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I am about to take my NCLEX-RN this February 2014 and I am really nervous. I am trying to answer sample questions and It's reallly hard for me to answer the questions. I graduated 2010 and I am a foreigner I studied and graduated abroad and even took the local board exams (like NCLEX but I guess easier, it's pen and paper exam). Going back I am trying to answer all these practice questions and after taking it my scores are really low 62% and other one was 52% what should I do? Do you have any tips for me on how I can improve my knowledge before the big day? What sort of studying techniques can you recommend me? and what review materials should I use? which topics should I focus on? Please help me fellow nurses. Thanks in advance.

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Alysa, you have to stay positive. It doesn't matter if you are a foreigner or not my dear, you will rock this nclex! Now the tests that you have been doing what are the specific areas? Look over those areas for example if you see that you are constantly getting cardio questions wrong look over that. If it's a particular procedure or dx test then look over that such as CABG because you may not be sure about the content. You have to know the content in order to critically think about a question. What I did was took a 50 question test (I did Kaplan program) and reviewed rationales for RIGHT and wrong answers. If I got something wrong I would talk it out with myself as to why I got it wrong. I would ask myself, "How did I come to this answer? What's the difference between my answer and the right answer? I would then look at all of the answer choices one by one and see how does it relate to what the question was asking. I would look it up in the Kaplan review of content book because I did not want to forget it. You have to think like nclex wants you to think. There are subtle differences in answer choices and it could be one wrong word in the answer choice that you may have chosen or it may not be what the "stem" of the question is looking for. I used Kaplan and some of Saunders but mainly Kaplan. Use a resource and stick to it. I'm not sure what resources you're using but for Kaplan, I took only my weak areas such a health promo and main and then reviewed and questioned until my scores came up and then I did every category according to the nclex plan. I hope that I'm not confusing you because I surely confused myself :D.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

1) Saunder's Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination by Silvestri - This book is a great content review. I read it cover to cover during nursing school to prepare for the NCLEX and study for tests in school. There is a new 6th edition out, but the 5th edition is just fine.

2) Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment: Practice Exercises for the NCLEX Examination by LaCharity, Kumagai, and Bartz. This book is a must have. I went through 80% of the book. You must read the rationales to gain the full benefit. It also helps you with content through the different scenarios. The 3rd edition is coming out soon, but the 2nd edition is perfect.

3) Kaplan NCLEX Review http://www.kaptest.com/NCLEX/Home/index.html - At the very least sign up for their qtrainer and qbank. The classroom prep teaches you how to answer questions. Taking the Kaplan course was the best thing for me because it taught me how to read and answer the NCLEX style questions and increased my confidence as I saw my scores going up on the qtrainers and qbank. I took the classroom course, did all the qtrainers, and answered ~80% of the qbank.

Here is the link to NCLEX test plans from the NCSBN https://www.ncsbn.org/1287.htm

2013_NCLEX_RN_Test_Plan.pdf

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PrepU

Wolters Kluwer Health Single SignOn Result

PrepU is a 10,000 NCLEX-based question bank (yes.. 10 000 questions to choose from!). It's pricey but I believe it's worth every penny (you buy it online). We had a trial run that the admins at our school set up for us during med/surg class, and I loved it! You can choose different topics and amount of questions you want to get at one go, and the program tailors the questions for you based on how you progress. At the end, when you've submitted your answers, it goes through the rationale for each question and each option.

It's a fantastic resource, in a nutshell.

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Alysa, you have to stay positive. It doesn't matter if you are a foreigner or not my dear, you will rock this nclex! Now the tests that you have been doing what are the specific areas? Look over those areas for example if you see that you are constantly getting cardio questions wrong look over that. If it's a particular procedure or dx test then look over that such as CABG because you may not be sure about the content. You have to know the content in order to critically think about a question. What I did was took a 50 question test (I did Kaplan program) and reviewed rationales for RIGHT and wrong answers. If I got something wrong I would talk it out with myself as to why I got it wrong. I would ask myself, "How did I come to this answer? What's the difference between my answer and the right answer? I would then look at all of the answer choices one by one and see how does it relate to what the question was asking. I would look it up in the Kaplan review of content book because I did not want to forget it. You have to think like nclex wants you to think. There are subtle differences in answer choices and it could be one wrong word in the answer choice that you may have chosen or it may not be what the "stem" of the question is looking for. I used Kaplan and some of Saunders but mainly Kaplan. Use a resource and stick to it. I'm not sure what resources you're using but for Kaplan, I took only my weak areas such a health promo and main and then reviewed and questioned until my scores came up and then I did every category according to the nclex plan. I hope that I'm not confusing you because I surely confused myself :D.

Thanks for your reply. This has been very useful to me. Sorry for my late reply. I took the nclex-rn feb 19 of this year, got my quick results after 48 hours and I passed. My license number was posted at NYBON website after some days or a week. Thank you for this message I appreciate this so much. :)

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1) Saunder's Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination by Silvestri - This book is a great content review. I read it cover to cover during nursing school to prepare for the NCLEX and study for tests in school. There is a new 6th edition out, but the 5th edition is just fine.

2) Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment: Practice Exercises for the NCLEX Examination by LaCharity, Kumagai, and Bartz. This book is a must have. I went through 80% of the book. You must read the rationales to gain the full benefit. It also helps you with content through the different scenarios. The 3rd edition is coming out soon, but the 2nd edition is perfect.

3) Kaplan NCLEX Review Pass the NCLEX Guaranteed or Your Money Back | Kaplan Nursing - At the very least sign up for their qtrainer and qbank. The classroom prep teaches you how to answer questions. Taking the Kaplan course was the best thing for me because it taught me how to read and answer the NCLEX style questions and increased my confidence as I saw my scores going up on the qtrainers and qbank. I took the classroom course, did all the qtrainers, and answered ~80% of the qbank.

Here is the link to NCLEX test plans from the NCSBN https://www.ncsbn.org/1287.htm

Thank you for your suggestions. And sorry for my late reply. I actually read saunders for content, some youtube videos, kaplan strategy book, and answered kaplan question trainer and this other kaplan cd it really helped me a lot. I passed the NCLEX-RN on my first try. I appreciate your message it helped me. :)

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