I took the Nclex this afternoon. I've never felt this horrible. I was confident before sitting for the exam but I felt like everything I knew went out the door during the exam.
I used Kaplan to prepare. My grades were consistent with the Question Trainers scoring in the high 50's on Trainer 1-5. On trainers 6 & 7, I received 63 and 64, respectively && I got a 64 on the Readiness exam and my score for the Qbank was a 60.
I only used Kaplan to prepare.
I felt so horrible I could not eat, or focus on anything. I was in tears for the most part. I tried the Pearson's trick, and after many attempts, I received the "good pop up" --- I am feeling a lot better. Yet, I am a little skeptic.
Rach10388, the Nclex won't ask you when you should give someone a medication. The questions usually say what the disorder is and the medication being prescribed. The Nclex will ask you questions about when not to give the medication, as in contraindication and toxicity risks. Other questions would be major side effects of medications.
Being familiar with the categories of medication is really helpful. Also the side effects of each group- for example, kaplan stressed in many questions that Inderal, a beta blocker causes bronchospasms - at the same time, hypertensive medication - always fall risks because of orthostatic hypotension. Like become familiar with antibiotic, like penicillin cross allergy with cephalosporin - or the antibiotic you give with meals. Digoxin toxicity, NMS, EPS, Lithium tox -- etc etc ... I know these are the simple things, but when I prepared, I studied the these things with the medication by groups - it's was very helpful for me.
You will be fine, you are doing pretty good on kapla, and thats very important - but nonetheless - GOOD LUCK, and if you need help, I'm here :)
Rach10388, the Nclex won't ask you when you should give someone a medication. The questions usually say what the disorder is and the medication being prescribed. The Nclex will ask you questions about when not to give the medication, as in contraindication and toxicity risks. Other questions would be major side effects of medications.
Being familiar with the categories of medication is really helpful. Also the side effects of each group- for example, kaplan stressed in many questions that Inderal, a beta blocker causes bronchospasms - at the same time, hypertensive medication - always fall risks because of orthostatic hypotension. Like become familiar with antibiotic, like penicillin cross allergy with cephalosporin - or the antibiotic you give with meals. Digoxin toxicity, NMS, EPS, Lithium tox -- etc etc ... I know these are the simple things, but when I prepared, I studied the these things with the medication by groups - it's was very helpful for me.
You will be fine, you are doing pretty good on kapla, and thats very important - but nonetheless - GOOD LUCK, and if you need help, I'm here :)
Rach10388 how long you been preparing for the test?
You review every book I know and I cant go that fast! How do you do it??
Oh jeez, honestly? I gratuated from Nursing School May 14, I took like a week off doing absolutely nothing except for getting wasted to be honest, it was like a week long binge drinking episode just because I never could during school becaue of how demanding our program was.. After my week off I bought Virtual ATI. I completed the whole program like... June 17, took the predictor and then started the program again.
When I started my first day of studying I went to Barnes and Nobles. I brought out Saunders Q&A and sat at the coffee spot and drank so much coffee I was there like 6 hours and I ended up leaving with Exam Cram because I didn't get to study out of it. The next day I opened exam cram, completed their 265 question first exam and got a 68. I was working during this time, and started up on my second exam and took it over a few days. I got a 62. I went to Florida (thats where my family lives but I am still in PA at my apt until my lease is up and I will be moving 6 days after I take my NCLEX!!!) and I brought down my laptop, exam cram, and NCLEX made incredibly easy. On the plan I did about 100 questions from exam three. I stopped. Got to Florida, worked out of Virtual ATI when I wa home which was like a weeek of maternity, I couldnt get through it. When I was on the beach I brought NCLEX made incredibly easy and read the material.. Not all of it, just my weaknesses. Came back to PA, stopped doing questions out of the books because they say you should really be doing questions the way you will during the exam.. So I started using CDs. I started with NCLEX made incredibly easy, doing 75 question exams, then 100 question exams, then I did 200 a couple times. This was all within like a week, between using the computer for questions I was sitting on my balcony opening exam cram and just doing random questions... This was like a 2 week shin-dig for me. I ended up completing VATI July 9, and I started using Nurse Logic on ATI's site, this was like a week long thing for me. I was doing questions from there, NCLEX made incredibly easy, and exam cram for like 2 weeks maybe...taking a day off, or only doing like 50 questions a day, not overwhelming myself..Then two times out of the week towards the end of July I would dedicate time in the Library at my school. I weent through their 2005 Kaplan book and did their exam and got a 68, a few days later I went back and started working on an outdated Saunders book and did a 265 question exam and got a 62. I took a day off and then only worked out of exam cram when I would wake up for a couple of hours while lying on the deck. My friend took her boards and told me sh only got 75 questions and Kaplan was such a blessing, she gave me her Kaplan account name and password and I have been strictly ONLY doing questions from Kaplan. I try to do it everyday...this is what I have been doing for the last 2 weeks. Between doing the QTrainers and Qbank questions, I read Saunders. I am reading the WHOLLLEEEEEE book since I miraculously found mine last week. I am only taking notes from Sanuders...very brief notes about things I think are important. I probably hit only like max...600 questions a week. and then I ALWAYS read Saunders I am going through like 6 chapters a night.
I wrote a book I know.
So in summary, I am starting to get strict with my studying starting now, I am going to spend like 8 hours straight of questions and fall asleep reading saunders.
May, June, July, Aug... I probably only had like 2.5 months of studying put into the boards. But I used so many things. I can't really estimate the amount of questions I have done but I can say I have at least done... there are 6 modules from VATI with 3 exams for each at like 60 questions a pop... 180 x 6 = 1080 x 2 = 2160...yeah I have probably done more than 3,000 questions.
I also did Davis Q&A, my dad e-mailed it to me because he found a Downloadable version on his on system he uses, I only complted the first chapter I didn't think it was challenging enough... I can email it to you if you want???
It helps! Every little thing helps.. shoot me an email if you are interested [email protected]
ANNNDDD I completed the point which was given to us at school because our nursing director is the author for our medsurg books and she got us a free course. I completed that multiple times, 20 question exams. I did about 50 of those exams on allllll medsurg topics. LOVED IT!
Rookmini, MSN
35 Posts
I PASSED the Nclex! I am soo hyped right now.
Rach10388, the Nclex won't ask you when you should give someone a medication. The questions usually say what the disorder is and the medication being prescribed. The Nclex will ask you questions about when not to give the medication, as in contraindication and toxicity risks. Other questions would be major side effects of medications.
Being familiar with the categories of medication is really helpful. Also the side effects of each group- for example, kaplan stressed in many questions that Inderal, a beta blocker causes bronchospasms - at the same time, hypertensive medication - always fall risks because of orthostatic hypotension. Like become familiar with antibiotic, like penicillin cross allergy with cephalosporin - or the antibiotic you give with meals. Digoxin toxicity, NMS, EPS, Lithium tox -- etc etc ... I know these are the simple things, but when I prepared, I studied the these things with the medication by groups - it's was very helpful for me.
You will be fine, you are doing pretty good on kapla, and thats very important - but nonetheless - GOOD LUCK, and if you need help, I'm here :)