Kaplan question trainer vent/rant

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

My friend let me have access to their Question Trainers...I test next week. So far I've done the Hurst course for content, LaCharity, and ATI practice. These are the kinds of scores I've been getting on the various practice exams I've done. I rented the Kaplan strategy book from Barnes and Noble(14 day return policy lol), so I wanna do that 180 question test in the back. Not saying these mean anything or mean nothing, they're just numbers.

But I've done the ATI individual body system exams and have gotten 76 or higher% on them all(except GI and perioperative..oh and Psych(55%). I did the Med/Surg ATI 3.0 and got a 77%, 88% on the regular Med/surg form B. The other ones for ATI like Peds, OB, around the same score...OB was a little lower like 73%. ATI lady said we want above a 60% on the 3.0 and above 70% on the regular exams. I got a 98% and 94% on 2 different ATI predictors we had to take in school.

I've been getting 92-105 outta 125 on the Marlene Tests online...my classmates who recently passed in 75 questions had been getting 80-90 outta 125, and some ppl on here have gotten even lower and passed.

Oh and LaCharity...I've been getting a wide range of scores..from 100% all the way down to 55%.. that was the Respiratory chapter(it was a very long day before that and I never really covered that too in depth). The questions I seem to be missing are usually just very VERY random facts or details that I had never covered in school. And I admit, some questions I just plain missed because I didn't pick up on something or I just missed..crap happens. I never studied Reproductive stuff, or Pain in depth, or vision and auditory changes, among a few other chapters in that book, so my scores on those have been in the 60's and 70's...but this is all beside the point. The Kaplan trainers!

So far I've done 1 2 and 3. I got an 81% on QT1, 83% on QT2, and 74% on QT3. Now here's where my rant comes in... Kaplan will tell me a manic patient is acting out, I don't think they were combative. But Marlene said don't just jump to the drugs. Kaplan said to sedate the pt FIRST. I chose to decrease the stimuli(Figured you could help calm them down a bit). I don't feel comfortable picking sedate the pt FIRST on Nclex, especially if they are not going to harm themselves or anyone else in the scenario. Then Kaplan will give you some kind of symptom, and say what should I do first? One question it will say, "blah blah assess the pt and count respirations, THEN report it". Marlene would call that delaying treatment, and I agree with Marlene. If my pt is wheezing, SOB, turning blue, I'd rather get the MD on the phone for orders than sit and try to count his shallow wheezy breathing. Then OTHER cases...Kaplan will say ok pt. is complaining that their foot is warm and they have a cast on. I pick to assess the dang foot(maybe compartment syndrome, anything)...Kaplan said call the MD first. Again Marlene said if there is something I can DO(assessment, intervention, fix the problem, etc)...do that before calling the MD. What do you guys think? Do you think that Kaplan has it backwards on some of their questions?

And honestly if I fail this exam next week...I have no clue what to do. Because I've practiced the questions that everyone says are "harder" than the Nclex..and number wise I should be good, but then again...numbers mean jack diddly.

[dinah77, ADN]

This is a problem with just doing qbank without doing the Kaplan class- they teach you a whole set of rules that apply to their NCLEX for their method, so often the answers seem counterintuitive- but they are right. It's hard to explain.

Their questions are largely based on their descion tree method. I know sometimes their answers seem weird but also keep in mind that they are actual former NCLEX questions.

I would say if you are doing well with the other methods, stick with those and don't focus on the Kaplan stuff-

[Rednights]

Question 1. -You call the MD what VS you going to give him? Oh you didn't assess? Woops. What are the pt's lung sounds like? Blah blah blah. Doctor needs a picture of your patient.

Question 2. - Medical emergency (compartment syndrome) ... if the correct answer is call MD the assessment was given to you in the question (pt ... still ... complaining of pain despite meds given 1 hr ago or whatever ..) no need to assess.

Well that's how Kaplan teaches you how to do questions

I have no idea what Marlene is ... but if they write questions for NCLEX as Kaplan writers do ... I guess you can use your best judgment ... in picking whatever strategies you want

but really you have a 1% chance of like failing with those scores ... so if you wanna fight the statical number all the power to you!

btw .. kaplan questions are/is sometimes wrong ... during the live review there were a multitude of answers that were completely BS and the instructor agreed .. he'd bring it up the writers ... so yeah ... stop stressing out .. it's not a big deal ...

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

Oh yeah I just realized my mistake on those. It did describe the pts leg which means the assessment was done, gotta intervene. But the first question said to just count respirations.. Nothing about listening. And by Marlene I meant Hurst. I had no clue they wrote for the Nclex, or that these were former questions either.

[wannabHishands]

I think that if it is something critical right now, you call the doc... especially if none of your interventions are going to help. For example, if it is compartment syndrome, you need to get that cast off before the tissues die (I know this one by personal experience). So if the question has a cast of any type, I always think, "Be careful... may be compartment here, so be thinking emergency" as I am reading the options. If the symptoms may point to more than one cause, you are probably going to need to assess more, IF it's not an emergency. Some emergencies don't give you time to assess (fire, no airway, etc...).

****On the first question you stated, out of thousands of Kaplan questions, I've never seen one that says to sedate the patient first. If you can find it, go back and reread that one, and make sure that it didn't tell you that you already tried less restrictive measures****

And last, yes, Kaplan can be wrong. There were some that you could tell our instructor was making up crap, because it was outright wrong. When we called it, she got angry, and couldn't back it up at all. On my qbank, I found one that went directly against their strategies, and emailed them about it. They thanked me for finding it, and said that it did need to be fixed. I hope I don't get one like that on the test.

I think you and I are a lot alike. The Worried Well my instructor calls people like us. We (and by this I mean I, and possibly you) want to know everything and to get every question right, but I think there comes a time to say that we've pretty much got it down, and take the *&^^% test already! Good luck!