NCLEX Readiness?!?!? Please help!

hopeless romantic · Jul 4, 2015

Only YOU can tell if your ready. Do you feel like your ready? When I took mine I felt good about it and I felt prepared.

Tumbler · Jul 4, 2015

Some of us will never "feel" ready/confident. In that case, you set your test date for when your study goals should be complete (I will have done this many questions, taken this many preditor tests, etc.). Do you feel ready? Go. Have you met (or plan to have met) your prep goals by that time? Go.

WVVA_OR · Jul 4, 2015

Keep this statistic in the back of your mind, 90% of 1st time testers from a US School pass on the 1st attempt.

I test on 7/15 as well for the 1st time. My program (ADN) shoved Kaplan down our throats. We have used Kaplan for 2 years straight. We would take a 30 Q Focused Review Kaplan before most unit tests, and have to remediate each question for a minute and reattempt until 100% was made.

Then our final semester, we had a Kaplan Synthesis class for 2 hours on Wednesday, in which we did Question Trainers 1-3, Diagnostic 2, and Assessment; plus about 500 QBank questions on our own. We also had to remediate and cite any wrong QBank question and submit them to our instructor.

Finally, the week after graduation, we had to sit for a 4-day mandatory Kaplan review, which we then took the RN Readiness 2 at the end of the week. Our program made us pass either one of the Diagnostics or the RN Readiness with a 60% to have our transcripts released to the Board of Nursing.

Our Kaplan rep. told us that the 60% they strive for is just a peg for a 95% prediction you will pass NCLEX. She said there really is no one way to study for the NCLEX, it's the luck of the draw whatever test bank your questions are pulled from. Just to study each area of the test plan to be comfortable. She said if you're obviously weak in a content area, such as what insulin peaks at what time, or which disease process goes with what precaution; to study that hard to retain it. But other than that, the key is to practice, practice, practice with QBank questions, NCLEX RN Mastery, LaCharity PDA, or Saunder's. (Yes, our Kaplan rep actually encouraged other materials.)

Out of my class of 27, 17 have tested so far. 14 have shut off at 75, 2 have went to 265, and one went to 100. In fact, most that have passed were only in the 50%'s on Question Trainers.

Everyone has said the same thing in conversation, nothing can really prepare you 100% for the NCLEX. There will be medications, disease processes, words, etc that you've never heard of. You just have to take care of an actual problem compared to a potential problem, assess before implement (unless you have a full assessment), RN cannot administer any medication/antidote without an order, and NEVER ask Why?. The # of SATA also have no bearing on your performance. There are lower and higher level SATA, but the general consensus from my classmates have been the NCLEX SATA are on a lower difficulty than Kaplan.

Take a deep breath, do not overload yourself, we still have 11 days. We will pass this. Finish out the Question Trainers and take Sample Test 4! The most important thing is to go back to look at the rationales for EVERY question.

ChutneyFries, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2015

WVVA thanks for your words of wisdom! You sound ready to me! Wow!!! My ADN program didn't prepare us like your school did! Im actually jealous! That prep sounds intense but it sounds like you are more than ready to do this!!! Good luck!!!! Keep me posted on your test experience!

WVVA_OR · Jul 5, 2015

It was terrible lol. But looking back on it now, it was a lot of preparation. I sure hope so, my scores tend to fluctuate and that scares me.

Personally, I've heard the NCLEX RN Mastery app is the best, because it's so hard and over prepares you, making the NCLEX not seem as bad.

Best of luck!