HOW to study for NCLEX

[goldenpinapple]

Hello!

4th year student here :) I've seen many threads on what resources/books students use for NCLEX but nothing on HOW or WHAT to study. Please don't tell me "everything" as I'm aware of that. But I mean in terms of topics and how long? For school tests I studied certain topics (depending on their importance) for a certain number of days.

For example, did you strictly study adult med-surg for 2 weeks? Then move on to peds/maternity the next week? And mental health the other week? I'm the type of person that follows a strict schedule. Also, how long would you review/read about a topic versus answering questions? Did you review content from NCLEX review books (summaries) or did you dig up your old notes to study content?

Thanks so much for your help!

[smf0903]

I did more practice questions than I did "studying". I had the Hesi review book, the nclex 10000 prepu (both of those were requirements for the program I was in), and the nclex mastery app. I literally looked over the content of the Hesi review book a couple of days before I sat for boards, other than that I just did lots of practice questions. I figured the information was already in my head, I needed the practice answering the nclex-style questions. Skimming over the review book was simply to jog my memory on some things--I figured if I didn't learn it in the hours and hours of studying during the program I probably wasn't going to learn it in a cram session prior to nclex LOL. Nclex is knowing how to answer the questions--take that as you will but it's kind of the truth--of course you have to know stuff but knowing HOW to answer is the key.

Good luck to you! Whatever you do, don't get 50 different sources to study from. I saw people do that and get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff they had.

[oceanblue52]

You will drive yourself crazy if you try to memorize everything. Know your lab values, infection control, diseases/precautions, health promotion/teaching, major med classes w/side effects and contraindications, disease processes, growth and development, therapeutic communication, how to prioritize patients, delegate, etc. The nursing council has an outline of all the topics they expect you to be proficient with. There are some good summaries on here of how people studied and what they focused on but it will probably require a bit of digging. Good luck!