feeling really down....

grantz · Oct 28, 2011

you are a student and an nclex style question won't certainly work for you. Questions from schools are made by your instructors not by nclex people. So if I were you I won't be worrying about that. Anyway what year are you now?

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

you are a student and an nclex style question won't certainly work for you. Questions from schools are made by your instructors not by nclex people. So if I were you I won't be worrying about that. Anyway what year are you now?

All of my nursing school had tests based on NCLEX type exams. You can see if you can get some NCLEX books and find the sections that apply to where you are- BUT that can be hard, since they don't always break things up into clinical sections. The "Incredibly Easy" series of books are good.

YOU CAN improve your grade in 3 tests Ask your instructor. They really do want you to succeed !! Also, are there others in the class that would be interested in some sort of group study? A bunch of my co-students got together every week to study, and on a day when the instructors had their office hours, and were available to take our calls.

What has helped in the past? Is it anxiety related testing problems, or oral vs written, or anything you've identified? :heartbeat

Talk to your instructor- it also lets her/him know that you are worried about it- that can only help!!

mgalano, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

Our exams are taken from a test bank from ONE book, and those test bank questions are all nclex style.

The weird thing is... after my 76 grade I decided to try group study and thats when i felt super good about the exam. Only to get a 60 .. but im not sure if it was actually telling me i didnt know anything, because i still feel like i know everything that was on that exam.

I think it has A LOT to do with anxiety... when I see the questions i feel like immediately everything rushes out of my brain its ridiculous.

I will have to try the incredibly easy series you have mentioned, i also did email my prof after my exam saying i may need some extra help in finding a way to study for efficiently.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

Our exams are taken from a test bank from ONE book, and those test bank questions are all nclex style.
The weird thing is... after my 76 grade I decided to try group study and thats when i felt super good about the exam. Only to get a 60 .. but im not sure if it was actually telling me i didnt know anything, because i still feel like i know everything that was on that exam.
I think it has A LOT to do with anxiety... when I see the questions i feel like immediately everything rushes out of my brain its ridiculous.
I will have to try the incredibly easy series you have mentioned, i also did email my prof after my exam saying i may need some extra help in finding a way to study for efficiently.

Sounds like a good idea. Some of this could be anxiety- and if needed, talk to your doc about this. It's not something "bad" to need some medication help during this time (not as a crutch), but to help with the physical symptoms you're having. Also, is there a difference between the type of test you got 100 on, vs the ones you didn't do as well on?

Talk to your instructor, and see if he/she has some ideas :)

Constantly Surprised · Oct 28, 2011

Someone had posted the following site on another thread, and I have used it ever since.

https://evolve.elsevier.com/cs/Satellite/StudentMyHome?Audience=Student

It's free to use, and relatively easy to navigate. What you will want to do is use the search bar at the top and enter in the type of class you're currently taking (i.e. Med Surg, Fundamentals, so on so forth) and it will give you many different options of books to access. You sign up for that resource and create an account (again, free) and then you can access the books you signed up for from the home page under "Resources."

For each book you use, there are about 20 additional questions per chapter you're studying. All NCLEX style and most books I've used so far correlate well with what we're doing in class. It's not a lot of extra questions, but extra questions none the less.

http://www.campuscollusion.com/PublicSets.aspx?SysHeadID=1

This one I came across on a google search for questions. There are 13 pages worth of different topics and related nursing school course work.

Best of luck to you!

all4ofus, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

I am in my last semester and I've been where you are. You CAN pull your grade up! I've found that the Iggy practice tests on evolve seem to be more pertinent to our tests than ATI questions. Also, my grades drop when I do study groups, so I am always politely busy now. Find out if your school has a retention specialist of any sort to help you. Ours has a questionnaire that she gives out - you take it with you when you review your test and use the questionnaire to categorize the reasons you think you missed the question (read the question wrong, unfamiliar content, changed answer, etc.). It turned out I was second-guessing a LOT of questions and changed my answers even though they were correct at the first. So I've learned to "go with my gut." And for me, I HAVE to read, which takes forever, but I do better if I just read everything. Good luck! I also started my 2nd semester failing and managed to pull it up to an A by the end, if you can believe that! You CAN do this!!! :heartbeat:redbeathe:redpinkhe

mgalano, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 30, 2011

One problem is we don't get to review our questions once we are done. Its on a computer, we have 60 minutes to take it and press submit, once we press submit.. say at like 45 min you can use the rest of your 15 min to review. But I take the whole time for the exam and then I dont have any time to review! It really sucks. I use the evolve website a lot because all of our test questions come from a test bank from their Lewis Med Surg books.

I also need to just go with my gut because.. once again... i changed 4 answers to WRONG, i tell myself everytime DO NOT CHANGE, yet i still do because I am convinced that i am wrong.

Thank you for all of the support.

reeta116 · Oct 31, 2011

For priority questions try Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment by Linda LaCharity. Excellent book!

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 31, 2011

Another idea- look at the ABCs of the situation ; if those are covered, go with Maslow's Hierarchy, and fit things into that to help prioritize. Some things may not be so obvious, but you can generally plug things into some category. :up:

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 31, 2011

i taught the kaplan nclex reviews for years, and this is what we taught, to great success.

nclex items are developed in part from knowing what errors new grads make and how. they tend to be of two kinds: inadequate information, and lack of knowledge (these are not the same thing). the goal of nclex is to pass candidates who will be acceptably safe in practice as nurses. so-- they want to know what the prudent nurse will do.

1) when confronted c 4 answers, you can usually discard 2 out of hand. of the remaining two,

-- always choose the answer that (in priority order) makes the patient safer or gets you more information. "can you tell me more about that?" "what do you know about your medication?" "what was the patient's lab result?"

-- never choose the answer that has you turf the situation to another discipline-- chaplain, dietary, md, social work, etc. it's often tempting, but they want to know about what the nurse would do. see "always..." above.

2) "safer" might mean airway, breathing, circulation; it might mean pull the bed out of the room and away from the fire; it might mean pressure ulcer prevention; or improving nutrition; or teaching about loose scatter rugs ... keep your mind open.

3) read carefully. if they ask you for a nursing intervention answer, they aren't asking for an associated task or action which requires a physician plan of care. so in a scenario involving a medication, the answer would not be to hang the iv, regulate it, or chart it; it would not be to observe for complications. it would be to assess pt knowledge of the med/tx plan and derive an appropriate patient teaching plan. only that last one is nursing-independent and a nursing intervention.

again, they want nursing here.

4) the day before the test, do not study. research shows that your brain does not retain crap you stuff into it at the last minute-- musicians learning a new piece play the first part on monday, the second part on tuesday, and the third part on weds. then they do something else entirely on thursday; meanwhile, behind the scenes, the brain is organizing the new info into familiar cubbyholes already stuffed with music, putting it ready for easy access. on friday, the whole piece works much better.

what this translates for in test-taking land is this: the day before the test, you go to a museum or a concert, go take a hike, read a trashy novel, make a ragout, do something else entirely. take a small glass of wine, soak in a nice hot bath in a darkened tub with a few candles on the sink, get a nice night's sleep.

5) read the mayonnaise jar and do what it says: keep cool, do not freeze.

fiisrnsi · Nov 6, 2011

One problem is we don't get to review our questions once we are done. Its on a computer, we have 60 minutes to take it and press submit, once we press submit.. say at like 45 min you can use the rest of your 15 min to review. But I take the whole time for the exam and then I dont have any time to review! It really sucks. I use the evolve website a lot because all of our test questions come from a test bank from their Lewis Med Surg books.
I also need to just go with my gut because.. once again... i changed 4 answers to WRONG, i tell myself everytime DO NOT CHANGE, yet i still do because I am convinced that i am wrong.
Thank you for all of the support.

I was wondering how you doing now a day? i hope things are getting better. I don't have passing rate either and have only 2 more tests, one of them is final if i don't get an A on both, I'm out.... can't hardly sleep at night, I just don't know what to do:banghead: