I'm an RN!!!passed in 75 ques! PVT still works...my tips!

Nursing Students NCLEX

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I stalked this page all through this journey of studying so now I'm going to pay it forward. I was mostly a B and B+ student throughout nursing school. My studying might have been a bit excessive, but I didn't want to have to take this test more than once.

I took Kaplan, and finished every single question offered, and read ever rationale. Everything I never heard of I looked up in Sylverstri and took notes on it. If I got a question on the same topic again, I would go back and look it up again and rewrite it. Then, once a week or more I would set aside time to review my notes.

Then, I finished all the chapters in Lacharity on the evolve site, except the last 2 because I never got to them. I looked up everything from lacharity that I never heard of and read every single rationale.

Then, a week before my exam I made index cards on lab values and studied all the EKGs on the ACLS site and googled diff looking pic of EKGs in case I got something weird (I only had one on the test with labs and one EKG), but if I had more I would have been relieved I did.

I didn't study any meds except what came up in Kaplan and lacharity and looked them up and their side affects and took notes on these too. I kept a binder on all my results. I also watched all the kaplan videos that I scored low in on the first 4 kaplan trainers. I found the one on child dvmt very helpful because my school had no class on pediatrics at all and I had 2 ques on children development on my exam so I was glad I did. The NCLEX questions were easier than kaplan in my opinion except for the fact that 50 out of my 75 question exam was SATA and I am terrible at these so if you are too, do not sweat it because I obviously still passed. Also, a few days before my exam I was nervous because I scored a 39 on Question trainer 7 in the health promotion section, so I was worried and was not surprised when I had 4 questions in maternity on my exam because this was my weak subject.

I studied 4-10 hrs a day, 6 days a week. It was excessive what I did and IDK if I rly needed to do that, but I was determined. I also used the 35 page review circulating around this site. I only finished the first 20 pages but those were my God send when it came to the safety and infection questions! Highly recommend reading it. I put together 2 little notebooks of notes and a binder I put everything important I needed to look at.

IF you have any questions, let me know, because many people on this site were very helpful to me when I had questions so I am glad to do the same for others. I honestly thought I failed because the questions didn't seem too bad other than the SATA so it is not undoable! You can do it too!!

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Specializes in Acute Rehab, Neuro/Trauma, Dialysis.

CONGRATULATION BLONDIE1887!!! Now time to celebrate! :woot:

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Congrats blondie1887..... I start nursing in August! I'm very excited! Is there anything you can tell me to start doing while I'm in school that could help me on the nclex so I won't be super cramming towards the end?

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Congrats and thank you for sharing your experiences!

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Congrats blondie1887..... I start nursing in August! I'm very excited! Is there anything you can tell me to start doing while I'm in school that could help me on the nclex so I won't be super cramming towards the end?

just try to learn as much as you can while you are in school. There was a lot I learned on my own studying for this exam that I'd never learned in school. They can't teach you everything in a short 2 years, but I also spent a lot of nursing school teaching myself so I was used to it and just tried to learn as much as possible when I could through clinicals and classroom. I wouldn't say to use questions just to study in nursing school (I know a lot of ppl tried this in my class and would often fail exams), but for NCLEX it rly was helpful because it made me realize what information I was lacking in. Kaplan also helped my critical thinking their questions were a lot less straightforward than nclex questions, but I didn't find the decision tree very helpful to be honest because that whole ABC thing doesn't always apply if the patient with the airway problem isn't critical and I think this might confuse some ppl. Just keep up with your studying and reading for class and you'll be find!

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hello blondie1887 congrats!!! I was just wondering how long did you study before you sat for the test?

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just try to learn as much as you can while you are in school. There was a lot I learned on my own studying for this exam that I'd never learned in school. They can't teach you everything in a short 2 years, but I also spent a lot of nursing school teaching myself so I was used to it and just tried to learn as much as possible when I could through clinicals and classroom. I wouldn't say to use questions just to study in nursing school (I know a lot of ppl tried this in my class and would often fail exams), but for NCLEX it rly was helpful because it made me realize what information I was lacking in. Kaplan also helped my critical thinking their questions were a lot less straightforward than nclex questions, but I didn't find the decision tree very helpful to be honest because that whole ABC thing doesn't always apply if the patient with the airway problem isn't critical and I think this might confuse some ppl. Just keep up with your studying and reading for class and you'll be find!

Okay thanks for replying!!!!

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hello blondie1887 congrats!!! I was just wondering how long did you study before you sat for the test?

5 weeks after my kaplan class. Honestly, I prob was ready way sooner but the earlier I could get was 4 days sooner and my advisor from school told me to wait until the second week because she thought it was too soon. Honestly, I think the sooner is it to nursing school grad the better. So I would say take it like 3-5 weeks after you graduate. My total studying time thought including the Kaplan live review was 6 wks.

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5 weeks after my kaplan class. Honestly, I prob was ready way sooner but the earlier I could get was 4 days sooner and my advisor from school told me to wait until the second week because she thought it was too soon. Honestly, I think the sooner is it to nursing school grad the better. So I would say take it like 3-5 weeks after you graduate. My total studying time thought including the Kaplan live review was 6 wks.

What exactly is the Kaplan class? Is it universal? I'm in Louisiana. I've heard of evolve study materials though.

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It's the program that offers nclex review materials after you grad. Hurst offers one too but they're more content based. My school had an open house for them and they rly stressed choosing one bc their pass rates were very low a few yrs and they were on probation. Many ppl pass without them but I found it good bc it gave me a plan to follow otherwise I would have been all over the place.

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It's the program that offers nclex review materials after you grad. Hurst offers one too but they're more content based. My school had an open house for them and they rly stressed choosing one bc their pass rates were very low a few yrs and they were on probation. Many ppl pass without them but I found it good bc it gave me a plan to follow otherwise I would have been all over the place.

Okay thank you! ?

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Specializes in Orthopedics and Neurology.

I have a story. Circa 1977, 3 weeks of studying, from one, maybe 2 books. Studied Lichtman & Sorenson for three weeks straight from 10a-10pm. There were 5 tests then, psych, peds and ob, medical, surgical. I passed. I don't remember the name of the 2nd book or if there was even one. I drove two hours, and had to stay at a hotel. No test sites here. Then I waited 4 months for the results.

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