I graduated nursing school in December, took my NCLEX-RN Monday, and found out I passed today. I took the exam at 2PM in Texas and finished 75 questions in 40 minutes, walking out at 2:42. I thought my entire test was easy. I know that's going to tick some of you off, but it's the truth. Almost every answer (including the SATA/alternative format questions I had) seemed obvious to me, which is how I breezed through it. I'm going to share what I did.
1) I took advantage of my clinicals. For those of you still in school, do this. During my ER rotation, I spent a great deal of time looking at EKG strips. Let me tell you that I didn't have a single patient in the ER with an EKG strip that looked anything remotely like the cookie cutter ones in my books. I volunteered to do the EKGs and talked them over with my preceptor. I'm so glad I did this, because I had an overwhelming number of strips on my boards and recognized them AND what to do with them immediately. I know not all of you will have loads of EKG strips, but the concept is true for everything. Use your preceptors. Use your charge nurse. Use the physicians. I learned more about the endocrine system while observing and chatting with a physician performing a thyroidectomy than I did in class. What he said stuck with me, especially seeing it live.
2) Hurst review videos. Someone passed onto me her DVDs and workbook, and Marlene Hurst is like a holy being. As I was taking it, I heard her in my head going, "you going to see THAT patient first? That's fine, if you want the one with the obvious signs and symptoms of a GI obstruction to die." Doing the review and studying the packet was incredible.
3) I did practice questions. I had the Saunders book as well as a few others books, but to be honest, I didn't crack them open that much. I'm not the type of person who can sit there and read and retain information. I have to actively be doing something, and questions seemed to be the right thing to me. About six months ago, I registered for Lippincott's Question service (the point), and I started doing questions. I went from doing 20 a day when I had lots of homework to doing 150/day after I graduated. I read the rationales. ALL the rationales. If I got 45/50 questions right on a test, I still read all 50 rationales. Doing this reinforced the information I already knew, taught me information I didn't, and more than that, it offered me the CORRECT rationale for questions I answered correctly even though my thought process wasn't correct. This taught me how to 'think' NCLEX. And furthermore, I would say that about 50/75 questions I had on the NCLEX were VERY similar to questions I answered on Lippincott. And the other information I pulled from things Marlene taught me.
4) While taking the NCLEX, I had a strategy that worked mostly for all my questions. Whenever I read a question, I thought to myself, "what is it asking?" Then, I answered. If it's a priority question, you think, "which patients are stable?" If someone has had an issue for a while, they're fine to wait a few more minutes. If it's acute onset/immediate post-op, there's a good chance that's your answer. If it's an intervention question, you think FIRST OF ALL, "is my patient in danger?" then think, "Patient over equipment," and then think, "what solves the problem, if there is one?" That's all there is to it. I found a lot of my questions had answers that involved harming my patient. NEVER HARM YOUR PATIENT! If your patient has mag toxicity, TURN OFF THE MAG. If your equipment says one thing, but you see another, LOOK AT YOUR PATIENT!
Anyway, hope this helps, especially for anyone like me who's more hands on/active and hates sitting there reading for long periods.
I don't know if it's an add but I used that site to pass the nclex pn...we were required to purchase this for class and after graduation me and a few others who have also passed just kept doing the questions. It's very close to nclex
I didn't do anything. One of our professors gave a two day review course but I had no money so never took it.
I too found the test easy, and fun. I was laughing near the end. (Luckily I came when the place was full and so was placed in the "quiet room," so I could laugh).
I could sense the test turn into a sort of game once I got past question 50 or so. I noticed that many questions had answers that were "leading." I thought..."you devil."
The very last question (Note: there is not enough information here to know the question/answer) related to a "painful chancre on the genitalia." Syphilis was one of the answers. But it was the WRONG answer for the only time ever that syphilitic lesions are painful is when they occur within the oral cavity/throat. (*See note at the bottom of my post*) Upon return to school I asked several professors and related the question. Every one equated Chancre with Syphilis. None got the correct answer.
Why did I get it right. Simple answer. I love to read.
So my #1 suggestion is read and read and read. Read everything about everything. I had found a book in the library on STI's and the book was absolutely fun. And from that obscure book I got the last answer correct and the test popped.
But beware of leading answers, especially after question 50.
Note: This question will never be repeated why? Because syphlitic lesions co-infected with HIV stand a ~30% chance of being painful as well as creating multiple lesions. So today the question would be re-worded because times have changed and what I once thought was correct (always painless except within the oral cavity) is no longer true.
Hello I go by the name Nu Lpn I also went to nursing school in 08 and and I recently after many tries passed my Nclex. I work for this agency but lately I don't understand they're giving me Trouble, and like the people before every ones asking me for at least a year of experience. I want to know how in God's name am I gonna get the experience if no one's willing to give me a chance. I am currently seeking a school as well Lpn toRn? Advice Reference source Help ....
Hi Nu.
I hope you don't take offense, and I do not mean to be judgmental but I have seen this before.
My guess is that English is not your native language. The structure of your native language, or any language, will tend to color (change the meaning) of questions. You may know the answer--but how I would interpret that question may not be the way that you interpret the question.
Let me give you a simple and funny example from an Asian to me once: "I love to cook, I would be very happy to cook you." Hmmm...my response to that was to ask: "Am I to be boiled, roasted or barbequed?" (Response was very carefully worded to keep it humorous).
The phrase: "I cook you." This meant in the structure of her native language: I will cook (for) you. The (for) is always implied in her native tongue. But the difference was greatly important for I did not really want to be cooked. Ouch.
So I'm guessing that you are running into English problems and this means that you might tend to interpret the answer or question a bit differently than I might. And, when talking, let's say, you and I are talking, face to face in a hospital, I can understand you. But when the question is written I think that occasionally you might get a bit lost.
So my suggestion is to continue learning English and three days before you take the test--do NOT use your native tongue at all, to communicate. That way there will be less structural confusion at the test. Find a tutor and read books together. Find fun books at your level at www.gutenberg.org. Alternate between being the reader and the listener, I find it helpful to use Skype because I can pick words and phrases that are problems, notate them on Skype, then discuss problem areas and send them to the student who can capture them to review later.
And if my native language was Thai, or Mandarin, or Illongo--I too would have that sort of difficulty because my brain always wants to go back to the structure that I originally spoke.
hi charlique, i was just wondering did you take the unlimited course or the 7 days course at AHEC? im interested in enrolling. how helpful was the course?
Nu lpn
3 Posts
I live in Ny Long Island area any Nurse have any suggestions feel free to reply.