Med questions aren't common meds????

Published

Don't misinterpret my question, I am not looking for specific exam questions but after reading alot of posts on here made by people that took the NCLEX-RN I am a little confused/concerned.:confused:

I keep seeing people say that the medication questions on their NCLEX had random drugs that they never heard of. Should I be reading my Drug Guide cover to cover?

When doing the assigned readings in school I always make a mental note of the drugs listed under each disorder(Our books have tables with all of the drugs for a specific thing and the more commonly used ones will offer more detailed info). Before this week (when I started reading these posts) I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the pharm stuff...now I am thinking I need to change up my strategy to prepare before graduating. :eek:

Im wondering would being able to recognize what clas the medication belongs to or what it is used for be enough?? In the posts I have been reading people are saying they literally had to guess because the meds didn't even have a common ending like olol or pam, etc.

So would knowing that drug XYZ in the questions is an antipsychotic be enough to point you in the right direction or are they actually asking for very specific information about unheard/uncommon drugs?? I just don't understand why the NCLEX would want to do that! :banghead: (that last part is more of a statement than a question)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I actually did have some common drugs so my advice to you would be to know the common medications that you adminsiter in clinicals good luck!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

You can not learn the whole drug book. Better to look at classifications and common side effects etc. Look at the suffix etc and we have a few threads already listing some that should help

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I would just stick with knowing the common ones. Knowing that drug XYZ is an anti-psychotic drug may not help. Because I'm thinking that the questions are usually asking for stuff like...take before or after meals, with meals, morning or night, empty stomach, what drugs to avoid while taking that drug, what symptoms to report to the doc, stuff like that.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Usually you can immediately disregard one or two of the answers that wouldn't be correct in any scenario. After reading the question carefully (noticing the wording, the question stem, etc), you may be able to eliminate another one or two choices and get the right answer without knowing the drug at all. For example, if the question is about what you would *teach* the patient, you could automatically disregard any answers the involve *doing* something besides teaching. That doesn't always work, but it's a good strategy when you're not sure. In fact, sometimes really knowing the details about a topic can hinder one's ability to get the correct answer. One of the answers may jump out as correct as it references something very specific to that med or condition that you know is true; and yet that's not the correct answer because the question is really asking about some other aspect of care. Doing a bunch of NCLEX review questions and learn test-taking strategies is an important part of preparing for the test.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I googled "Most common NCLEX meds" and got a link to a post on this website about a list of 100 common meds that was floating around a few yrs ago. It was linked to a Yahoo Group, but there hasn't been any recent activity on there--- I joined, but I doubt it's still active. Has anyone else heard of this list or where to find it?? I have the Kaplan med flash cards-- it provides 300 common meds --but if I'm getting very overwhelmed and narrowing in on 100 would be even better! Of course, I know it's a crapshoot and I probably won't see any on the test! Haha :banghead:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

i believe that you would only confuse yourself if you study the whole drug handbook. i don't believe even pharmacologists mastered each one. in my case, i only studied the specifics. the common ones and their side effects. plus, taking into note the "not-so-common" ones that came out of my review. i honestly didn't even go through the Kaplan Course book meds part. i was just aware that no matter how hard i push myself into studying them all, the odds are getting ones that i don't even know. study those drugs that come out of your commercials. they might be helpful :)

and i passed with 75 qs on the first try by the way:) goodluck! =)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion