NCLEX-RN is not as bad as I thought

tarotale · Jun 18, 2013

I agree. It wasn't that bad, but still, it was definitely not easy. Level of questions were quite challenging, but really, not THAT bad as people say; still again, quite challenging. I also agree with what you say about school. Good school means higher chances of success b/c those schools give tougher tests relatively; mine was #4 in the state, all those "non-sense" questions during school payed off. Congrats buddy

sojjourn · Nov 3, 2013

I didn't want to sound like a jerk to those who took the exam and failed or to those who really found the exam to be difficult. But to me it was amateur night. I was freaking out for 3 weeks and I did ATI, feuer, and Kaplan. First off, Kaplan questions are like 20 times harder than the actual NCLEX exam which I don't know if that help me or not. The exam itself looked exactly like Kaplan( colors and set-up) but the questions were more like ATI. My computer cut off at 76 and I knew that I passed when i was finished. I had 10 SATA and 4 drag and drop. At first I was getting scared because the questions was so easy, I thought that I was getting the bad questions that was not passing level the only reason why I knew that I wasn't was because when I was uncertain about the type of question that it was (lower level, higher level) I would always get a priority or sata or drag and drop right after. I am upset how Kaplan made this exam out to be soooo difficult. (just to get your money) and there most talk about prize possession the "DECISION TREE" did not help me one iota. Just use good old fashioned elimination. At the end of the day, what I felt helped me the most was having a strong base of knowledge from my readings of textbooks in my nursing classes. You can learn any "tricks" you want about how to break down a question and every shortcut known to the nclex world BUT if you don't know your core-content and know how to critically think, your in trouble. I recommend sticking to ONE review if you can afford it. If you are strong on your core content then use Kaplan to learn how to break down questions. If you are weak on your core content then go for a review like ATI that takes baby steps to learn core content. Other than the reviews, the books that I was most happiest that I bought would be lippincotts alternate style questions. Its not a big book but it has SATA, drag and drop, etc, etc. Before taking the test, the questions seemed to simple but believe me they are the same level as NCLEX. No one is telling you that you don't need to study hard and nclex is a piece of cake but I am telling you if you know your core content well and learn prioritization, delegation then I guarantee you will pass. Oh yea and know those labs too, can't tell you how many easy questions I got right just by knowing the right lab value.