NCLEX Question Style (Saunders vs. Kaplan)

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Hello All,

I am currently preparing for the NCLEX. I honestly don't feel that I will be fully confident, but I plan to schedule testing for August. I took the Kaplan course, I really don't like the book. What I plan to do is study the Saunders chapters and questions, La Charity questions and the Kaplan q trainer & bank questions. The Kaplan questions are very complex and I am currently scoring below the 65%, but Saunders appears much more realistic for what I've been tested on throughout nursing school. For those of you that took the NCLEX (in your opinion) which question style would be the closest to the NCLEX questions, Saunders/ Kaplan. & if anyone would like to share any strategies they used to study that aided in their success in conquering the test, feel free to share.

Thanks in Advance.

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The material you find in study resources should be looked at in terms of learning the concepts, not the wording of the questions. If you learn the concepts well enough you should be able to answer questions correctly no matter how they are worded.

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I think that is key. Know the processes, and be able to look deep into them. The answer that you "know" will most likely not be a choice, you will have to go through the whole process to choose the right one.

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I'm also prepping, from what friends have told me (who passed before the lastest standard change), Saunders is better of the two. However, another friend who just passed the exam said she used Kaplan. Also the NSNA has a new one and they're pretty good. At the moment I'm using Pearsons Exam Cram, it has a usefull cram sheet and a cd with CAD testing on it. I recommend choosing the one that has a format you can read/ learn easily and has good rationales that teach you more than just the answer, like why the other options are wrong. The books that say "B is correct because_________, therefore the other answers are wrong" for just about every rationale, may not teach you as much. Good luck!

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I've heard just the opposite from some of you; that Saunders is far easier than the NCLEX, and that Kaplan will help you more... btw, you should not expect to get 100% on Kaplan, I think 60-70 is considered good enough to test (check on this forum, though, the specifics are here somewhere).

I was doing Saunders, but gave it up for Kaplan. I KNOW content, but if I don't think the way the writers were thinking, I keep answering the wrong questions. Yes, I can get it down to two correct answers, but in the end, there is still only ONE correct answer.

Good luck with whichever you choose!

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Im taking kaplan right now, and if you score 65% or higher, then you should be ready to take the nclex. From what I have been told, the questions that kaplan gives is way harder than the questions on the actual nclex exam. So i guess its better to train with hard questions rather than easy ones, so once you take the actual exam, the questions will seem easy to you. As far as reviewing goes, i also dont like the books provided by kaplan (i do like their strategies though), the book i would recommend is the Saunders 4th edition nclex book..I have many friends that took the nclex and passed, stating that the saunders book was the most HELPFUL and straightforward. Good luck!

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Ok so I already posted earlier, but I thought I'd give an update. I passed the NCLEX-RN on the 15th, I only used Exam Cram but I do not recommend following my route. It was a great overall review and I liked the pharm, but it was not as useful as I would have hoped. I think Lippincott's CD from the 9th edition book relates better than the Saunders 4th ed and Exam Force CDs. The most important thing is like some have said, to have the NCLEX way of thinking down. Also some have advised to really study prioritization and infection control, I agree. Good Luck!

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I felt Kaplan was much closer in question style than Saunders. Some feel Kaplan is harder than the actual NCLEX and I think that's likely because Kaplan focuses primarily on upper level questions while the NCLEX is going to ask a mix of question levels based on a right or wrong response.

Everyone scores about 50% on the NCLEX regardless of how many questions they answer or if they pass or fail. This is where understanding the passing standard comes in. I won't go into how they come up with it (you can read about it on the website if you care that much) but basically they establish a line at the level of minimum competency, this is the passing standard. When you get your very first question, it's going to fall right around this line and if you are right you'll get something more difficult (above the line) and if you are wrong, you'll get something easier (below the line). The computer is looking for the point where 95% of the time if they ask you a more difficult question you will get it wrong and if they ask you something any easier you will get it right. Once that point is established, the computer looks to see where that point falls in relation to the passing standard, if it is above then you pass and if it is below you fail. This is why you can fail or pass regardless of how many questions you answer. There are special considerations if you run out of time or the computer isn't 95% certain you are above the passing standard after answering the maximum number of questions but for the majority of test takers those situations don't apply.

Above that line (the passing standard) are questions that focus on application and analysis while below that line are questions that focus on comprehension and recall/recognition. When people talk about the NCLEX testing you on your ability to think rather than your knowledge, this is what they are talking about! It's not enough to know the content, you have to be able to put it together and answer those upper level questions to pass.

Most of the questions you get in school are lower level (content based) questions. This is why practicing NCLEX style questions is so important, they are often unlike the questions you are used to seeing on exams. This is also why it's important to choose your study questions carefully! It doesn't do you any good to study questions that are lower level unless you are just looking for content review, you need to be practicing thinking through questions at the application and analysis level. In my experience, this is where Kaplan has the edge because they focus on these style questions so you get lots and lots of practice with them. This is also why a 60 or 65% on Kaplan is considered a good score when it's generally considered failing by other standards.

Apologies for the length of my reply but I hope it helps!

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I've heard just the opposite from some of you; that Saunders is far easier than the NCLEX, and that Kaplan will help you more... btw, you should not expect to get 100% on Kaplan, I think 60-70 is considered good enough to test (check on this forum, though, the specifics are here somewhere).

I was doing Saunders, but gave it up for Kaplan. I KNOW content, but if I don't think the way the writers were thinking, I keep answering the wrong questions. Yes, I can get it down to two correct answers, but in the end, there is still only ONE correct answer.

Good luck with whichever you choose!

hmmm for Question Trainer 4 , 5 , 6 & 7 you'll need to get 60-65%

if you get 65% on the Readiness test i think that's like 95% passing rate on the exam

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