NCLEX anxiety & planning

NurseBaddieRN · May 19, 2015

Hi! I have yet to take it but

I am waiting for my ATT as we speak. I am using the Lacharity PDA book,nclex mastery app, I am going over sections I need help on in Med Surg demystified ,and I took the live kaplan review in January. I have done the entire q bank and trainers 1-5. Planning on dping 6&7 in the next few weeks. Also the kaplan content videos which I love. I am sooo anxious,but in a good way

NurseBaddieRN · May 19, 2015

doing *typo*

NewRN'15 · May 20, 2015

[COLOR=#808080]I know how you feel, I didnt know where to start to start studying, I just took my NCLEX about 2 weeks ago and passed with about 82 questions, at first, when i was studying I was trying to stick to a plan- didnt work out for me cuz life always happens, so 2 weeks before my exam, i knew it was time to get serious. I would recommend using one or 2 study tools max, too much different study tools can be overwhelming. I also used kaplan's program to study. When you do your question trainers, make sure you remediate and read all the answer options and why they would be wrong. I had about 43 SATA questions on my NCLEX and after that mostly, priority pt questions. Here is what I did to really kick in the studying mode 2 weeks prior; I looked at question trainer 6 and looked at what my weakest areas were, I would then do about 150qbanks in those categories, take a break, then watch the kaplan content videos(they are extremely helpful), then I would a 75qbank test with all the categories, I did that for about 5 days straight, took a break and did no studying for 1 and a half day and then did that again for a 2 more days, I mean I was studyin for a good 7-8 hours/day. I also went through this one book, lippincotts alternative format question book, i could not have passed without that book. The book is divided in chapters based on med/surg, ob, etc, I would do one chapter a day, when you read the rationals for the questions in the book, everything made much more sense in my head, the SATA questions in this book are completely different than the SATA's kaplan gives you, in my experience, I feel like the SATA questions in the lippincott book were more like what I saw on the NCLEX, but Kaplans priority and delegation were spot on with the NCLEX. My advice to you, watch the content videos, know what areas of content you are weak in, and then just practice questions and i highly recommend the lippincott book. I also took notes on things I did not understand through the process, I know they say dont do anything the day before your exam, but I couldnt not do anything, the day before, I treated myself to a pedicure and, I went through the hot spot questions again from my lippincott book and read my notes I made, went over lab values and isolation precautions( i had probably about 7-8 questions on precautions). If you are struggling with "what to do first", ask yourself who is the most unstable pt?, is the person experiencing a symptom that is expected?(ex; COPD pt with SOB, probably not as unstable as someone who is 45 having radiating jaw pain and diaphoresis-this guy could be having an MI and needs intervention right away), apply your ABC's and remember, keep em safe and keep em alive. I would say skip saunders, esp since its 2011, remember, they changed the exam in 2013. I hope this helps, and good luck!, Also, my qtrainer scores were between 55-65, so dont beat yourself up if you arent getting really high scores, my philosophy was "I can either panic about my low score and create more anxiety over it, or I can use it to my advantage to know what my weak areas are"

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alva78 · May 20, 2015

Thank you so so much! This gave me a really good idea on how I should be using my Kaplan, answering questions from my weak areas is something I really need to do. And also, SATA is difficult for me so I'm more excited to crack open my Lippincott book. Really appreciate your advice & your philosophy (to panic or to use ur anxiety as fuel to know ur weak areas).