How Soon to Test?

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Hi all! I graduated last week and received my ATT Saturday via email. I did well on my exit HESI (1170) and start Kaplan tomorrow for a 2 week in person course, plus I'm up to chapter 52 of Saunders, still just doing step one of Suzanne's review, taking quizzes and reviewing only if I score below 80% (I switched it to 80%, cause the NCLEX pass line has been raised too).

SO, now I have to schedule and I'm scared to death!!!! How long should I give myself to study? I was thinking maybe the last week of July, or the third week. That will allow me to finish Kaplan and do the online questions for a couple weeks. Too soon? I have to have my license by end of August for me job, and I don't want to wait too long because they say statistically people do better if they test within a month of graduating?

YIKES! This is scary!

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i think you have the right frame of mind about scheduling. it really depends on the person, whether or not you are disciplined about studying. after the kaplan, if you think you are disciplined enough to do nothing but study for several weeks, then i think that is not too soon, not waiting too long. it seems that with the kaplan, and the other studying, then you are doing enough to keep everything fresh in your mind...

when i did kaplan, i found out that once you are paid, you are eligible for the preceeding 4 weeks before your class to have access to their online questions. i cannot stress enough how valuable their online questions are. many have said before how similar the nclex questions were to the kaplan online questions. i dont know this for myself, since i dont test for 13 more hours.

yes, i said 13 hours!! not a typo!! believe me, you will never feel prepared enough for this test. just schedule a date, and stick to it....

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I finished Kaplan on May 18. I had already started studying Saunders prior to Kaplan. After Kaplan, I started the Qbank and question trainers. I am taking the test on 6/29. Those are really the only questions that I have been doing. I answered all the Lippincott questions for maternity for good review. I have devoted 7 weeks to studying, not including the week of Kaplan, minus 1 or 2 days off per week to regroup. I still don't feel ready, but I am going for it anyway. I am just tired of studying. I think the longer I wait, the worse I am going to get about studying.

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After doing around 2000 questions and learning/re-learning subject areas over 5 weeks, I grew burned out with doing questions and studying. It felt as if still I didn't know enough and I asked myself, "will I ever know for sure that I'm ready?" My answer was no. On that note, I stayed the course and took the NCLEX last Thursday. I passed.

The day before the NCLEX, pray, relax, get a massage and don't talk or think about the exam.

I am going to go against what we have learned about theraputic talk and say, "You're going to do just fine."

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