My NCLEX-RN experience

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According to my paid 'unofficial/official' results from Pearson Vue, I passed the NCLEX-RN with 75 questions! So relieved! I hadn't planned on studying much for this exam as I thought 'practicing questions' would be good enough. Well, before I knew it, I had worked myself up into a tizzy and all the sudden was surrounded by 4 textbook resources. I was constantly battling the idea of what and how I should study - questions vs. content. I tried to force myself to read the entire Saunders Comprehensive Review book. At first I would read the chapter and then answer the questions. Eventually, I would just read the chapters and skip the questions since I didn't have time on my side. And seriously, I would look at that stupid book and everything was jumbled together. I highly doubt I had any retention from looking at it!

The content on the exam itself was random. I had hardly any SATA's, which made me nervous in the end thinking that it I may have not answered enough 'high-end' cognitive level questions. I had a few drug calculations. I have always been confident and comfortable with these. The way I viewed drug calculation questions is that they would be 'for sure' questions I could get right. If I had to say the test was 'heavy' in any content area, I did have a fair amount of psych and dietary questions. TPN, foods to avoid, etc, etc. Lots of prioritization and questions asking 'who would you see first' type scenarios. The infection control mnemonics on this board helped me with the isolation questions. Again, I felt the questions were straight forward and when I got one I was completely unsure about, I felt as if I could problem solve and eliminate the answers.

The books I used were the following:

Saunders Comprehensive NCLEX-RN review (I think it's the 2007 edition)

Davis Q & A, New 2010 Format - This book kicked my butt and created lots of discouraging practice exam scores. What I like about it is you can really itemize the types of questions to practice with and specificy the content area. When you 'customize' a quiz, you can click on 'hint' to help you develop a thought process to eliminate answers. Then once you answer the question, you can click 'feedback' and review right then and there. My scores ranged from 50-72% There's 4000+ questions between the book and the CD-ROM.

Kaplan's 2010-2011 Test Strategies - This book gave the basic information that everyone already knows. How to reword the question, and how to apply the ABC's, Maslow and Safety. I felt the questions were much easier than the Davis book. However, there were not an overabundance of questions to practice with. I completed the CD-ROM exam and got a 69 and a 72 on one of the book exams.

Lacharity's Priority and Delegation - Another discouraging book. :) My scores ranged from 40's-80's in the various chapters. I found the case studies to be a little easier than the content specific exams. By the time I got to the last case study on OB, I couldn't do it anymore! It was devastating receiving a constant 50%ish in this book!

Other than that, I made sure I went to church the week before the test, lit myself a candle and prayed, prayed, and prayed some more that my journey to becoming an RN would be over! I don't know if the studying made a difference or not. It's such a random exam. I'm a fairly decent test taker , despite my anxious personality. I never had much improvement in my practice exam scores from start to finish. This is what makes me think I probably could have taken the test as soon as I got my ATT. But who knows, maybe the studying did pay off and that's why I feel it was so easy. I didn't study at all for LPN boards in 2003 and thought it was awful. I really felt that the RN boards were easier.

Good luck to all the future testers! Thanks to those who were here on the board and shared my anxiety with me. :)