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??!!!

Thank you xnavycorpsman!!! I really hope you are right and have seen an improvement in my scores by doing just that. Also, CSULB RN GRAD, how are you doing on the q review tests for hurst?? Mine are

1st one: 80/124

2nd: 84/124

3rd: 92/124

and for kaplan

1st qbank: 48%

2nd: 53%

3rd: 68%

4th: 64%

the Kaplan quizzes are usually 50-75 questions for me. Any thoughts on these scores?? Are they within range to pass?? I have also been doing questions with nclex mastery....

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I also sucked in Pharm. I didn't do any questions from the time I graduated DEC 12, 2014 till I took my test Jan 29th. When you get them questions where you start to get nervous and sweat a little, set back in your chair and take a deep breath. Maybe stretch your arms, then go back and look at the question like I described. Take your time with each question! This is NOT a race. You already know the material. Our nursing school test questions were so much harder than the NCLEX.

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Hi StephanieRN14,

I took the NCLEX RN today and failed. IS Hurst really the best review? I used Kaplan books, EXAM CRAM CD, and Saunders CD and book. Im so confused with all the material and reviews out there. Any suggestions?

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obviously you are lacking critical thinking.

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Learn how to break the questions down to what specifically they are asking. I don't think doing massive amounts of questions in preparation is the best way to approach a test like the NCLEX. My school hired a company to come in and teach us how to break down NCLEX type questions. We spent 3 days doing questions, psychological exercises, de-stressing exercises. My intention was to do thousands of questions before the exam but I ended up doing about 50. I spent about 1.5 to 2 minutes per question. Test stopped at 75. And here is something else......I suck at tests.

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I totally agree XNavyCorpsman! I think just taking your time reading the question and the options make the biggest difference! I can't tell you how many times I've missed a question because I didn't take the time to fully understand what the question was asking me. Thanks for your advice and I'll keep you posted on the outcome of my exam. I test on Feb 27th! *Crossing my fingers*

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Thank you xnavycorpsman!!! I really hope you are right and have seen an improvement in my scores by doing just that. Also, CSULB RN GRAD, how are you doing on the q review tests for hurst?? Mine are

1st one: 80/124

2nd: 84/124

3rd: 92/124

and for kaplan

1st qbank: 48%

2nd: 53%

3rd: 68%

4th: 64%

the Kaplan quizzes are usually 50-75 questions for me. Any thoughts on these scores?? Are they within range to pass?? I have also been doing questions with nclex mastery....

Hey there!

Your scores look fantastic! I haven't personally done the Hurst QReview Q's because I decided to save them the week before my exam. However, judging from your scores, it looks like you're doing pretty well! Hurst says that the average score for those people who passed NCLEX the first time was 84/125, so you're totally good!

As far as Kaplan goes, I finished all of the Qbank and I set my quizzes at 73-75 questions each. My scores ranged from 60s-70s. Your scores look awesome as well! Kaplan says to try and stay above 60% with their questions.

Overall, you're doing great! Keep it up!

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I also look at the answer I am about to submit and look at the question to double check to see if the answer makes sense. I have caught so many mistakes by doing this. I think too many people are hung up on the time. You have all the time in the world.

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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.

Really? I'm scoring 60s-70s on the Kaplan questions as well! I just finished the Qbank questions and to be honest, I found them to be a bit difficult to answer. Haha.

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Kaplan qbank questions are SO difficult and some of them and their rationales seem a little out of left field for me too!! Another weakness I have is SATA if I took 10 of them I would get probably less then half right. I know the T/F trick but the wording in each of the answers seems like they are trying to throw you off. It has nothing to do with understanding physiological processes its more like you have to have heard of that term before. Ugh. For ex: For a COPD pt what would you expect to see? One of the answers was "Mechanical unloading" WHAT?! *** is that?! lol. Maybe I'm just an idiot but ive never heard of that term before! And of course it was one that I stayed away from that ended up being correct (this was on a practice question btw). Honestly at this point (taking boards at 3pm on monday) I am just spent. My mind cant fit anymore info. I am going to review 5th day materials tomorrow, do another Hurst test, relax on sunday then go over lab values and little stuff monday am. What I know now is what I know and that's all there is to it! I have been preparing for this test for 2 years not just since I have graduated and I HAVE to keep telling myself that. I worked my @$$ off to get here and I deserve to pass!!!!!!

CSULB_RN_GRAD...thank you for your encouraging words!! I hope those are good scores like you said...the 53 and the 48 worry me but those were the first 2 I took ...

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Kaplan qbank questions are SO difficult and some of them and their rationales seem a little out of left field for me too!! Another weakness I have is SATA if I took 10 of them I would get probably less then half right. I know the T/F trick but the wording in each of the answers seems like they are trying to throw you off. It has nothing to do with understanding physiological processes its more like you have to have heard of that term before. Ugh. For ex: For a COPD pt what would you expect to see? One of the answers was "Mechanical unloading" WHAT?! *** is that?! lol. Maybe I'm just an idiot but ive never heard of that term before! And of course it was one that I stayed away from that ended up being correct (this was on a practice question btw). Honestly at this point (taking boards at 3pm on monday) I am just spent. My mind cant fit anymore info. I am going to review 5th day materials tomorrow, do another Hurst test, relax on sunday then go over lab values and little stuff monday am. What I know now is what I know and that's all there is to it! I have been preparing for this test for 2 years not just since I have graduated and I HAVE to keep telling myself that. I worked my @$$ off to get here and I deserve to pass!!!!!!

CSULB_RN_GRAD...thank you for your encouraging words!! I hope those are good scores like you said...the 53 and the 48 worry me but those were the first 2 I took ...

SERIOUSLY RIGHT?! I feel like the Kaplan stuff sound somewhat off, right?!?! Thank goodness I'm not the only one that thinks so! And I love the attitude! Stay positive. You're doing everything you can! And like XNavyCorpsman said, one of the best strategies we can use is to just look at the question, read it, read the answers, read the question again, and make sense of it using our critical thinking skills! We've got this! Keep me posted! I'm here for moral support! :)

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Hi StephanieRN14,

I took the NCLEX RN today and failed. IS Hurst really the best review? I used Kaplan books, EXAM CRAM CD, and Saunders CD and book. Im so confused with all the material and reviews out there. Any suggestions?

Hey there!

I'm so sorry to hear that! Definitely don't lose hope, several of my close friends passed on their 2nd attempt! In all honesty, I have no idea what the best review would be for you. I think it just varies from person to person. For me, I reviewed Hurst for content and Kaplan for practice questions. Hurst helped me remember tidbits of information I may have forgotten from med-surg by breaking it down simply and in ways I could remember. I just did a little bit each day and that seemed to work for me.

I have to agree XNavyCorpsman. Learning how to break the questions down really helped. I looked at the Kaplan Decision Tree a little bit and it helped for a few questions, but I think what helped most was taking my time (1-2 minutes a question, like he said) and eliminating the options one at a time. I would use the dry erase board they gave me by writing A B C D (or more if they were SATA) and crossing them off. I'm a very visual person, always learned by pictures and charts, so if you are the same way maybe that will help you!

Don't let this test get the best of you. You know the material. Now you just have to show the "NCLEX people" that you know it!

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