For those who passed: Please share your study habits

GonnaAmazeYou, ASN, RN · Sep 20, 2012

I passed nclex last month, first time I took it. To study I did the hurst program for 3 weeks before the test. I also did ati nclex qbank. I personally HATED Kaplan and do not recommend it. It is very confusing and the "strategy questions" do not prepare u to actually pass nclex by legitimate knowledge, instead by strategic guessing. For me hurst was great, reinforced important concepts and dangers that u may have forgotten thru nursing school. Just pace urself during ur test and pay close close attention to the first 30 Qs they are usually just foundation Qs but they try to be a little tricky and if u miss any u get slammed with similar Qs. I had 75 Qs and honestly can say nclex was nowhere near as hard as any of my nursing school tests, ati tests or practice tests. I would say it was pretty easy, at least my test was. Just don't choose the "killer nurse" answer on any of ur Qs. Good luck.

garnetgirl29, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2012

I graduated July 31 & took my nclex-pn Sept. 13 & passed with the minimum questions. I hardly studied at all. My program used ATI as a study resource & I used it during my program & a little after. The practice test I took before graduation said I had a 97% probability of passing the first time. Pretty much all I did was online practice tests & made sure I had the lab values down & read the nclex tips from ATI. But, I feel that my program was very good at preparing us for the nclex-pn.

Some tips I found helpful from the ATI Booklet "Preparing for the NCLEX-PN":

-There is no short staffing in the NCLEX hospital. Nurses always have time to sit eye level with clients & listen to them

-If the question is asking for your intervention, you are looking for something that is wrong, not what is right

-If you have never heard of the medication, it might not matter. For example, an item tells you the med is causing nausea & vomiting. What do you do for any client who is nauseated after taking a med? Giving a med with food often helps. When in doubt, use your clinical reasoning skills to lead you to the correct response.

-Decide what to do when the right answer is not there. When reading the choices, you may not see your first choice. That is why you need a pool of answers to draw on.

---a couple more tips, but I don't remember where these came from:

-If there are two choices completely opposite each other, one is probably the right answer

-Avoid answer choices with absolutes that leave no room for variance. There aren't many absolutes in nursing.

Good luck!!

biglala · Sep 21, 2012

Thank you for giving us such good ideas really appreciate that bottom point is use one book for content ,lacharity ,and at least 3000 questions and read the rationales.

Yownyown, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2012

1. How many hours a day did you study for NCLEX, and for how long?

- 5 months, minimum of 4 hours and maximum of 9 hours

2. What books did you read? Any book in particular you focused on?

- almost all. haha! hurst book, saunders book, kaplan strategies, exam cram-RN,pda. I focused saunders for my content. I used kaplan qt, exam cram and pda for my practice questions as my final coaching

3. Did you take a classroom/online review from Kaplan, Hurst, etc.?

- yes! its called NCNA near our area (classroom review)

4. Did you answer practice questions? How many per day?

- yes! a lot! i finished all the questions on the book. 75- 100 per day. but sometimes whenever im tired,i only answer 20q

5. Please share any other study habits/tips/resources/books that you feel has greatly helped you in passing NCLEX.

- Do deep breathing exercises and when your computer did not shut off at 75, just relax, take a deep breath, you are still on the ball game. Don’t focus on the number of questions, don’t analyze the questions as a high level or low level, that’s my mistake on my first take. Just analyze what the question is asking you and do the power of eliminations

- To those who didn’t make it for the first time like me, trust me, I’ve been on your shoes before, I understand and I just want to say and I dare you not to give up on your dreams. They said, “The only real failure in life is the failure to try”. You can do this, I know and I believe that you guyz are strong and a fighter.

- be determined, believe on yourself, be consistent and have faith