but that just does not seem sufficient for me. I work at a hospital currently as a tech and the recurring theme from the nurses is to do tons of practice questions and only read STRATEGY material...do not waste time going over content unless you are really really weak in certain areas!!!! I have just started going over my Kaplan material and I am finding that I am scoring better than I am giving myself credit for. I do feel burnt out, as you have stated, and feel like I need to start from scratch, many times you will surprise yourself and know more than you think you do. At the same token, you know your strengths, weaknesses and what type of test taker you are....SO GO FOR WHAT YOU KNOW to pass on the FIRST ATTEMPT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck to you...take care

UpliftingRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2008

Your entire prep should focus on understanding what the exam is looking for in an answer.

thanks for the advice.... could u just elaborate on this point?

thanks:D

LuvaBSNRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2008

thanks for the advice.... could u just elaborate on this point?
thanks:D

I know I did not post this point, but this is something I was told from recent grads who took the test and what I took from the Kaplan course....it is basically a test strategy - where you identify exactly what the question is asking and then you go through steps to eliminate answer choices until you are left with the BEST ANSWER!!! Identifying the topic of the question is key and will ultimately lead you to the best answer choice, which is the correct one!!!!

That's just my :twocents:...hope it helps!!!!!!!!!!!

UpliftingRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2008

i think i would better understand that point if i invested in a kaplan strategy book. perhaps i will add it to my study repertoire. at this point im only scoring 70s with saunders and i heard you want to be scoring in the 80s. i also heard kaplan questions were a bit harder and more closely resemble actual nclex questions. do you know what book it is that i should purchase from kaplan?

suzanne4, RN · Jun 25, 2008

Think that you are taking the wrong approach to this first of all.

The score that you are getting on the Saunder's should not even matter at this point as the focus should be on reading the rationales with each and every answer and understanding what they are looking for in an answer.

You need nothing more than this to pass the exam. When you start adding in more to the equation, that is when one has problems and does not pass.

I would leave things with what you are doing and I have suggested to you already.

Best of luck to you.

UpliftingRN, BSN, RN · Jun 25, 2008

you're right... thanks for the reality check. it's so easy to get lost in the anxiety of everything and come to the false assumption that the more different approaches you study the better. i will stick to my plan of practicing questions while learning from their rationales. thanks again for the advice. from now on when it comes to studying for this exam i'm going to follow the old motto K.I.S.S... keep it simple stupid!