Helloo fellow futures nurses! Throughout my whole nursing program I always checked in here reading other stories and tips. So i decided to tell you guys my experience and what helped me! I took my NCLEX-PN January 6th...a day before my birthday lol I stopped at 105? After I passed 85 I took a break because I felt like I would be taking it for while. I had 8-9 SATA, 1 Picture selection, 3-4 Drag n Drop and 1 client report assessment. Most of my questions were mainly priority selections. Anywhoo, I did the whole PVT trick and I got the good sign! I'm still not convinced till I see the actual letter but everyone is telling me congrats lol For those of you who have crazy job and family schedules and need ways to study conveniently I found some tools to help! I worked two jobs while studying for the NCLEX-PN and needed to find a way where I can always have things to study with. Here's a list of my studying material:
My ending average score was 76% But when I started I did horrible lol So don't feel discouraged if you have a low score in the beginning. After doing a lot of practice test it helped me built up my test taking skills. This goes the same for the Saunders questions too.
Saunders Comprehensive Review
I used this for mainly the diseases or just to look up something I knew completely nothing about lol
Exam Cram - There is two versions one for review and one that has all questions. I bought one and my friend bought the e-book for the questions one so we shared. If you guys need help with pharmacology I highly recommend the Exam Cram review book. It's straight forward with specific adverse effects r/t the medication. When you receive the book it comes with a tear out cram sheet that has all your nursing basics in all topics and a CD with practice test.
Since I was always on the go I used alot of phone Apps. I have Android but I'm sure iPhone has some kinda of variation of it. Here are the apps:
I used the lite version which is free but the paid one is 29.99. Since I bought the exam cram book I didn't want to spend that much. They have picture images of certain procedures and different mnemonics. And they do also have a RN version.
This one is awesome! I love the flashcards and they have really thorough rationales. The questions remind me of Saunders and NCLEX 4000...very lengthy and wordy.
The questions that were on here were similar to those on the Exam Cram so I just used this if I couldn't bring around the book. The questions get repetitive so I suggest to bookmark the question as you mastered it on the top right corner. This also gives you access to flashcards from other students as well.
In conclusion, it's all about being confident in yourself! I use to not be great at test taking because I would overlook the question or think wayy too much. In my nursing program it took me 3 times just to pass the HESI exit exam! The way I looked at practice testing is don't focus too much on the numbers. If you get it wrong then you get it wrong but read into the rationales and refer back to the book so you understand why you missed it. And don't forget ABC, Safety and Maslows! Well hopefully these tips helped and good luck to everyone taking it this year! :)
