I am writing my exam in 4 weeks. I have gone thro most of the Saunders comprehensive book (minus med chapters).
My pharm knowledge is very low. I feel that if I focus on that it will take up a large chunk of the 4 weeks. Plus I have heard from multiple ppl that they only got around 5-8 pharm qs. The highest number I have heard was from a friend who had 240 qs and got 13. Thats still a pretty low number.
Anyone who wrote the exam have some insight into this? I feel like it is a gamble to do this but I am in crunch time and would like to focus on larger topics.
Please study pharm. I had like 20 pharm questions on my test. 5 med. cal., one I had no idea how to do it. I was so bump and I wish I study those conversion.
If your pharm knowledge is really low and you still have four weeks before your test, why would you NOT study pharm? Just because one person only had 3-6 on their NCLEX doesn't mean you will. A friend of mine had over 25 med questions. Every test is different. Study pharm.
Because I would like to focus on thngs that I feel are more important but I guess you guys are right. I shouldnt gamble on this. I just absolutley hate pharm and feel like itll take me so long to get it. I did horrible in my course and for some reason I cannot grasph the concepts well.
I will get that mastery app tho and see if it helps.
Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
Never underestimate the importance of pharm. You will be giving meds. You need to know the various classes and most common side effects. Yes, when you give a med, you might be able to look it up but, you will need to learn this stuff. It is VERY important.
Because I would like to focus on thngs that I feel are more important but I guess you guys are right. I shouldnt gamble on this. I just absolutley hate pharm and feel like itll take me so long to get it. I did horrible in my course and for some reason I cannot grasph the concepts well.
I will get that mastery app tho and see if it helps.
The bolded part would be precisely why you CANNOT skip studying this until you have it down, and are ready for the NCLEX exam.
Because I would like to focus on thngs that I feel are more important but I guess you guys are right. I shouldnt gamble on this. I just absolutley hate pharm and feel like itll take me so long to get it. I did horrible in my course and for some reason I cannot grasph the concepts well.
I will get that mastery app tho and see if it helps.
Why do you feel pharm isn't as important as other things? One medication error and you can kill someone. Pharm is extremely important!
You won't be able to get all of it. If you studied for a year you wouldn't be able to get all of it. But you should at least study the different classes.
Pharm is definitely important. I knew it was a weak spot for me -- my program taught using both generic and trade names, because back when we started, NCLEX gave you both. I memorized plenty of drugs by their trade names. Then, in my last semester, rumors started flying that they weren't giving trade names any more, only generic. I was in trouble.
I didn't study pharm specifically, but I should have. Of my 76 questions, a little less than half were SATA. The SATA questions usually have 6 options, and I needed med knowledge on most of them to either rule out or rule in an answer. Aside from that, there were about 10 questions directly about meds with zero hints given about what the meds might be used for. It was grueling, and a major part of why I felt so bad when I walked out was that I didn't know the meds nearly well enough.
Some of that can't be helped -- I think everyone gets to NCLEX and sees some drugs that they have no clue what they are. But trust me when I say you'll want to lessen that occurrence as much as possible by being confident in your pharm basics before you sit in the NCLEX hot seat.
From what I've been told about how the NCLEX works, each one is basically customized to your performance and not completely random. The first bunch of questions will be random, but then the program is designed to hone in on specific areas based on your performance as you go along. If you start to miss pharm questions, it may start to give you more to test and see if your knowledge is "acceptable" in that area. If you start to miss OB questions it may shoot you a few more to make sure you're okay in that area, etc. The difficulty varies too based on how you're answering. If you're getting more difficult questions, it's probably a sign that you've been getting the last few right and it's giving you progressively more difficult questions to test your competence. It will keep going until you have sustained a satisfactory level of competence.
It's absolutely useless to find out how many questions other people got. For one thing, who actually is tallying how many questions of each area they got while they're taking the thing? Jeez, when I was done I could barely remember any specific question at all, much less how many of each subject I got asked. Even if a person does happen to remember a specific number, it's completely useless to you anyway.
I wouldn't spend all my time on pharm, but you should study it and there are fairly easy general ways to look at it. Most classes of drugs have similarities in the names.......benzos (-pam), beta blockers (-lol), ACE inhibitors (-pril).......etc. Learn the classes of drugs and their general purposes and risks and similarities in names. There's no way you'll learn EVERY drug out there no matter how long you had to study but just learn how to think about each general type and how to recognize them.
Pharm was always my weakest link. I failed NCLEX twice and both times I was below in the Pharmacological & Parenteral therapies as well as physiological adaptations. The first time I took NCLEX was literally 3 weeks after I graduated, mainly to A) get a job & B) because every one told me to because every thing will be fresh in your mind. I took the Kaplan course the day after I graduated and also was studying from the Lippincott book (11th edition). Long story short, follow your instincts... when you know you are ready, then you are ready. The two times I took NCLEX, I knew I was not ready, but took the test to try and please friends, family, & loved ones. Finally I purchased MaryAnn Hogan "Comprehensive...." (2nd) edition and fell in love with the book. It actually made studying kind of fun and it highlighted material that was known to be on NCLEX (also the author is/or was a test question writer I believe). The other book that is a must, is "Prioritization, delegation, & assignment" ( 3rd edition), there were literally questions word for word the exact same when I took NCLEX the 3rd and final time, and not I can finally say I am an RN as of 5/6/2015!! If you have any other questions, just ask, I will be more than happy to help any one out. Also, not saying any one will fail the first time; however, if you do, do not let it get to you, you passed nursing school... you got this!!!!
Study smart. Know your major drugs catagories and the side effects...be able to recognize things like -olol are beta blockers and will affect the heart rate as well as the blood pressure...and things like ACEs (-prils) don't affect the heart rate. Diabetic meds. Know the antidotes to meds like narcotics and benzos. If you really are running out of time, focus on the meds that can harm or kill someone if you miss something or administer wrong (that means skip colace and protonix). The NCLEX is a safety test. You are going to be using meds for the rest of your career...yes, you can look them up in micromedex if you don't remember something but it is easier to just start learning as many as you can now. You are legally responsible for knowing what every med you pass does and what side effects to be watching for. Pharm counts. That said. I was weakest in my pharm going into the test and passed in 75 questions. I had maybe 5 pharm questions and although I there were several I had no earthly idea, I was able to rule out multiple answers because I did know what those drugs were and they didn't answer the question correctly.
Why do you feel pharm isn't as important as other things? One medication error and you can kill someone. Pharm is extremely important!
You won't be able to get all of it. If you studied for a year you wouldn't be able to get all of it. But you should at least study the different classes.
I just meant because i know it isnt a large bulk of the exam. And feel like if I focus on everything else and leave out pharm than I might be ok. Realistically how many specific medication qs could they give me?
I love all the advice I have gotten thus far. I will learn the major classes and their names and hopefully that is good enough.
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Study pharma! Just understand it or the very basic!