NCLEX prep!!!

pagandeva2000, LPN · Jun 6, 2007

Hi all, I am a new graduate nurse preparing for the NCLEX exam and would appreciate any advice or study tips. I was considerering purchasing the kaplan book, although I am not taking the course. Any thoughts or any other study guides you would recommend? Thank you in advance.

It is hard for me to say, because there is no one guarenteed study method. I will suggest, though, that the kaplan strategy book is a good choice in addition to whatever comprehensive review book you get, because it does help you to rule out the things you clearly do not know. What I would do is visit a bookstore, and look through all of the comprehensive review books out there, and see what appeals to your eye and you personal needs. I needed one with plenty of diagrams, because I am a visual person. When you flip through it, does it have all of the material you studied in a reader-friendly format? Does it have room to add your own notes? I would borrow CDs from at least 3 different sources to experience different styles of questions. Make sure that it contains the new format questions.

Also, start planning on how to study, and how long before your exam. For example, I scheduled to take my test two months after my review course. I broke down the 4 areas and took two weeks to study each section and made sure that I studied the medications that would be administered for the diseases I read, and did 10 to 20 math questions per day. That took about 5 weeks (I decided to only focus on psych for one week because I had a feeling that they would not make a big focus on that) and then, for the remaining time, I went back to the subjects that gave me a hard time. I did over 8000 questions before I sat for the exam. To tell you the truth, with all of the questions that I did, it still didn't really prepare me for the slap that NCLEX threw my way, but, something must have clicked, because I passed with mimimum questions in 40 minutes. Try to work yourself to the maximum amount of questions for your exam. LPN is 205, RN is 265, because you need to know if you can endure sitting there for that time. They do suggest that you time yourself, but, while I didn't bother with that (I used to finish exams rather quickly), I did see that I was able to do about 300 questions in two hours, so, I knew that I would not be there past the mandatory break time in two or three hours.

Make charts of difficult concepts with highligters so that they can sort of flash before you in memory if you get a question in that area. Good luck to you!

EricJRN, MSN, RN · Jun 6, 2007

Moved to NCLEX Discussion Forum for more responses. Good luck to you!

carebear9884 · Nov 19, 2007

It is hard for me to say, because there is no one guarenteed study method. I will suggest, though, that the kaplan strategy book is a good choice in addition to whatever comprehensive review book you get, because it does help you to rule out the things you clearly do not know. What I would do is visit a bookstore, and look through all of the comprehensive review books out there, and see what appeals to your eye and you personal needs. I needed one with plenty of diagrams, because I am a visual person. When you flip through it, does it have all of the material you studied in a reader-friendly format? Does it have room to add your own notes? I would borrow CDs from at least 3 different sources to experience different styles of questions. Make sure that it contains the new format questions.
Also, start planning on how to study, and how long before your exam. For example, I scheduled to take my test two months after my review course. I broke down the 4 areas and took two weeks to study each section and made sure that I studied the medications that would be administered for the diseases I read, and did 10 to 20 math questions per day. That took about 5 weeks (I decided to only focus on psych for one week because I had a feeling that they would not make a big focus on that) and then, for the remaining time, I went back to the subjects that gave me a hard time. I did over 8000 questions before I sat for the exam. To tell you the truth, with all of the questions that I did, it still didn't really prepare me for the slap that NCLEX threw my way, but, something must have clicked, because I passed with mimimum questions in 40 minutes. Try to work yourself to the maximum amount of questions for your exam. LPN is 205, RN is 265, because you need to know if you can endure sitting there for that time. They do suggest that you time yourself, but, while I didn't bother with that (I used to finish exams rather quickly), I did see that I was able to do about 300 questions in two hours, so, I knew that I would not be there past the mandatory break time in two or three hours.
Make charts of difficult concepts with highligters so that they can sort of flash before you in memory if you get a question in that area. Good luck to you!

Any charts to share or other helpful hints to study for NCLEX?

Matilda50 · Nov 20, 2007

hi all, i am a new graduate nurse preparing for the nclex exam and would appreciate any advice or study tips. i was considerering purchasing the kaplan book, although i am not taking the course. any thoughts or any other study guides you would recommend? thank you in advance.

i would check the sticky at top of thread new revised first tip of suzanne's plan. i passed using suzanne plan only. good luck to all and don't give up on god he came through for me as well as he can you. :balloons::monkeydance: