Just passed.. My 2¢

[Kaaa]

For everyone that believes the hype of study or that.. it didn't work for me. Let me explain. I used Kaplan, did every trainer and all Qbank, all my scores were upper 60's and 70's. So I knew I was in a good place to pass. I also used Saunders did about 90% of their CD which was probably around 2000 questions. Neither helped. I have to say I did pass but purely on my knowledge from class. I had questions on postmortem care (never heard a thing about it) herbals (none that were stressed in class/trainers) vena cava syndrome (briefy talked about) zero labs not even in the question part, zero calculations, tons of questions about PICCs. I really thought I had failed and was surprised to find my name on BON. It really used depends on the random questions that are selected. Kaplan's format to weed out questions does not work for the NCLEX. All the options are good for the NCLEX, i.e. increase fluids, stop smoking, call DR if..., Kaplan's are stated like, decrease fluids (usually wrong), cut down smoking (always wrong, answer is Stop smoking). That sort of thing. Kaplan questions are worded the exact same and the NCLEX looks just like it but the answer options are much easier for Kaplan.. Good luck all!

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Regarding the questions you felt were from left-field, hadn't had any knowledge of before the NCLEX, it might be worth a reminder that there ARE questions on the NCLEX that are NOT counted in your scoring. They are questions that are being trialed for potential future use. If memory serves me correctly, as many as 15 out of the minimum 75 can be these types of questions (so that would mean only 60 were used to determine passing or failing). It might have changed somewhat since I read that info....but probably not by much.

[S.RN]

I felt a lot like you Kaaa, after taking the exam I felt that there as no sure way to study FOR the NCLEX. You really need to have a solid foundation from nursing school and clinical experiences that you are able to use in order to understand what the question is asking and to answer it correctly. My computer shut off at 75q and I sat there mortified because I just knew there was no way I proved I was competent, fortunately I was wrong and I passed :)

[SeattleRS24]

I have some friends who felt the same way after doing Hurst. They said they felt like most of their questions were about information not covered by the review, but they still passed. I think that a review, whether it be content-based or strategy-based, should primarily be relied on to help put someone into the "study mindset" and to get the ball rolling as far as thinking NCLEXY. Congratulations on passing, though! You knew enough!

[CeceStar5, ADN, BSN, LPN, RN]

Congrats