I took the Nclex -March 2016

Published Mar 16, 2016

1 Article; 257 Posts

Hi,

I took the NCLEX for the first time and passed last week. I am writing this because I was desperately looking for information, opinions and strategies while i was in school. I hope that what I write may help someone who, like me, just wants some help.

Some basic background: I graduated from an ADN program, B average, I tend to be a good test taker, I have no science background prior to my nursing degree, and I have no work experience in the medical field. English is my primary language and I do have other post- secondary degrees. I took a live Kaplan class that lasted one week. I used the Kaplan online resources to study for about three months.

The Kaplan instructor told us that we should make a least a 60 on the final two trainer tests. Anything less, she said, and we should reconsider taking the test. I made a 54 and a 55 on the last two. I averaged in the 50's on my Q banks - I think I got a 68 and a 62 on two of them, but no higher. I used the Kaplan textbook (very good - I wish i had it while I was in school) a bit and also some study guides that were floating around on the internet. I used Lippincott for a couple hundred questions. I didnt finish the Kaplan qbanks or the sample NCLEX exams. I think I left about 300 qbank (out of about 1800 to start with) and 2 sample exams undone. About three weeks before the test, I started feeling burned out, and I stopped studying and only sporadically did questions. I took the final two trainers two nights before the test, and I also studied the night before the test (content, not questions), although the instructor advised us not to do that. I went ahead and took the test despite the bleak outlook because it had almost been three months, and I was afraid I would lose more info than I would gain if I used more study time.

The day of the test, I didn't have breakfast, which was a mistake - please force yourself to eat! My brain was fuzzy and I think it was due to lack of food. I took two hours to answer 75 questions and then the machine went blue. I was sure that I failed, because there were only about 5 questions that I felt somewhat sure that I understood. There were drugs and diseases that I literally have never seen before. I suppose this is why they say the test is about critical thinking- I guess you are supposed to be able to reason out the answer even if you are unfamiliar with the drug/disease?

I have to say that the Kaplan decision tree wasn't helpful to me during the test. I just had to read through each answer and play out the scenario for each, which is probably why it took me two hours. What was helpful were the little tips they gave, such as check the patient before the machine and restless= hypoxia. Overall, Kaplan was worth it just for the feeling of direction (study schedule) that it gave me.

It was important to know basic lab values and signs and symptoms of diseases as well as drug information for the test. But I think the biggest thing is trying to decipher the tricky wording of the questions.

As everyone else has indicated, do lots of questions to try to get used to the wording patterns. Kaplan was similarly worded, but the actual NCLEX test was quite harder. If you are still in school, start now with practice questions.

Of course, everyone will have a different test with a different ratio of question types, but for my test I got a lot of SATA (maybe 10 or so), and all the rest were multiple choice. No audio,calculation or mark-the-spot questions. I have heard that they will change the test in April, so I dont know how helpful this may be, but best of luck to you all.....