How long did you study before taking NCLEX?

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Hi everyone,

I just graduated and am trying to come up with a study plan for the NCLEX-RN. I have a bunch of NCLEX review books and am taking a 1-week review class. I noticed the review books vary greatly on how long to study before taking the NCLEX. One book says to study 2 hours a day for two weeks, and one suggests three months of studying. All I know is that I do not feel anywhere near ready right now. What type of study plan did you have? How long did you study before taking the NCLEX?

I have to disagree with the poster who said there is nothing on the NCLEX you haven't seen or heard of. I had tons of procedures and meds I had never heard of before the NCLEX. I know my pharm extremely well and even made a 100% on the ATI pharm exit exam in nursing school. I was a strong nursing student as well, but I made sure to do a review (Hurst for me) and know it backward and forwards before taking NCLEX. Personally, the NCLEX was not like any other test I had ever encountered. I don't have test anxiety, but it was definitely scary sitting down knowing your future job depended on this test! My best advice for all new grads about to take the NCLEX is to pick a review, go with it, and review your heart out for the week or so leading up to the test date. No, you are not going to know every procedure and every drug, but if you have a good hold on your core content and major diseases, you should be able to critically think your way through those questions that you have no idea about. I would never take the NCLEX as an "easy" test. It's different, and it's what gives us our license to practice! So go in knowing you did everything you could possibly do to pass and have no regrets when that computer shuts off at 75 or keeps going to 265!

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Thank you so much for your advice. I truly believe graduate student nurses need to stick with a review course and then take the NCLEX exam.

Belle2013 said:

I have to disagree with the poster who said there is nothing on the NCLEX you haven't seen or heard of. I had tons of procedures and meds I had never heard of before the NCLEX. I know my pharm extremely well and even made a 100% on the ATI pharm exit exam in nursing school. I was a strong nursing student as well, but I made sure to do a review (Hurst for me) and know it backward and forwards before taking NCLEX. Personally, the NCLEX was not like any other test I had ever encountered. I don't have test anxiety, but it was definitely scary sitting down knowing your future job depended on this test! My best advice for all new grads about to take the NCLEX is to pick a review, go with it, and review your heart out for the week or so leading up to the test date. No, you are not going to know every procedure and every drug, but if you have a good hold on your core content and major diseases, you should be able to critically think your way through those questions that you have no idea about. I would never take the NCLEX as an "easy" test. It's different, and it's what gives us our license to practice! So go in knowing you did everything you could possibly do to pass and have no regrets when that computer shuts off at 75 or keeps going to 265!

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There is no possible way to study everything NCLEX could ask. It was so random. I had not heard or studied several things. The nursing school gave me the tools to discern the correct answer from what I did know. The NCLEX does not measure what you know but how you think.

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Specializes in Cvicu/ ICU/ ED/ Critical Care.

I didn't study anything. I passed the first time.

I figured I had already been through 16 months of nursing school. What more could I try and learn?

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Thanks for all of the replies. I was in an Lpn-RN bridge that jumped in on the second year of the RN program. I feel very rusty on a couple of the subjects that were only covered in my LPN program years ago. I think I am going to focus on those areas. I'm mostly good with everything else.

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Belle2013 said:
I have to disagree with the poster who said there is nothing on the NCLEX you haven't seen or heard of. I had tons of procedures and meds I had never heard of before the NCLEX. I know my pharm extremely well and even made a 100% on the ATI pharm exit exam in nursing school. I was a strong nursing student as well, but I made sure to do a review (Hurst for me) and know it backward and forwards before taking NCLEX. Personally, the NCLEX was not like any other test I had ever encountered. I don't have test anxiety, but it was definitely scary sitting down knowing your future job depended on this test! My best advice for all new grads about to take the NCLEX is to pick a review, go with it, and review your heart out for the week or so leading up to the test date. No, you are not going to know every procedure and every drug, but if you have a good hold on your core content and major diseases, you should be able to critically think your way through those questions that you have no idea about. I would never take the NCLEX as an "easy" test. It's different, and it's what gives us our license to practice! So go in knowing you did everything you could possibly do to pass and have no regrets when that computer shuts off at 75 or keeps going to 265!

For the most part, it's not about the procedures or what they are. What are the KEY NURSING CONSIDERATIONS - can you think in an unfamiliar situation? Can you prioritize the most important thing you need to worry about at that moment?

Don't get hung up on the details. It's mostly all basics. I figured a lot of the 'specific' questions are test questions since I think it's what - ten or fifteen? The questions don't count (if you pass in 75, you're passing in 60 or so). I spotted a few of those when I took the NCLEX. I even got a pediatric drug calc, which we were told at the time was not on there - well, it was the only drug calc I got, and it was a two-step problem. I smelled a test question. ?

I took two weeks off (visiting my in-law family in the UK) and spent two weeks in the local library; then I'd drop it all by a specific time and go to the pub to unwind. Then back at it the next day.

Overall, I think I reviewed Sanderson and the Princeton Review for about three weeks, probably four to five days a week, some days more thoroughly than others. Some days I could've cared less, and some days I panicked. And some days, I just handled it. ? We didn't use ATI, HESI, or anything in school.

Seventy-five questions, and I was terrified when I realized I'd only been gone from the hotel for AN HOUR AND A HALF total, including the drive from the hotel AND BACK. I figured for sure I flunked, as in epically.

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I started my Kaplan review class today, and they teach you how to answer the questions by thinking critically. I did well in nursing school, but these questions are very different.

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Do Qbanks, do Kaplan, focus on ONE BOOK, and you should be OK; everyone is different some people study 1 week, some three months good luck!

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Quote
I started my Kaplan review class today, and they teach you how to answer the questions by thinking critically. I did well in nursing school, but these questions are very different.

I think a major point of nursing school is to teach you how to think critically. How are the questions so different from what you encountered during nursing school? All of my tests during nursing school were written in NCLEX style. I would imagine all nursing school exams are written in that style regardless of where you went.

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kjm84 said:
I love all of these comments. I haven't taken NCLEX yet and have only gone through a few chapters in the PDA book (which is really probably about 100 questions so far), yet I feel like I will pass the NCLEX fairly easily. I did well in nursing school and don't suffer from test anxiety. I'm dying to take the NCLEX and get it over with so I can actually call myself a nurse and increase my chances of landing an interview. I hope I'm not being naive about the difficulty of the NCLEX.

Don't underestimate it ..but then again don't overestimate it.. it's not what you know , its how you test

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I studied for 14 days. I used the NCSBN review and thought it was great. Indeed, you can't study for the exam, but I do think doing the questions helped me because I found the NCLEX questions to be worded very similarly to the NCSBN questions. I finished 75 questions in 50 minutes. Took the test yesterday afternoon. Found out I passed this morning.

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That's awesome! Congrats!

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