My one month plan - is this crazy?

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I'm itching to take my boards ASAP and I've tried to draft a plan that will get me ready for the first week of October:

Kaplan in-class review - one month, for strategy

Saunders with study calendar and at least 100 question/day - for content

PDA (LaCharity) one chapter a day and 20-30 online questions a day.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Is this doable? I'm a little worried about pharm review, but I'll figure that out. I got 64% on my first Kaplan predictor, 75% on my first Saunders predictive exam, and 97% chance of passing on my ATI exit exam.

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Your predictors are awesome! Yes it is doable, but please take a day off at least once a week.

If your weakness is pharm, Kaplan's med flash cards are awesome!

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Specializes in Maternal Newborn.

Your plan and variety of NCLEX resources sound perfect! While I studied for almost 2 months (ten hour days) I probably over-studied in some ways. However, keep in mind NCLEX is very broad - so in my opinion it's better to know more a bout "a little of everything".

I used: Hurst, Kaplan, Saunder's, NCSBN, and La Charity. They all helped greatly in my NCLEX preparation. I don't think "one resource" would have worked for me. Since you're taking Kaplan, take advantage of all the resources they offer online. Besides, their strategies/decision tree, content videos (very long and boring in my opinion; I used Hurst and Saunder's for content), Qtrainers and Qbank - do check out their question videos! In these 20 or so videos (like 10-15 minutes each) they go over an assortment of questions in each NCLEX category. I watched about 8 of these videos, and will say once you have some content down, these videos will put the "missing puzzle pieces together"! They show you how to break apart the stem and put into simple terms, and then evaluate and eliminate answer choices. So even if you don't know anything about the question, they show you subtle clues to look for in both the question/answer. These are a god send!

Overall, ensure you know core content well (bits of everything and important concepts for each body system), lab values, procedures (IV set up and tubing change, chest tubes, catheter, administering eye/ear drops, TPN/G tube feeding, bed pan, etc.), med's (know basics and drug classes), herbals (I had a few on my NCLEX - know common ones like garlic, ginseng, gingko, kava, etc. what they do and side effects or contraindications), infection control (precautions/PPE to wear and if door should be "open" or "closed"), and priority/delegation (know what RN/LVN/UAP can do and not do). Besides, core content know strategies! You will have "obscure" questions on NCLEX where you need to use your critical thinking skills - read each word in the q and answer carefully. Evaluate and eliminate! My NCLEX was a variety of the above, and I passed.

Best of luck! You can do it! :)

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I think your plan is fine. A lot of people I know only studied for 3-4 weeks for boards and passed. Having a concrete plan in place is most important, which is obviously do. And your scores look great

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Thanks everyone - my ATT came thru in the middle of the night and NOW I'm freaking out. AGH!!!

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