NCLEX Study Tips and NCSBN NCLEX Review

[randolfscott]

Hello folks. I was one of the unfortunate ones in June, 2017 who took 265 questions my first time at the NCLEX and was unsuccessful in passing. I had used only Kaplan with a focus on completing the entirety of the q-bank along with all the question trainers, readiness tests, and reading through the rationals rather than a focus on content review. I was so close to passing that I didn't know what to do or where to start after that first attempt.

I contemplated taking the Kaplan 4-day class again and signed up for 'Brilliant-RN' which turned out to be more scammy than getting you ready for the NCLEX.

I realized at some point I needed more content review to know more things and while searching I came across the NCSBN NCLEX review. I purchased the $70 - 5 week course which was scheduled out to studying 4 hours a day 5 days a week. The content review was okay, a lot of reading. I skimmed through the stuff I knew and was done with the review in like 2 1/2 weeks. I started in on the questions and I thought they seemed more similar to the NCLEX ones. I did the whole 1300 question bank and supplemented like 50-75 Kaplan questions a day.

It took the whole 265 questions again but I managed to pass in August 2017. While taking the test I did notice that there were many more similarities to the questions from the NCSBN questions than from Kaplan's.

I know the stress from having an unsuccessful attempt at the NCLEX thus I wanted to share with folks that the NCSBN's NCLEX review was pretty legit in getting me over the hump to pass.

I have no experience with like Hurst or ATI or other NCLEX reviews that I heard are good so I don't really know the validity of them. I also read that they could be pricey? Either way, the NCSBN review was worth the $70 to me.

[Knights1287]

I also took nclex first time and got 265 questions and did not pass. I then also signed up for ncbsn 5 week course and did prob 80% of it. It is so much reading and I found myself mind wandering. I did prob 400 of he practice questions at the end. I also bought the nclex mastery app for $40 on my phone and did 25 questions a day on that. Took nclex again and passed in 120 questions. I wasn't a big fan of ncbsn

[hopetopassnclex]

Congrats dear, did you mean that the NCSBN questions are similar to the nclex rn questions you saw in the exam.

[Knights1287]

I dunno, there was just something about that NCBSN review course that I didn't find to be the most helpful. Its too much reading if you ask me. Lot of bullet points about stuff and whatnot. I went through the majority of it and did prob 20-25 prac questions each day. I did pass the second time I took it, but I dunno if I attribute it to the NCBSN course. I attribute my first fail to major test anxiety lol. Although, I still walked out of the second attempt at 120 questions and thought I failed again. I guess feeling like you failed is a good thing because it means that you got to the hard questions.

NCLEX is all about getting to the questions that NOBODY knows.