fail nclex retake in august 2008

almostarn · Jul 9, 2008

i failed the nclex and i took kaplan. I am not doing 50 ?s a day from saunders and 25 ?s a day on prioritizing, delegation, and assignment book. any advice. i take it again in august. :sniff:

piel_canela26 · Jul 9, 2008

well to be honest i kaplan does not help i took it and it was a waist of time and money, i belive that you need to study what your notes from school past test questions and things like that.... that's what i did and to me the nclex was easy compared to the test questions i got in school.

hopeless test taker · Jul 28, 2008

i too took kaplan and did not pass... i also felt it was a waste of time and money and also confused me more with the strategies... my teacher was confusing and sometimes one strategy was correct and then the next question was similar and the strategy was wrong.... so i dont feel like it is the best way to go... i am currently reviewing material and doing questions from saunders book... and am hoping that i will pass this time around as i know you will too!!

dave787 · Jul 28, 2008

you know this revewer wont realy help you when you think that the questiosn found in the reviewer same in the ACTUAL exam. this will just help you to simulate what the format and sharpen your learning abilitties.

naima · Jul 28, 2008

the kaplan book of strategies helped me.

but i did not stick to just q and a books. I've read Lippincott's comprehensive review book and passed. most of those i know who didn't pass just reviewed on Q and A materials.

hope this helps and God bless on your exam.

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Jul 28, 2008

i took kaplan and passed with 75 questions

supergirl83 · Jul 28, 2008

I also did kaplan's and failed. I think it really only helps if you are confident with your material. I'm planning on reviewing with Saunders and the NCSBN learning extension(online course) and hopefully I too will pass second time around:) So good luck to you and just remember to do what works best for you!!!

barbaratruth, RN · Jul 28, 2008

I was doing 50-100 questions per day two months before the test. Two weeks before the test, I was doing 225 per day. I did over 6,500 questions before the test.

Practice questions from every source possible. I passed the NCLEX. I also used Kaplan. I attribute my success to NCLEX 4000 in addition to Kaplan.

There is no magical formula except knowing the material and practicing questions, questions, questions.

It is important to prepare yourself for the stamina needed for the NCLEX, in case you have to be sitting with the computer for several hours.

Good luck to you.

dragonfly32 · Jul 30, 2008

Sorry to hear.. but wish you best of luck this time.. i did kaplan as well and did not pass.. I was refered to Saunder's review.. and do all the prep ?s.. I was told that these ? really prep you for what to expect.. along with there rationels..

good luck!!!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 30, 2008

I see several posts here that say taking Kaplan was a waste of time and money because they failed. I see it another way. You were going to fail regardless of the book set you used, because you aren't recognizing WHY you failed.

Kaplan is not a magical guarantee that you'll pass. It's only a set of strategies and a pattern of practice tests that get you prepared for the type of questions you can expect and in the format you absolutely will see them. The format of the Kaplan online exams is identical to the real NCLEX.

Memorizing rationales, anyone's rationale's, is useless because passing the NCLEX requires critical THINKING skills: not just rote memorization. It asks you to take a situation in which you HAVE memorized specific information and APPLY that to find a correct answer.

You cannot blame Kaplan as the problem. It's the method you are using to study the material that's problematic. I used several different books, to get lots of different angles (which, honestly, got confusing) and settled on Kaplan alone. I passed with 79 questions.

As a tip, less than 50 questions a day as preparation probably isn't enough, based on what I'm seeing here. Most people I know who passed easily did THOUSANDS of questions, not a few hundred. I did practice quizzes that were always a hundred or more long, and then threw in more questions for shorter quizzes as time allowed.

lani75 · Jul 30, 2008

I, too, failed using Kaplan in June 2008. I paid almost $500 for their classes and online qbank. I even bought their book (Test taking strats). I also was focusing on their methods, instead of reviewing content. All that money wasted. After reading allnurses.com forums, I've been directed to read and review Saunder's Comprehensive Review Book, then follow Suzanne's Plan. I'm actually studying Saunder's right now. I'm finding it more helpful than Kaplan.