Major anxiety on SATA and Drag & Drop Questions for NCLEX

RN-joy · Aug 17, 2014

i took the nclex last friday. still waiting to hear back results but i was really worried about SATA and drag and drop also. i had some of both. My SATA questions were all over the place...some asking about procedures and what to do and others teaching for example. I got questions on topics that i knew and still had trouble figuring out the SATA and other questions where i'd never heard of the topic and just had to basically guess pick.

having taken it i think my best advice is to go over and understand content as best you can so that when you have the SATA, you can go through each of the choices and try to think if it is T/F based on the topic and what the question is asking. i didn't have time to practice those types of questions before the test but i've heard saunders has them and i would use that as well to get comfortable with them

as for drag and drop, i watched videos on youtube on procedures like ng tubes, tube feedings, giving blood, pleur e vacs, etc. kaplan also has drag and drop questions so when you get those i would write those down and remember them as well

ikonen · Aug 17, 2014

Hey thanks for replying. How many questions did you get overall? Some people say the SATA are not as hard as they seem. Some people say they're rather common sense and true or false and yes they also said as long as you know the content. What about the rest of the exam... where they mostly delegation, prioritizing and safety and Infection Control type? A lot of my classmates who took it said it's mostly those. I wish you luck on your nclex. I hope you pass. :)

RN-joy · Aug 17, 2014

thanks! just found out i passed!!

i had 85 questions. I thought the SATA were pretty straightforward and common sense. I either had trouble with them because I didn't know the topic itself or the wording of one of the answer choices confused me. I just took my time though and tried to think each answer choice through and if it was t/f

i had a little bit of everything. i had 1 ekg, no math, a bunch of meds i didn't know (i only got generic names so i'd study that), a lot of priority and delegation, and infection control. i had a few questions on OB and therapeutic communication. I'd focus on your weak areas but def priority/delegation/infection control. i also only used kaplan to study and i thought the way the questions were worded on the nclex was exactly like kaplan so that helped. i know some people thought kaplan was completely different though

ikonen · Aug 17, 2014

Oh wow! Congrats!! I can just imagine how you feel right now. I totally envy you. I'm just here on a boring sunday in my room studying.

So tell me more about the meds. Thats still also my weakness.. What type of generic names did you get so I can study them just in case if i get the same meds as you. I can't believe they dont put both medication names.. Wow, they really are making it hard.

So can I asked how long did you study for this? I'm leaving work temporary in 2 weeks so I can focus my review. This coming week will be my last week and I will take about couple of weeks off so to really focus on my review. What was your review strategy? Did you do the entire Q Banks and Q Trainers questions on Kaplan?

RN-joy · Aug 17, 2014

thank you!! i know how it feels and like you'll never get there but as soon as you know it you'll be taking the exam and passing too!

i took about a month to review using only kaplan. again some people have failed using kaplan and others didn't like it so this is just what worked for me but i think its def good you have more than one resource. i took the first 4 question trainers, readiness, and diagnostic exams without doing any studying and was scoring 47-52 highest. kaplan wants you to aim for a 60 so i knew that i was doing badly. i realized that i needed to do a lot of content review. kaplan comes with that ebook content guide which i think is a really good review but personally i couldn't take the time to sit there, read it, and actually remember anything. i remember things better when i write down my own notes so i listened to all of the kaplan review videos. i took two days for each section to review. so for example for the first two days i listened to all the videos and took notes on psychosocial integrity. I didn't spend a certain amount of time studying a day, just made sure that i finished all the videos and did qbank questions for that section only each day. on days i was tired i'd do at least 50 questions but in general i aimed for 150. i reviewed all the rationales for right and wrong answers and looked up anything in the question that i didn't know or understand. then i went to the next section and so on. the last week i was exhausted and felt like i had forgotten all the information. i decided to do q trainers 5, 6, and 7 without reviewing my notes to see how much i retained and i was getting 60s. going into the exam date i didn't feel ready but seeing how my scores improved made me feel more confident. i finished 100% of the qbank questions with 60% average and the 4 nclex practice exams kaplan has also. sample test 4 is all alternate type questions and i panicked when i got a 32 on it but reading the posts here most people got the same grade if not lower so i wouldn't worry about that if you score low.

also like 3 days before my exam i did two of the nclex practice exams on ati. they're 150 questions each and i only scored like 76-80 on them but they were a good review just of topics and to practice basic level questions. 2 days before the exam i honestly was a nervous wreck and couldn't focus on studying so i stopped. i worked on getting my anxiety out and crying my heart out lol but i really think it helped because although i was nervous going into the exam i don't think i was as bad as i would've been. the only review i did the day before was read through the 35 page study guide thats floating around on here. i can email it to you if you haven't seen it

as for drugs, i don't remember which ones i had specifically but i'd go over heart drugs (ACE/beta blockers, etc), diabetic, antianxiety/antipsychotic meds, and antiulcer meds for sure. pretty much all of the drugs i had i had never heard of so i guessed answers. this was honestly a weak area of mine as well but going over practice questions i realized there were some basic things that applied to all drugs. for example most drugs you need to take on an empty stomach, never use alcohol, majority of drugs cause photosensitivity...etc. so whenever i got a drug question i looked at the answers that way, if that makes sense. definitely focus on name endings and important information (ie: beta blockers all end in olol...cause bradycardia..etc)the pharm review videos on kaplan were torture getting through and i didn't end up memorizing those notes. i just did the qbank questions for that section and ended up doing well but it depends how you want to review them. there were some drugs that i noticed came up a lot like regular/nph insulin, digoxin, lithium, etc so i made sure to memorize those but otherwise i just tried to have a basic understanding of drug side effects and interactions

one other tip i have is just to make sure you're reviewing to understand and not just memorizing, because that was something i had to work on. for example i would memorize that cushings and addisons can cause hypo/hyperglycemia but i wouldn't understand why

sorry this ended up so long! i know how much studying sucks but you can do it. let me know if you have more questions!!

RN-joy · Aug 17, 2014

wow i didnt realize how much i wrote, lol sorry again!

ikonen · Aug 17, 2014

Hey I really really appreciate this long reply.. Seriously i really do :) This will just help me more. Yeah regarding those notes 35 pages I dont have them.. I just signed up here last night so I'm barely new here. You can email it to [email protected].

My family feels that I'm ready to take this exam but I just feel like I'm not. I feel that I still have a lot to cover. Maybe when I completed the entire Q banks and Q trainers then maybe well see. I also need help on the content area somewhat. If you have any notes on that.. please do send them or if you know any sites that has it.

I really appreciate your help and feedback. I just really want to know what the majority NCLEX will be tested on.

Tanyasands · Aug 18, 2014

I am using Kaplan review on demand to prepare for my second attempt . My first attempt I used NCSBN and did questions from every resource I could find but ended up failing with all 265 questions. Along with Kaplan I plan to go through the Lacharity book I have and complete the nclex mastery app along with reviewing the study guides I've found floating around. My biggest issue is test anxiety and I am hoping the strategies from Kaplan will help with that. Thanks for sharing your experience.