4 Days till NCLEX-RN... Thoughts??

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It will be a total of about 13 days between when I received my ATT and take my NCLEX. When I graduated school in mid december I took sometime off until after the new year. I was a great student in school and graduated with high honors. (I know that doesnt mean I will pass NCLEX just giving some background). About a week or so after that I started doing some questions here and there and reviewing mildly. Once I got my ATT I started studying a ton!! About 8-9 hours a day and I am still going. I have been doing hurst and reviewed the med surg content twice. I have yet to do the specialty videos because I feel like I start to lose sight of how to answer NCLEX types questions the more I am not doing them. I figure that if I am practicing questions then I am also reviewing content at the same time and killing 2 birds with one stone kind of right?? I guess I wanted everyones thoughts on whether I should watch these videos or keep doing questions at this point! I am SO scared and would love some tips or some words of encouragement that I am in the right direction (somewhat at least). I am doing kaplan q bank questions, the q review questions with hurst, ATI questions and NCLEX mastery questions... about 150 questions a day. ANY tips??!!!

Thanks! Good luck to you too!

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I took the NCLEX last June and exactly 1 month after I graduated. When I was in nursing school they made us do the Hurst review. Really good program, but what I didn't like about it initially was that it was more content review than applying content to actual test questions. When studying I used Hurst for content review and Kaplan Q bank (and the Hurst Q tests) for applying the content. I will admit though that about 10 of my questions on the NCLEX (out of the 75 I had) I would have not had known if it wasn't for Hurst. I don't think it is really necessary to watch the specialty videos (although if you want a good laugh you should watch the OB video), but if you haven't filled in the blanks in the specialty sections, I strongly suggest you do so because you never know if the content might show up on some of your questions! The only videos I re-watched after I initially took the Hurst course before graduation were the endocrine and electrolyte sections.

Some of the best advice I can give you- do NOT study the day before your exam! Take that time to go get a massage, get your nails done, go shopping, read a book that's NOT nursing related, whatever it is to get you the in the most relaxed state as possible. I remember I took my exam on a Wednesday. On Monday I kid you not, I spent 15 hours (with a few breaks of course) studying. Drove myself into multiple panic/crying attacks. Looking back on it I know now that it was silly of me to do that. I e-mailed my instructor from the HURST review in the midst of my panicking and she said "Don't look at another question from when you wake up Tuesday until after your exam" So I didn't. And I still passed!

Best of luck to you. Remember to breathe, eat a good breakfast, take your time on each question, and during those times of doubt and feelings of defeat remember what you are doing this for and why being a nurse is so important to you!

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LOL StephanieRN! OMG. I laughed so much during that OB video!!! That video gave me life.

Congrats on passing by the way and I'm soooo glad Hurst Review worked wonders for you. I'm hoping it will for me too!

Do you by any chance remember how you studied all those meds in the 5th day material resources? I pretty much suck at meds and I have no idea how to go about studying them. And any tips on reviewing the 5th day materials and what documents I should focus on?

Thanks in advance! I take my NCLEX on Feb 27th and I've pretty much done the same thing as you have. (Hurst for content and Kaplan for Questions)

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Studying on Quizlet: HURST Endocrine flashcards | Quizlet

Heres the link :)

Thanks a bunch!! These would definitely help! :)

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Great website. Thanks a lot. Good luck on your test.

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I think for the 5th day materials I just briefly read through everything. If it was really long I skipped it... I'm probably not the best role model, haha. As for the meds, I think I just looked them over when I was reviewing the specific section. So if I was on the endocrine section I would review the endocrine meds, and just the basics about each one too. (indication, classification, any big or common s/e) Just warning you now, you will get at least one med on the NCLEX and think, "I've never heard of that in my life!" There are SO many possible meds they can throw at you so just do the best you can. Remember the groupings: (ex: lol- beta blockers) I was one of the lucky ones that only got 5 or 6 med questions so honestly I can't remember a whole lot about them. Most of my questions were SATA about health management and prioritization. Hope I'm being somewhat helpful in answering your questions! I'm being completely honest when I say that I didn't think the NCLEX was that bad. They are just testing for minimum competency before they unleash us baby nurses on the floors!

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Thanks so much for the advice and answering all my questions! And I absolutely appreciate your honesty!

One last question - do you feel that the Kaplan QBank was pretty similar to the NCLEX in terms of difficulty?

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I actually found the Q bank to be a little harder than the NCLEX questions. I can't remember specifically why, but I think I would get only like 60 or 70% of the questions on the Kaplan tests right.

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Thanks a bunch!! These would definitely help! :)

They definitely were a lifesaver!!

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Listen everyone, the NCLEX is an easy test. Don't sweat it because you can always take it over. My suggestion, and this worked for an old man like me, is to learn how to break the question down. Don't worry about the material because you already know enough just by completing nursing school. Take your time with each question, don't rush thinking you only have 60 seconds for each. I spent about 1.5 to 2 minutes for each and the test stopped at 75 questions. If you do not know what the question is about, say a disease you did not cover in class, look at the answers and you can figure it out from there. Then reread the question and you should be able to eliminate two of the answers. Now go back to the question and look for key words to eliminate one more of the answers. I used this all through the test and I did really well. I was NOT a good test taker in school. We were told to do about 5,000 NCLEX type questions before the test which I think is BS. Learn to break the questions down. That is the key to being successful with the NCLEX. The NCLEX is a very easy test. Again, you already know enough just by completing nursing school, don't bother doing tons of questions, learn to break the questions down.

Good luck.

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Don't sweat the NCLEX, it is an easy test! Take your time with each question. Break the question down and know exactly what they are asking. If you don't know what they are talking about, say a disease, look at the answers and you should be able to figure it out from them. Then reread the question and it will all come to you. I took my time, about 1.5-2 minutes each question, and I knew at this pace I would never finish all 265 questions but I didn't care. My test stopped at 75. Don't get caught up with doing massive amounts of questions because just by completing nursing school, you know enough to pass. There are going to be questions that you have no clue what the hell it is asking, but take a deep breath and break it down like I explained above. It really is an easy test.

Good luck. Oh, and i sucked at taking tests!

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Listen everyone, the NCLEX is an easy test. Don't sweat it because you can always take it over. My suggestion, and this worked for an old man like me, is to learn how to break the question down. Don't worry about the material because you already know enough just by completing nursing school. Take your time with each question, don't rush thinking you only have 60 seconds for each. I spent about 1.5 to 2 minutes for each and the test stopped at 75 questions. If you do not know what the question is about, say a disease you did not cover in class, look at the answers and you can figure it out from there. Then reread the question and you should be able to eliminate two of the answers. Now go back to the question and look for key words to eliminate one more of the answers. I used this all through the test and I did really well. I was NOT a good test taker in school. We were told to do about 5,000 NCLEX type questions before the test which I think is BS. Learn to break the questions down. That is the key to being successful with the NCLEX. The NCLEX is a very easy test. Again, you already know enough just by completing nursing school, don't bother doing tons of questions, learn to break the questions down.

Good luck.

That's so awesome!!! I'll be sure to use that strategy when I take mine. Any other tips you can give me? As to how to review those dreaded drugs? I suck at pharm.

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