Nclex meds

[EMTtoGN10]

Can anyone tell me how they studied for the meds on nclex. Just curious because almost everyone that has already taken it told me that they will give you meds that you have never heard of or seen before. So the question is how do you prepare yourself for this?? I know in Nursing school we learned by classification but there are thousands of drugs out there. Any input anybody??

[caliotter3]

I always suggest that people study the classifications and learn one prototype drug for each class. Or, there has been mention of a list, which I may have seen once. But on my test, there were meds that I could not even identify. So I guessed. Depends on how much time you have to invest as to how detailed you want to get in the time you have.

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Same here, I for the life of me could not figure them out so yep; I guessed :)

[caliotter3]

I forgot to mention the list of suffixes which can be found in the very long NCLEX sticky thread at the top of the NCLEX forum. I think the "list" may be in there too.

[Spotty44]

I made flashcards for the most common drug suffixes and then read over the various classifications, paying attention to unique side effects and characteristics of drug classes. Honestly though, I find pharm overwhelming and it is one of my weaknesses. I'm usually only able to learn and retain certain side effects if the side effect is uniquely tied to the med.

I just took (and passed) the NCLEX last week and I think that the flashcards I made helped; although I didn't have much pharm on my test (whew).

[L8RRN]

I just studied the endings of the generic names. That helped a lot because if it was a some weird name but had an ending that I knew, then I could answer the question. For example if it was mesolopril (made that up) then I knew it was an ACE inhibitor. Best of luck!!!

[EMTtoGN10]

Thanks everybody

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

I honestly didn't study pharm for my test. I had heard the same thing you did...that no one recognized the drugs on their test. I figured there was no point in studying pharm then. But when I took my test, I knew all the drugs on there. You have to realize with Pharm that not everyone will know the same drugs. You might know a medication that the next person doesn't know and vice versa. And in my opinion, some people just draw a blank on the simplest of medications. And my last opinion lol...if the med truly is something off the wall for some reason, the med may not even be related to what is really being asked.