How do I study and pass the end of program Comprehensive test?

KAYBDT6, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2009

Do you have all the ATI online question? Do try to review your content and understand each disease process. Good luck!

KAYBDT6, BSN, RN · Sep 17, 2009

NCLEX ABCDZ STRATEGY

A. Spend 1/3 of your time reviewing content you don't understand

B. Spend 2/3 of your time answering test question

C. Used most comfortable NCLEX review book for content.

D. Begin with the area that is most difficult for you or area that are least familiar

E. Use a good nursing reference manual or internet to find information

F. Define the disease in terms of pathophysiological process and understand the disease process.

G. Identify the early and late symptoms of disease

H. Identify most important or life-threatening complication associated with the disease.

I. Define the medical treatment.

J. Identify nursing intervention associate with early and late symptom of disease process

K. Identify what to teach patient and family to prevent in other to adapt to disease process.

L. list the area you need to review.

M. Answering question in a test mode will improve your test taking skills

N. Each time you answer question, check the number of question you answered correctly that will motivate you to read and study more next time.

O. Keep track of your score to see how you're improving in all area of your content.

P. If you answer less than 65% correctly, these is a WARNING SIGNAL!! Spend lots of time reviewing content and stop doing question on the weakest area

Q. If you answer 65-75% correctly your performance is improving and success is certain. Continue working with the content until your score is above 75%

R. Every wrong answer, identify why you answered it wrongly.

S. Practice 75- 85 question to known how you'll be prepared for NCLEX Exam and see how many you answered correctly

T. Do understand the question first, formulate your answer of hand and compare with the option given to see how close your answer!!

U. Anticipate Test question will increase in difficulty when you get the first question right!!

V. Do not panic if someone finishes before you!!

W. Do not CRAM CRAM!!

X. Remember that you have learned a great amount of nursing knowledge and the exam is only designed to determine whether you're able to practice safely @ entry level

Y. Keep a positive attitude and Pray!!

Z. Wish you best of LUCK!!

AugustRain · Sep 17, 2009

I took my comprehensive HESI last week. We never took ATI, so I can't compare the two, but I can tell you what worked for me for HESI. Mostly, I did a lot of NCLEX questions (Saunders, Incredibly Easy, and Reviews & Rationales). There is also a HESI review book, which has "HESI hint" boxes that are helpful. There's a CD that comes with it - I didn't use it much, though I know some classmates did. Same goes for the Practest, which I believe you need a password from your school to open after you buy it. Keep in mind that scoring on the Practest (or any NCLEX-style practice test) doesn't correlate with the actual HESI scores, which are based on the difficulty levels of the questions, so don't let that scare you.

I also have a Kaplan book, Test Taking Strategies for the Registered Nurse Licensing Exam, that I found helpful.

The key with HESI (and NCLEX questions in general) is to understand what the question is asking you, and make sure your answer addresses that. A lot of it is prioritization (what would you do first for this patient? which patient would you see first/last?). Use your ABCs and Maslow.

Do you know what score you need or how many times you can take the test? I ask because we also took HESI at the end of each clinical course, and the first one was the most difficult, since we weren't used to the testing style yet. So don't be discouraged if you need to take it again, there's no reason you can't pass the next time!

Don't let the test intimidate you - you made it through all the other exams in nursing school, and you can make it through this one too. Good luck!