I passed - My Kaplan Scores and methods of studying

[gvicta]

Hi everyone!

Now I've read some older posts where people would reveal their Kaplan Qtrainer/Qbank scores once they past the NCLEX, so I'm doing the same. Before you read on, I did the Kaplan class during the second week of June, my diagnostic test, QT 1-3, and Readiness test were taken during this week, and I didn't test until the 30th of July. I graduated, moved my stuff back to my parent's house, and then got on a plane and went to Vegas . So I had a good week or so of no studying or barely doing anything study related. Anyways, here are my scores:

Diagnostic Test = 62

Qtrainer 1 = 51

Qtrainer 2 = 53

Qtrainer 3 = 49

Readiness Test = 65

Qtrainer 4 = 55

Qtrainer 5 = 62

Qtrainer 6 = 59

Qtrainer 7 = 61

Qbank percent of items used = 100%

Qbank total percent correct = 58% (Including that horrendous Sample Test #4, which I got a 30% on. And I did it the day before the test. I recommend doing it - Though I don't recommend doing it right before your test.)

As you can see, fairly meh to omgImgonnafailthistest scores. Especially compared to what we see get recommended to on this board (60-65%+). My last Qbank scores were the items telling me I should go through it anyways, and most of my confidence came from the progression of my scores, rather than the cumulative:

7/20 50 q's = 62%

7/21 50 q's = 70%

7/22 50 q's = 56%

7/23 QTrainer 6

7/24 75 q's = 60%

7/25 QTrainer 7

7/26 75 q's = 68%

7/27 75 q's = 65%

7/28 75 q's = 60%

7/29 That horrible sample test 4, some quick review of childhood/maternity stuff because I don't take good advice from good people, and then finally a break with a funny movie

7/30 Passed the test.

I took notes on every Qbank/Qtrainer I did, except for my last Qbank test. Even if I got the question right, I looked at parts of the other answers or questions that I didn't know or understand and looked it up. It was important to me to figure out why something was right or wrong.

Now of course, I didn't just use Kaplan + Google. TBH it was more like Kaplan + Google + The Allnurses forum . Though I do own Saunder's Comprehensive Review 6th Edition and Saunder's Q&A Review 5th edition, I definitely under-utilized both - I read some fundamentals and core content in the comprehensive review (like fluid & electrolytes) and did maybe 10-20 questions in the review. Going over the Kaplan questions in depth took me such a long time - The explanations kind of sucked and sometimes I'd spend a good chunk of time figuring out why something was what it was. So that didn't leave me time for other materials of content review. I'm also a slow reader and I get distracted a lot. Definitely do watch the core content videos, they're not very exciting but I felt like they helped me. And hey, if you bought this course, then you paid a couple hundred for them, so you might as well.

When I was out and about, I bought the audio notes from allnursingnotes.com, and I did find them to be helpful to get a brief overview of what I needed to know from specific topics that he covers. I definitely remember some practice questions addressing topics he talked about, but his brief overview did not include the needed material, and I'm just saying this to show you the limitations, should you pursue this. That said, I definitely don't regret that purchase (anything that helped me pass, right?).

As far as NCLEX apps went - I went with NCLEX RN Mastery. After a little bit of Kaplan, some of the questions got kind of easy. But one of the things I noticed early on was that I focused so much time on studying passing level questions, that some of my problem areas were actually the lower level questions, which an app like this had plenty of.

I also started listening to the New Nurse Blog podcasts a little while back during my integrative practicum. While it's not all NCLEX material (it's tailored to new nurses wanting a better grasp on critical care nursing), she had some information on cardiac pharmacology that I highly recommend listening to. I also enjoyed 'What's in your IV bag?' - It really helped with my understanding of hypotonic/hypertonic/isotonic uses.

And of course, I used a lot materials here on the forums. There's that 30+ page collection of notes, drug suffixes/prefixes, food and drug interactions, etc and so forth. To get motivated I read a lot of posts of Kaplan scores and tried to gun for what people recommended. Though a few days before I stopped reading the forums because some posts were starting to make me doubt myself.

I passed in 83-86 questions, can't remember for certain because I ended on a fairly basic question which definitely freaked me out. Actually the entire test for me was an emotional rollercoaster. From the forums I knew that SATA is a good sign. Compared to a lot of other experiences though, I only got around 8-10 in my entire test and two or three ordering questions. Being armed with the knowledge of what kind of questions you should be answering can be kind of a double edged sword - There was a section in my test where I was falling hard and fast, and I near panick-picked answers to try and get me back up. I'm usually a calm kind of guy, I instructed rock climbing for a while so not much gets to me. The anxiety prior to the test and during the test is absolutely killer. My previous nursing school instructor told my clinical group that a prescription of inderal does wonders for test anxiety and I was definitely thinking about that after I thought I had failed. That might be something some of you may want to look into if you have bad test anxiety. Anyways, I did the PVT when I got home and got the good pop up. Swore they had changed it and still thought I had failed. But I talked to my classmates who had passed and posted it in the forums here, and that gave me ease of mind until it was up on the OSBN.

I hope this helped any potential test takers! I've always been about progression, and if you're constantly doing better and better, don't worry what your cumulative score is if you're in the ballpark of what you need as you close in on test day.

P.S. I had friend scoring mid 60's in his Qbank regularly, and he got 93 questions, though he only did 60% of his qbank and only completed up to qtrainer 5. I had another get 55-60's on both his qbank and qtrainers, and he got 75 questions, but he did 100% of his qbank, all the sample tests, and all the qtrainers.

[hm1987]

Hi gvicta,

Congrats on passing! My Q6&Q7 are 55% and I have done Q questions 100% my average between 50's and 60's total. I did today sample exam 1 % 2 got 55 and 60% and I am testing Saturday. I will be doing the sample exam 3 & 4. I also completed PDA book, I know all my labs and Precautions memorized... I am a bit nervous but positive. When I apply the Kaplan Strategy I get higher scores!! Did Kaplan strategy helped you??? Any advise or tips!

[RN-joy]

congrats gvicta!

do you feel that kaplan questions were similar to nclex questions? I also take a long time reviewing rationales and have ended up just using kaplan video lectures and qbank exclusively. im hoping that it is good enough

congrats again!!

[ArrowRN, BSN, RN]

Congrats to you...

So I got a question. I was watch a Hurst intro video on youtube and the lady said the lower level questions tend to be harder because they force you to come up with memorized facts and random knowledge...do you find this was true during NCLEX and were you able recognize when taking the test the point you went from lower level questions to more critical thinking questions?

[gvicta]

So sorry everyone! I've been super occupied since my last post and didn't see these till now. I hope those of you who have taken your tests passed! For anyone else reading this, I'll answer each question in order:

Kaplan Decision Tree: There were a good number of questions that I used the tree on, but realistically maybe only 1/4 to 1/3 of the questions. Remember you can only really use this on higher level questions. I felt that in my 83-86ish questions, I got a decent amount of basic or non-passing questions (at least, I assumed they weren't high enough to be considered passing). You can't really use the decision tree on a recall questions.

Similarity to NCLEX: Varied. When you hit the passing level questions, yes. I fluctuated a lot and saw a lot of 'easier' questions, and even though they're easier, if you've spent your time only doing passing level questions, seeing a basic one can really spike your anxiety. That said, completing everything that Kaplan tells you to do does leave you with quite a good bit of core content to draw on. Reviewing the videos will help even more.

Lower level questions being harder, and was I able to recognize the shifts in question difficulty: I'm one of those people that would be in agreement with the statement of lower level questions being harder. In a higher level question, you may have different parts of an answer where you can draw on your knowledge to either eliminate or choose answers. Not the case in recall questions with a one word answer. You either know it or you don't. The only thing that might have saved me in some cases was to recognize prefixes and suffixes, if the answer had a word that included those. And yes, it's pretty easy to tell when you've dropped or gone up a difficulty grade, at least it was for me because I have spent so long doing only passing level questions and alternative test question formats. I'd take a quick read and find a Hurst or Kaplan video demonstrating the differences between the question types and what is passing level or not.