I have been reading an NCLEX book--Kaplan coursebook. However, it is EXTREMELY boring. I have read it once, but decided to go through it again, because some of the information such as s/s of certain conditions was sketchy. But since it is so boring, I have decided to stop reading it & switch to doing only questions for the remainder of my study time before my test, doing that holds my attention longer & I get more out of it. A LOT of people say to do A LOT of practice questions before taking the exam. Some even say to only do practice questions, & don't mess with an NCLEX book. I am wondering though, what is the real difference between doing practice questions or simply reading an NCLEX book? I mean, either way, you're studying & learning.
I have decided to switch to questions because to read one unit in my book, let's say it's 40-60 pages, nearly takes me all day because I keep falling asleep & getting extremely bored with reading. I know that I am learning SOMETHING, but it is just so boring. My mother-in-law suggested that I do only practice questions for the remaining time, see what my weaknesses are, then review only those sections in my NCLEX book. This sounded good & less boring, so that's what I'm going to do. What are your thoughts on this?
Does anyone have any idea which set of review cards for the nclex might be better, or are all of them the same? I was thinking mosby's or saunders or springhouse.. How about davis? Any suggestions for a good set?
wow!:) so proud of you girl!!! ((((pie123)))) ~that's my big hugs for you
Thanks for being proud of me :uhoh21: Though I'm not really sure why you are. Maybe it's because I have decided to forego my escapist tendencies & just take the freakin' test on Tuesday :) BUT, don't think I haven't been on the pearsonvue website looking for a June 7th date. That's what I wanted to go with. When I looked on Wednesday, there were like 5 appointment times for that date, then I looked Thursday & they were ALL gone. The next one was June 21st, which is too far away. My friend who just passed her exam after the 4th time told me to go get it done. I started freaking out b/c I was asking myself questions about certain things (i.e., immunizations for children) & I couldn't remember the answers. She told me to put my book down, & do as many practice questions from now until Monday at roughly 12 noon, then stop & CHILL. I have done some practice questions already, so by Monday, hopefully I will have done at least 2100. When are you taking your test?
Specializes in PICU, Nurse Educator, Clinical Research.
My friend and I both had great grades throughought school, and we started reviewing last winter (start of our last semester of classes) in the same way:
we both got several books (mosby, lippencott, pharm. made easy, etc.) and had them all hole-punched, along with our textbooks (total cost about $25.00 for all books). Then, we put all our books in huge 3-ring binders. each time we did a new section of content, we pulled out the corresponding text chapters, any ancilliary material we had (lots of those '...made incredibly easy' books), and the relevant questions from our nclex book. we tried to do a few questions whenever we studied or sat down, and almost always did some cd-rom questions on that particular content when we studied for a school test.
We felt good.
Then, we took the kaplan course. We both did quite well on the diagnostic test- mine was 70%, which is fine. Then we both dropped for the readiness test- mine went down to a 64%! I'd started overanalyzing questions. :stone Apparently, I'd been approaching them well before, because I averaged 80% on the other nclex materials i had!
so this week, we started our own review program with the kaplan stuff. we get together 4 days a week- we sit with the kaplan book and do a unit of review, watching the review content on the website and following along in the book. if something strikes us as odd, we hit pause and talk about it....we discovered our school taught several things incorrectly (not huge ones, but still- a few wrong answers can burn you), so we figured out why the *right* answer was, indeed, right. then, we did a test. we did diagnostic, readiness, and first two tests on the cd....our first cd test we got a 70%, the second,we got an 80%.
I know you're probably thinking this method isn't valid because we're collaborating. However, we choose the same answer (both on nclex stuff and in school) 98% of the time, so we usually pick the same answer on these tests. Also, over the weekend, we're going to each do 2 of the tests alone and read/watch some more of the content. Next week, we'll do the last 3 cd tests, review the last of the content, then go back and review (online) the questions and rationales. We're still doing a hundred or more questions each per day, but we've been doing them for quite a while, so we're both pretty confident we'll have over 3000 by the time we test on june 6th.
there's no reason we should think we might fail- we had very high scores on the NLN and Mosby diagnostic tests at school, we've studied and done a billion practice questions...but we're both a little paranoid, so we're trying to eek out every bit of usefulness we can from kaplan.
good luck to all of you...and wish us luck on the 6th!
My friend and I both had great grades throughought school, and we started reviewing last winter (start of our last semester of classes) in the same way:
we both got several books (mosby, lippencott, pharm. made easy, etc.) and had them all hole-punched, along with our textbooks (total cost about $25.00 for all books). Then, we put all our books in huge 3-ring binders. each time we did a new section of content, we pulled out the corresponding text chapters, any ancilliary material we had (lots of those '...made incredibly easy' books), and the relevant questions from our nclex book. we tried to do a few questions whenever we studied or sat down, and almost always did some cd-rom questions on that particular content when we studied for a school test.
We felt good.
Then, we took the kaplan course. We both did quite well on the diagnostic test- mine was 70%, which is fine. Then we both dropped for the readiness test- mine went down to a 64%! I'd started overanalyzing questions. :stone Apparently, I'd been approaching them well before, because I averaged 80% on the other nclex materials i had!
so this week, we started our own review program with the kaplan stuff. we get together 4 days a week- we sit with the kaplan book and do a unit of review, watching the review content on the website and following along in the book. if something strikes us as odd, we hit pause and talk about it....we discovered our school taught several things incorrectly (not huge ones, but still- a few wrong answers can burn you), so we figured out why the *right* answer was, indeed, right. then, we did a test. we did diagnostic, readiness, and first two tests on the cd....our first cd test we got a 70%, the second,we got an 80%.
I know you're probably thinking this method isn't valid because we're collaborating. However, we choose the same answer (both on nclex stuff and in school) 98% of the time, so we usually pick the same answer on these tests. Also, over the weekend, we're going to each do 2 of the tests alone and read/watch some more of the content. Next week, we'll do the last 3 cd tests, review the last of the content, then go back and review (online) the questions and rationales. We're still doing a hundred or more questions each per day, but we've been doing them for quite a while, so we're both pretty confident we'll have over 3000 by the time we test on june 6th.
there's no reason we should think we might fail- we had very high scores on the NLN and Mosby diagnostic tests at school, we've studied and done a billion practice questions...but we're both a little paranoid, so we're trying to eek out every bit of usefulness we can from kaplan.
good luck to all of you...and wish us luck on the 6th!
Wow, your plan sounds awesome. It's good that you have such a good study partner!
presC.
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wow!:) so proud of you girl!!! ((((pie123)))) ~that's my big hugs for you