hi everyone!
I will share my experience and how I studied for my Nclex Exam. In this post I hope to help people with limited resources and don't want to spend a lot of money for expensive review courses.
I took the Exam dec10 and I just found out last Sunday that I passed. Basically I dont want to spend a lot of money for Kaplan and HUrsts review for I know it costs a lot, i have the savings but I just want to be practical and prove myself I can do it w/o spending a lot of $$$. I wanted to do the cheapest possible... haha
Just a little background of me: Im just an average student. Like everyone else I also sometimes failed in my tests, I graduated 2011 ( so I have to do a lot of reviewing pretty much). I know I have a lot of disadvantages
1st Im a foreign educated nurse- According to statistics below 50% foreign educated nurses passed the NCLEX exam on their 1st take.
2nd I graduated 2011 and I have to catch up more and refresh more, and I dont like reading and I have short attention span.3rd Im in the middle of life crisis which you dont wanna know.. lots of distractions 
When I started my Self Review 
The hardest part I should say is where to begin, I have a photographic memory and I don't like reading so I really don't like doing it in my own pace. I don't have a study habit I just read whatever I wanted. I forgot to say, I also have selective perception hehe... I wanted it to be discussed in front me with lots of diagram and stuff or video lectures since I don't like reading, you might think I should spend courses like Hursts and Kaplan since this is the learning style that suits me. But I did the exact opposite. 
What I used and my reviews:
Saunders Comprehensive Review for NCLEX 6e-
You can rent it for 36$ at Amazon.This I should say is the umbrella of my success in passing NCLEX. This is what i used mainly to refresh myself to all the topics I have forgotten in nursing. Like I have said earlier Im not a bookish type of person and I have very very short attention span. But since I have faith and perseverance to pass, I manage to read this book from cover to cover.
(I couldn't believe it myself 
).. I treat every pages with importance since they can ask anything in NCLEX. 1st did the FUndamentals and went to MEDsurg and Mental Health.. I studied OB and pedia last because this is my weak parts and I wanted to be stored in the short term memory. So if I did it you Can do it Too 
CONS: Easier qbanks than real NCLEX.
PDA by LaCharity (latest edition)-
37$ if you buy it or rent it @ 16$ in Amazon.
Due to my limited resources for q banks I also did everything as well as the case study. I have like 6 delegation questions and lots of prioritization. This I could say helped me a lot in NCLEX style questions. Their questions are harder than NCLEX so I suggest to study this in the last part before your exam (makes your Nclex exam looks less harder) and do every question in this book as possible. This book is easy to cut because it has outline so I basically cut them per chapter for convenience when its time to check my answers.
NCBSN course- you can subscribe it for 3weeks or 5 weeks for 50 - 70$
I almost read everything in this course but I was too overwhelmed and got tired because its as if im reading Saunders again. Its less more comprehensive than Saunders so I missed some of the topics. QBANKS are the best! very challenging and the nearest type of questions to Nclex. I enjoyed their q banks. I answered all the qbanks as well. It comes in a different kind of formats which mirrored Nclex Exam.
Others:
Allnurses notes: Its the study guide posted in here. I read it in the last three days before my exam which really helped me a lot and reviewed important points .
TIPS
To top it all, I studied basically 5 days a week, I don't study if I am tired and I made sure that I have goodnight sleep, helps your brain to rest and re-process everything. One thing that is essential in studying is not to memorize but to understand what you've read. If i don't understand something I read it again until I discern it.
Believe in yourself and law of attraction. Positive thinking 
On the day of my exam, Be prepared to answer 200+ question with no expectations that computer will shut off in 75 because you will just be anxious, if it doesnt shut off just think that you're still on the game, and you can do it! Just relax and always take a break. During my 1st break(after55 questions) I just ate biscuits and drink my orange juice and did 6 deep breathings to relax myself. hehehe...
Lastly, cliche as it may seem but do not ever ever underestimate the power of prayers. This I could say helped me in the most part, I really thought I would fail after the computer shuts off in 75 question and thinking there's no way I did it (45 SATA, yes! I counted it) . I didnt do any Pearsonvue Trick since I am not sure of its reliability and I dont want to give myself false positive or false negative results.And I didnt buy the 2 days fast result either. I am very paranoid of waiting, but instead I prayed and prayed and after 4 days I check my Application I.D in the BON state website. And there was it! I saw my name with my new License No. And my status says ACTIVE.
One of the happiest moment in my life.. Im now officially USRN 
Hope this post Help you. If there's any question I will gladly answer them. Good luck and Godbless future nurses! 
NPOpMN
4 Posts
Thank you!!