One year ago.. I was in your shoes!

pugsweluv · Jun 2, 2005

HVe you read my posts? I really feeled I failed . I took mine on the 31st and it just has sucked the life out of me. Made me feel stupid and incompetent! I missed the last question at 125 and I think this is a sure sign of failure. If you could just post what you did between the 1st and 2nd time that would be helpful. I need some confidence and assurance right now. Thanks, Pugs

nursecheryl81 · Jun 2, 2005

HVe you read my posts? I really feeled I failed . I took mine on the 31st and it just has sucked the life out of me. Made me feel stupid and incompetent! I missed the last question at 125 and I think this is a sure sign of failure. If you could just post what you did between the 1st and 2nd time that would be helpful. I need some confidence and assurance right now. Thanks, Pugs

Hi Pugs, First of all let me say that everyone feels like they failed the NCLEX when they leave! So dont give up all hope yet!! The test is made to make you feel like you are really not sure how you did! To answer your questions, What i did was enrolled in the Kaplan review course.... and I also purchased the Kaplan Qbank. The Kaplan Qbank is an online study center.. You get it at a discount if you purchase the review course! I found the Qbank a wonderful resource of questions.. You were able to tell the computer what kind of questions you wanted to practice .. It gave you a score and broke the score down to categories you need to focus on! I did all those questions over and over!! I feel like that made all the difference! You just need to focus on doing questions on the computer because thats what the real test is!!

Let me know if I can do anything else!

Cheryl, RN

grinnurse, RN · Jun 3, 2005

Thanks for offering to help those of us that are in the "freak out" mode.

I have a friend that just failed her test with 265 questions (found out yesterday). I could never get her to use the study questions out of the NCLEX book for our NS tests and I really think that hurt her. I started using that book as soon as the questions were applicable to the subjects we were studying. I have completed close to 2500 questions so far (deadline drawing near) and should have the 3000 questions covered. I offered in the past and again yesterday to go over questions with her to try to figure out how she was "viewing" the questions vs how I was seeing them. I am hoping that she will take me up on it, especially before she takes it again in July. She wants to know "why" an answer is more correct than the other 3 and I don't know if I can explain all that to her. I am going to recommend the books that you suggested to her. I know she is competent and will make a great nurse. She just has to figure out how to get through the CATs.

Thanks again for offering your help.

nursecheryl81 · Jun 3, 2005

I just wanted to clarify that the Kaplan QBank I was reffering to is not a book.. Its an online membership on the Kaplan website.. Its all done on the internet on the kaplan webpage.. I highly recommend it! Its worth the money!

ManyRN2B · Jun 4, 2005

I just wanted to clarify that the Kaplan QBank I was reffering to is not a book.. Its an online membership on the Kaplan website.. Its all done on the internet on the kaplan webpage.. I highly recommend it! Its worth the money!

I just want to say that from my experience with review courses, Kaplan is mostly for those that already have a good solid content base. Kaplan is there to take you to the next step higher. Becareful because if you don't have a good content base, Kaplan may not help you. It took me a while to figure that out.

JMHO

Tiffany New Nurse Grad!

nursing 101 · Jun 7, 2005

I just want to say that from my experience with review courses, Kaplan is mostly for those that already have a good solid content base. Kaplan is there to take you to the next step higher. Becareful because if you don't have a good content base, Kaplan may not help you. It took me a while to figure that out.
JMHO
Tiffany New Nurse Grad!

So what would you do? I am taking the Kaplan at this momebt and I really think that I am missing alot of the questions because of content. I did however discover that the have a review content online and it has been helpful I just can't tell if it enough for the Nclex. I do also have the Saunders book but I'm afraid to pick it up. It has 75 chapters.

I think I'm about to have a nervous break down. I'm going to take the readiness test for Kaplan today and it's racking my nerves!

rach_nc_03 · Jun 8, 2005

So what would you do? I am taking the Kaplan at this momebt and I really think that I am missing alot of the questions because of content. I did however discover that the have a review content online and it has been helpful I just can't tell if it enough for the Nclex. I do also have the Saunders book but I'm afraid to pick it up. It has 75 chapters.
I think I'm about to have a nervous break down. I'm going to take the readiness test for Kaplan today and it's racking my nerves!

I took the NCLEX 6/6 (still no results yet) and the computer cut off at 75. My friend and I studied together and both finished in 75, we both had a tremendous number of alternative format questions (check all that apply, fill in the blank, etc.). We had very good grades in school, and we both took kaplan, even though we felt going into it that it wouldn't teach us that much. We were wrong- Kaplan really teaches you how to *think* through those questions. Personally, I think using those strategies taught in the Kaplan course is helpful on those questions where you see four answers that seem good, or you're being asked about some disease you really don't remember.

as far as content goes, I found a really helpful strategy was to use the book kaplan gives you, but review it *after* you take the classroom section. the questions in the classes and the 2 administered tests help you know where your content knowledge is weak. for instance, we forgot a lot from OB, and our tests during school focused very little on diagnostic testing (which is a big focus in the kaplan class). so my friend and i went through the book together- the most helpful method was having one person read the first blurb about a certain condition, then the other person would talk about what they remembered about that condition, what tests you'd expect, nursing interventions, meds, etc. then one of us would read the rest of the section out loud. we also both watched some (but not all) of the online content reviews- I found that they moved *really* slowly, and I just couldn't keep myself in front of the computer for so long.

one thing i really found useful was the online version of the question trainer tests and rationales- they were in pdf format. sometimes i couldn't sit through an entire test (those suckers got LONG), so I'd open the pdf file and go through each question, pick an answer and think about the rationale, then scroll down to see if I was right. for me, things 'stuck' more doing it this way.

hoping to hear in the next day or so if we passed...I'll let you guys know, then you'll be able to decide if our study strategy was worth a crap!