*Disclaimer: The reason why I am posting my experience is b/c I know during my last semester of Nursing School I was searching vigorously this whole site for Canadian students/nurses who already wrote the NCLEX as of 01/15 but I couldnt find any, which was a bummer.
So my success story:
To begin with I am now a Canadian licensed RN as of 14/07/15. I graduated with my bachelors in Nursing at a Canadian University ... duh. I finished classes the last week of April and officially graduated in June. I started to study for the NCLEX first week of May. But honestly, i got lazy half way thru and distracted by the amazing weather and friends. So all of May my study sessions were probably 1-2hrs max and it wasnt intense at all. When June hit, i decided it was time to get more serious and I planned a schedule. I started off with my weakest subjects to study and I keep the ones i knew last. The week before my exam, i went beast mode into studying, e.g i studied 8-9hrs straight. The day before my exam, i just reread all the rationals i wrote down, side notes, diets, lab values and every other quirky things I needed to remember. So the big day came, which was July 10th, I booked my exam in the AM so I would be done with it and not have to wait and count every minute till the 2pm slot time. It took me 1h15 to finish 75 questions. I honestly was not expecting to be done at 75, i actually panicked when the screen turned blue and hoped it was a glitch in the system, ahaha! I had majority SATA/Priority/Pt teaching and delegation. No med calc, drag and drop, hot spot or EKG, which i was annoyed bc i studied EKGs like my life dependent on it, haha!
I refused to do the PVT trick bc its a TRICK and not a definite answers and my province/state doesnt participate in quick results, so i patiently waited for my response 4 days later! After passing the exam, i got to keep my nursing job which was contingent to my passing of the NCLEX.
So the material i used was very basic, i had 2 books and 1 online resource! THATS IT! If you have more than that youll end up confusing yourself! I used Mosby comprehensive review for content+questions and Lippincott Q&A Review for questions only! And my AMAZING and BEST ressource IMO was UWorld. It has amazing rationales, the layout is exactly like the NCLEX, the lvl of difficulty is very similar if not harder and I feel like the question style are similar also. I highly recommend to do more practice question than content review also. I think i answered roughly around 5000q in about 2.5 months. I can now say this that my study material was more difficult than the real exam itself.
Final tips: The likelihood of passing the NCLEX is high bc its a entry lvl exam and you spent 4 yrs of your life living and breathing nursing. Also, use positive thinking before and after each study sessions. I always visualized and verbally said: I am a good Nurse. I will pass. I will have RN at the end of my name EVERY TIME i sat down to study!
Good luck! Anyone can PM for more answers or advice :)
2) the exam layout differes for everyone, it all depends on how you answer the questions asked. In my exam i had alot delegation/priority/pt teaching. No peds/maternity/mental health
3) everyone learns differently, what worked for me was 4hrs of actual studying and 2hrs of answering questions or reviewing content i studied the day before
4) i aimed to answer a minimum of 100-200 questions a day. Some days i answered way more and some days i would just do 100.
5) all electrolytes, blood work, chemistry and certain meds with targeted therapeutic lvls
Congrats! I will be writing the CDN Nclex in 2 1/2 weeks!! I am also using uworld & I like it the best out of all my study resources so far! I have a few questions for you!
I am having a hard time finding a canadian lab value sheet and i don't want to study both american and cdn values & get them confused!
1. Would you be able to upload your canadian lab value document if you have one????
2. Also, what areas did you find were most common on the nclex? (im not asking to post questions, just areas I should focus more specifically on).
3. How many hours of good studying do you recommend doing each day & did you take any days off each week?
4. How many questions per day did you do the week before your test & did you increase your hours of studying?
5. What lab values should I focus more on than others?
Thank you & Very happy to hear another CDN passed the Nclex :)!
1) i used an american version of lab values and i had no issue or confusion during the NCLEX. Here's the
2) the exam layout differes for everyone, it all depends on how you answer the questions asked. In my exam i had alot delegation/priority/pt teaching. No peds/maternity/mental health
3) everyone learns differently, what worked for me was 4hrs of actual studying and 2hrs of answering questions or reviewing content i studied the day before
4) i aimed to answer a minimum of 100-200 questions a day. Some days i answered way more and some days i would just do 100.
5) all electrolytes, blood work, chemistry and certain meds with targeted therapeutic lvls
2) the exam layout differes for everyone, it all depends on how you answer the questions asked. In my exam i had alot delegation/priority/pt teaching. No peds/maternity/mental health
3) everyone learns differently, what worked for me was 4hrs of actual studying and 2hrs of answering questions or reviewing content i studied the day before
4) i aimed to answer a minimum of 100-200 questions a day. Some days i answered way more and some days i would just do 100.
5) all electrolytes, blood work, chemistry and certain meds with targeted therapeutic lvls
I'm also a new graduate, licensed RN in the province of Ontario, and I passed NCLEX with 75 qs.
I used a different tactic and didn't strive to answer too many questions per day, maybe only 30-40 qs per day on average. I focused my time instead on understanding the rationales and studying them. For those still waiting to test, my biggest suggestion is know your core content very well. If you're trying to do hundreds of questions a day and not comprehending the content too well, what's the point right?
I used UWorld and Hurst Reviews, I feel they prepared me very well.
Another suggestion I have is that if you feel like you are not ready, listen to your intuition, and delay the exam if you can. I know friends who failed NCLEX because they just weren't fully prepared and felt it too, but took the test anyway. You should feel more and more confident as test day approaches, of course you will nervous as well, that's normal, but you should feel confident in knowledge of core content -- this is me speaking from personal experience.
MMOHRN
7 Posts
1) i used an american version of lab values and i had no issue or confusion during the NCLEX. Here's the
pdf link http://www.learningshark.com/Nursing/Nursing%20Homepage/NCLEX-RN_Cramsheet.pdf
2) the exam layout differes for everyone, it all depends on how you answer the questions asked. In my exam i had alot delegation/priority/pt teaching. No peds/maternity/mental health
3) everyone learns differently, what worked for me was 4hrs of actual studying and 2hrs of answering questions or reviewing content i studied the day before
4) i aimed to answer a minimum of 100-200 questions a day. Some days i answered way more and some days i would just do 100.
5) all electrolytes, blood work, chemistry and certain meds with targeted therapeutic lvls