How did you study for NCLEX?, I failed it and need advice

Rubz, BSN · Oct 28, 2014

@Don1984....Thanks for your arrogant post, if you read my post you would see I went through traumatic events in my life after graduating, which prevented me from studying as much as i should of, did not go to a "questionable school", apparently you have no life then to go online and put down others to make yourself feel better, This website is here to help other people and if you have anything positive to say then don't say anything at all.

Your topic read as follows: "

[h=1]How did you study for NCLEX?, I failed it and need advice"[/h]

Arrogant or not, he gave you an advice...now you can take it or leave it...Besides Nclex does not care if you had a traumatic event in your life!

Blindly studying thousands of questions as if those exact questions are going to be on NCLEX will not make you pass NCLEX.
You need to understand the content and why the correct answer is the best answer.

Good luck!

Graceriver0814 · Oct 28, 2014

obviously the nclex does not care about my traumatic life events

JustBeachyNurse, LPN · Oct 28, 2014

The NCLEX is a computer adaptive test it has no feeling or opinion. It cannot take into account personal or environmental test only score your response with (a verifiable) statistically significant confidence interval. There are many factors that affect one's ability to prepare and subsequently succeed. You need to determine your personal areas of weakness and concentrate there because the NCLEX is designed to exploit your weaknesses.

MandieeRN · Oct 28, 2014

Sorry to hear of your struggles. Don suggested some great study tips. You need to find your weak areas and review content in those areas. Also go through every wrong answer on Kaplan and study the rationales. I often found I forgot stuff and needed a refresher or the question confused me leading me to the wrong answer.Understanding the rationales on Kaplan saved me on the nclex. When I was practicing with Kaplan I would have my decision tree out which is provided by Kaplan if you haven't used it may be a great resource for you. This tree quickly enabled me to throw out wrong answers. Even if you don't know the content well having good test taking strategies will help a lot. Watch the Kaplan videos use the tree:) I used Kaplan and Saunders and stopped at 75 questions. You can do it but you gotta give it your all!! Good luck!

RoyalDynasty · Oct 28, 2014

I am currently in the same position. I have failed twice and I'm hiding how bombed out I am about it. Things should be getting easier for me instead of harder. I have yet to start back studying, I know I must start back to get to get the results I want. The Lord helps those who helps themselves. Trying very hard to stay positive, but it's hard not too be a little jealous of my classmates who have passed nclex and didn't study as much as I did. But i guess the Lord's plan isn't for me to have RN behind my name just yet.

Boardten · Oct 28, 2014

It sounds like you have a load of materials and that can be overwhelming in itself. I think you should concentrate on one or two study materials. For me, I just used Kaplan for all the strategies (how to prioritize, how to answer questions) and practice questions. Davis' Drug Guide for drugs. Again, to avoid being overwhelmed, when you see a drug you don't know, don't study its itty bits and pieces like what specific enzyme it acts with this and that, just know that what it does, what to do with it, what NOT to do with it, SE, things the patient should know or should expect from it. Think about it this way, the next time you see a question about a drug, study it. What did the question require you to know about the drug in order for you to get it right? I bet it didn't need you to know what the Y-site compatibility is or the dosages for children and adults and inbetween. So when you're studying that drug, you can skip all that. I bet it might have needed you to know what it's for, what the SE are, what to do when you see complications, etc - so that's what you study.

You have to take the rest of the trainers. If I remember correctly, the last few trainers contain all of the level of difficultly question that you will run into during the nclex. Remember how the nclex is graded? You have the passing line and if you answer a question correctly you will get a similar or harder question and if you answer it wrong you will get a similar or easier question? The first half of the trainers only contain the easier questions. Do all of the trainers to get a good feel of the rest of the nclex. Also, you will be able to study the rationales and strategies behind answering the harder questions.

I don't know how you viewed this test and whatnot, so again, this isn't about you. I am just telling you how I saw the test and how it helped me pass. Now, this isn't a test you take in school. it isn't a test about what you've learned. It's a test of your ability to use what you know. The "what you know" part is everything you've learned in nursing school. Nclex knows you went through nursing school. Remember that. So when studying, don't study as if you're going to take a classroom test about that subject, study as if you're going to be tested on what to do with/about that subject. Take MI. This isn't a test to see how much you know about an MI, it knows you know it. This test is to see how well you've trained for it. This isn't a test that is separating you from the next chapter in the lesson or the next semester of school, this test is separating you from a room with an actual MI that happened to an actual person. So when you're in that room, think about what you need to know to practice nursing safely.

To top it all off, I think you have too many study materials. Like the rest of the comments have said and agreed on, you can't study every single test material and question out there as if they're going to be on the test. The practice questions out there isn't there for you to remember and study what the question specifically asked about hypothyroidism, it's there to have you practice what you know and don't know about what to do with hypothyroidism. Say you have a math test. You are not going to get every math book and study material out there to learn that 1+1, 1+2, 1+3. You're going to learn what "+" is so you can solve all of those problems. So now you're ready for all the "+" questions and you only had to study one thing vs studying an infinite about of things. So that question about a what position do you put a patient in after a bronschoscopy. You're not going to remember bronchoscopy = semi-fowlers. You're not going to study bronchoscopy and what positions you need to put them in and you're also not going to remember that every time you see bronchoscopy you're going to pick "semi-fowlers". You know that it involves the throat and sticking something down that sensitive area. So it would make sense to put them in semi-fowlers vs supine. The book isn't going to tell you to not to put them supine or not to turn their head or not to put them knees to chest, trendelenburg or whatever. You're going to need to realize what you need to know in order to come to that conclusion.

That's how I viewed the test. I only had Kaplan's review course, their trainers and bank, drug guide and google to refresh myself on a topic. I personally think Kaplan taught me everything I needed to know. Again, everyone is different.

Xaldin4life RN · Oct 28, 2014

Kaplan decision tree is quite pointless and will NOT help for the real nclex! I dont know why some people swear by it and recommend it. Or perhaps my exam was just so different from other people and I became unlucky. Knowing the content and the WHY's seem to be more important than decision tree nonsense(atleast from my experience and from what other have suggested) their decision tree only seemd to help for psychosocial questions.

Its funny how kaplan says that Q6 and Q7 are high level questions, yet the decision tree doesnt even apply to 90% of those questions. Its so frustrating taking this damn computer exam!!