How I passed the NCLEX (the second time)

[mleone]

I graduated Summa Cum Laude with my BSN in May. Not planning a career in nursing (going for health informatics) but figured I'd take the NCLEX just to have the credential on my resume. I used

Kaplan: Did not like. They focus on questions and not content but just doing questions didn't really give me the tools to critically think my way through questions. Their content review videos were very dry and hard to sit through.

La Charity Delegation prioritization and management book: I liked this. It gave you lots of management of care scenarios and helped me figure out how to answer those questions.

Lippincott book: Good questions, very "fact" based. Allot of the questions seemed like lower level questions but good way to get basics of various subjects down.

I FAILED in 77 questions

The second time I used

HURST: THE ALL TIME BEST NCLEX REVIEW COURSE!! I actually felt myself remembering their lectures and content as I was taking the NCLEX and applying it to the questions I was answering. It was by far the best 300 dollars I have ever spent. The lectures were entertaining and memorable and they give you a workbook to fill out while watching the lectures to help reinforce the material. Unlike Kaplan who focuses on quantity of questions, Hurst believes if you know your core content you can reason your way through the questions without having to rely on test strategies. I credit them with helping me pass.

The Davis NCLEX book: A very good content based book. Lots of practice tests but also did a good job reviewing materials

HESI online review course: This was ok. Think I would have passed without it but provided another source of questions and content review. Lots of reading though, probably not worth the 75 dollars

NSCBN Review: Again lots of reading so not a great content review but hundreds of questions written by the same people who write the NCLEX. Thats worth getting if you have the money.

[NP2BJ, BSN]

Congrats on passing!! I'm taking NCLEX tomorrow and I've been using Hurst online review also and scored 86,91,82,96,89 respectively on 5 Qreviews how did u score on those and do u think the questions were helpful in preparing u for NCLEX?

[mleone]

I got 80, 82, 81, 96, 83, and 78. I thought the questions were pretty helpful. I agree with hurst that its more about knowing your core content then quantity of questions or scores. Also if your taking tomorrow you should stop studying. Do something relaxing.

[NP2BJ, BSN]

Did u also study all of 5th day materials? I also did NCSBN a few weeks back but only did the Qbanks. I plan on relaxing in a few more hours

[mleone]

I watched all the videos but didn't use any of the 5th day materials. I did do the entire course in a week so I didn't have allot of time for the extra stuff.

[NP2BJ, BSN]

Wow 1 week!! That's awesome:)

Well congrats again!!