Am I going about this the wrong way?

Hi All!

I am trying to study for this dreaded NCLEX and just wondering if anyone else is feeling the same as I. I am taking the Kaplan review which is great and I am devoting lots of time to study. However, I feel like I am doing soooo much content review but if I don't I won't know it. I just graduated and feel like I don't know a thing!!! This is horrible! I really feel like i am not getting anywhere!

Can anyone help? I study A LOT but am not sure if I am being as effective as i should be!

I just passed the NCLEX last week - I used Saunders and Kaplan books and CD Roms to review and studied for 2 to 3 hours every day for about three months. I qualified as an RN in the UK in 1987 and have been out of nursing for seven years, so as a recent graduate, I don't think you should worry so much! Like you, I dreaded the exam and I was convinced I'd failed until I saw my license on the BON web site.

I think it's important to practice as many questions as possible and use the test taking strategies suggested by Kaplan. That way, even if you're not familiar with the content of every question, you can make an educated choice. Especially practice prioritization and delegation questions. Knowing lab values also helps you to select the correct answer.

Most importantly, stay clam during the exam, work methodically through the questions and apply Kaplan's strategies. There is plenty of time and you may only get 75 questions (like me) so there's no need to rush.

What can I say? I hated it, but now I'm so happy that I put in all the time to study.

Hi All!

I am trying to study for this dreaded NCLEX and just wondering if anyone else is feeling the same as I. I am taking the Kaplan review which is great and I am devoting lots of time to study. However, I feel like I am doing soooo much content review but if I don't I won't know it. I just graduated and feel like I don't know a thing!!! This is horrible! I really feel like i am not getting anywhere!

Can anyone help? I study A LOT but am not sure if I am being as effective as i should be!

I TOTALLY know how u feel........i'm going through the anxiety of writing my exam in 10 days!!!! i've used Lippincott's "NCLEX made incredibly easy" and found the questions simple and straight forward......but i dont' know how to compare those test questions to the real exam......i also started doing practice questions from the Princeton Review CD (7th ed) and found the questions to be vague and some of the answers aren't correct after looking up the info....it also doens't provide any rationales, so that doesn't help either........

anyway, i graduated from Canada in August 2004, and studying for the Canadian RN exam is NOTHING compared to the NCLEX (i'm actually studying like mad)........it's kinda discouraging to see how many posts ppl have made saying that they've failed........it just makes the exam feel THAT much more intimidating....

when is your exam? hope ur studying goes well.....

I wondering if anyone would lilke to trade nclex cds with me, I need new ones. I have the following

Kaplan question trainer

saunder's comprehensive review, 2nd ed.

saunder's Q & A

princeton cracking the nclex-rn

davis's nclex success

lippincott's review 7th ed.

nclex gold, meds publishing

nclex 3000, springhouse

For, books I reccommend getting the lippincott's 250 new format questions, it is available in my public library. Also, does any have the new saunder's book @2005?

I just finsished taking my NCLEX exam for the second time and I feel that hopefully this time I passed due to the different way I studied, compared to the first time.

I chose to only study content from ONE book and really only looked at stuff I felt I needed to freshen up on. I chose the book "NCLEX MADE INSANELY EASY". I then did close to 3,000 practice questions before taking my exam.

I used the NCLEX 3,000 CD and Saunders CD and MOSBY'S CD.

I also got several other CD's from friends who had already taken the exam.

Anyways the first time when I studied for my exam I took kaplan and focused way too much on all the content videos. I watched them over and over and thought I knew all my stuff pretty well but I only did like 500 questions because I had run out of time from studying so much content.

The key to this NCLEX exam is really knowing what they are asking you in those questions and believe me that if you just memorize content it won't help you pass the exam. Understand the content so that you can critically apply it to those questions on the NCLEX exam.

When you do practice questions don't focus so much on the percentage you get and try to graph your test out and see if you stayed above the passing line. I don't know if you know what i am talking about here but in one of the seminars I went to which is very popular the instructor helped me look at the test in a different way. After i did a practice test I would take some graph paper and draw a line in the middle and if I got the first question right, I would put a dot on the line. If I got the next question right I would put a dot in the next colum for question #2 above the middle line. If question number three is wrong then I would put a dot below number 2. I think kaplan also shows and talks about how the NCLEX is graphed. It helped me alot because if I scored a 64% on a test and then graphed it I could see if I was able to stay above the line.

One last thing while you are doing your practice questions, is that really spend time going over the questions you got wrong and even the questions you got right and read the rationales for every questions. This also can help you understand where you might of gone wrong w/the answer you picked.

Anyways I hope this helps a little and good luck to you (=

Caroline

Thank you all for your input. I am planning on taking Nclex in mid-Feb so hopefully I am doing something right. For those of you who took Kaplan and Nclex do you feel that the questions resembled eachother? I am doing the Kaplan course and in class I am getting the questions right so I hope that's OK. I don't want to boost my confidence and then hear that the questions in Kaplan were nothing like Nclex.

Good Luck to all you guys!