Looking for study tips that really work.

ashleyrosesf · Jun 21, 2013

There's no "one size fits all" study advice, unfortunately. In doing Kaplan, what were your "weak" areas? Did you take all the tests and review the rationales? Watch the content video and seek other help for the areas you were weakest in?

My personal recommendation is to stick to only one kind of preparation class (ATI, Kaplan, or Hurst). I haven't taken boards yet, but I feel super prepared with Kaplan. I've been using Saunders to supplement the content I need to review, although I think they both are at the opposite ends of the spectrum - Saunders has too much erroneous info and Kaplan has too little! ;-)

For me, I invested in a groupon deal for yoga/Pilates that I've been doing every day for an hour. It gets me out of the house for some "me" time so I'm not studying all day. Also, the brain can only take around 3 hours of study time (content or questions) so make sure to take at least an hour to two breaks every few hours.

TSgcc13 · Jun 21, 2013

Honestly, I don't think there's one specific program that "works". They're all pretty good. What I can say, is remember your nursing process and Maslow's heirarchy. If you master those in your test-taking, you're good! Remember, assessment is always first!

beefsolady · Jun 21, 2013

With Kplan, I only had the Qbank. ATI gave me the green light to test.

ashleyrosesf · Jun 21, 2013

Got it. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend Kaplan. They really go over how the test goes and what you need to know. The questions are at a similar level of difficulty to Nclex. From what I've heard, ATI and Hurst are less so. Kaplan also offers a money back guarantee if you don't pass if you follow the method as instructed, for what it's worth. :-)

Good luck!

beefsolady · Jun 21, 2013

Thank you, I will think about that. Need to save some money now. lol

bridg0809 · Jun 21, 2013

I recommend Kaplan 100%!! They even have a payment plan :)

ckypp · Jun 21, 2013

I hope you took advantage of their Qbank to its fullest. Not sure how many questions are in their Qbank only package, but you should aim for doing ALL of them. I took Kaplan's premium package (courses and all), but I failed my nclex. Don't let that discourage you because I was stupid... They even have a money-back guarantee but I couldn't get it because I was supposed to do ALL their question trainers plus a diagnostic test, but I only did the diagnostic plus a few question trainers. Barely touched the Qbank.

My study habits are the worst. I'm a procrastinator so I studied til the very last week before my nclex. Pretty much crammed like I did in college. It does NOT work. My study tips for you: learn from my mistakes. Get a study plan going and stick with it. Study every single day for a consistent # of hours. Use all the nclex review materials you can find. I recommend Kaplan because their questions are more "nclex" style compared to ATI. Kaplan has those darned "which patient do you see first?" questions which are analysis/critical thinking level questions. I feel like ATI has mostly knowledge based (memory recall), which are basic questions that the NCLEX deems as "easy". I would do what "ashleyrosesf" is doing, using mainly Kaplan and supplementing with Saunders.

beefsolady · Jun 22, 2013

Thanks for the advise. I guess I will just have to save up some money so that I can do the full Kaplan course and get myself some good review book as well.

I do agree that ATI is mostly knowledge based questions, ans some select all that apply. There were very few drop and drag, and very few who do you see first.

I am still waiting for my test report to see where I am weak so that I know exactly what to focus on.

ckypp · Jun 25, 2013

No problem. Here's a link to a good thread although it's a year old. It's a stickied topic from the NCLEX Discussion forum.

https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/passed-my-nclex-750555.html

Good luck on your journey.