Passed! tips NCLEX-RN

[laughlove]

wellllll I passed!!! (so this is the feeling, huh :) ) (yes, pvt works....even if time runs out on you)

I am a retaker and I believe this helped me pass:

• UNDERSTAND & KNOW those 8 categories NCLEX is testing you. I cant stress this enough. I wished I had done so from the beginning! It's SO important. Its not just core content, its also fundamentals. Read each category, seriously!
  
• Before you test, MAKE SURE YOU KNOW & UNDERSTAND those things mentioned on the 8 categories. (we cant know everything, I know, but it would really help to cover as much as possible).
  
• I found ATI to be so amazing GREAT for fundamentals. Trust me! you'll see what I mean when you get hit with some drag and drop procedure. It really helped me!
  
• Hurst is super AWESOME for core content. NO JOKE! I used it and failed my first time, but its not because HURST wasn't great. It's just my weakness was in a different area. (for those in nursing school still, I'm telling you, you wont go wrong by signing up for their class or online review while still in school. that's how great I think their program/service whatever you want to refer to it as). I highly recommend them for core content, highly.
  
• Kaplan alternative format is the book to HAVE for practice at SATA or HOT SPOT. I got comfortable with SATA after using this book. Read the book from cover to cover. answer all the questions. the book was truly HELPFUL.
  
• I also googled Kaplan strategy/decision tree. I am telling you another awesome sources!!
  
• PDA- yall heard it before and you will hear it from me. MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST have this book. must!
  
• davis question and answer....this is great. What I loved about this is one it comes with CD....after awhile you get tired of looking at all these books lol. I loved how it has the 8 categories you can select from. Also, you can choose what type of questions you would like to be tested on...teaching, assessment, analysis, implementation, etc. I really enjoyed it.
  
• Saunders was good also. I about 80% of the book...yup...a lot.
  
• I believe all of these prepared me for my exam. With strategies I say PDA, Kaplan,....actually all of them lol. I cant pick from all of these. I feel that when a product comes with great rationales, it makes such a HUGE difference. It helps you to start thinking more critically. I will say though, what broke through for me the most is Kaplan's strategy. The Kaplan alternative format book explains how to approach the book. I didn't use any other Kaplan product aside that book, cause its way to pricey for me so having this book really helped a lot.
  

I wish all of you the best and hope the above has been helpful!!

Any questions, leave a comment below.

Lastly, Thank you so very much Allnurses! I've come to this page way before I got into nursing school. AN has been a place to learn, get advice and word of wisdom, to lower anxiety, to read inspiring stories and mostly to be understood and to understand back because no one understands nurses (and all of the soon to be nurses) like another nurse (a soon to be nurses) does!!

:) RN

[johnsover]

Thank you, you are very kind. I think my main thing in the prioritization/delegation/assignment and meds. I'm hoping that the PDA book helps with that, and I'm hoping to get by the meds on a wing and a prayer.

I toyed with the idea of purchasing the Q Bank from Kaplan, but after spending the money on Hurst, the thought of dropping 300$ more is killing me, so I think I'll stick to the materials that I have already.

And of course, like most everyone else preparing for the NCLEX, just hope to keep calm during the test and not go blank.

Many of the students that I graduated with have already passed, so I'm hoping that's a good sign for me.

Thanks again for your insight and study tips. It really does calm the nerves a little bit when others share good experiences and what worked for them.

[th3a]

Thank you, you are very kind. I think my main thing in the prioritization/delegation/assignment and meds. I'm hoping that the PDA book helps with that, and I'm hoping to get by the meds on a wing and a prayer.

I toyed with the idea of purchasing the Q Bank from Kaplan, but after spending the money on Hurst, the thought of dropping 300$ more is killing me, so I think I'll stick to the materials that I have already.

And of course, like most everyone else preparing for the NCLEX, just hope to keep calm during the test and not go blank.

Many of the students that I graduated with have already passed, so I'm hoping that's a good sign for me.

Thanks again for your insight and study tips. It really does calm the nerves a little bit when others share good experiences and what worked for them.

Hi may I ask what materials are you using now? I hope to get an idea :)

[johnsover]

Sure, I took the Hurst live review, I'm using the Prioritization/delegation/assignment book, and I'll be ordering the book that laughlove suggested in the original post, Lippincott's alt format question book.

I'm hoping that'll be enough!

Good luck to you.

[laughlove]

I did not do any med studying, and I honestly don't know how people study for med questions because there are so many to recall.

I had so many med questions I thought for sure I'm doing horrible and the test will shut off any moment know. But it didnt.

what I started doing when I received med questions is looking at the ending of the drug name to help me figure out what it's for (pril, statin, lol, thiazide, etc). Hope that makes sense. And truthfully, if I could go back to study for it I may have studied it in that manner and not by single med itself...again it's too many. Try to categorize it in some way.

For questions that asks for symptoms to watch for- what I did is identify the small things (nausea, some other small thing I don't want to say fever cause in certain cases it can mean danger) and identify the big things....I looked at stuff like nausea as a common side effect for many drugs so I was not worried about. So I look at the big things that can harm the patient or can make conditions worse.

I went in clueless on my pharm cause all I studied ways calculations and a few contraindications. What I mentioned helped me...and also staying calm. I told myself if I'm not calm than my mind isn't thinking correctly so calm down...and I did and I looked at it carefully and took my time...yea you see why I ran out of time right lol :)

[laughlove]

Also, hurst was good about provided med treatment when covering core contents so I be sure to pay attention cause it does help connect the dots at time where your just clueless

[th3a]

Sure, I took the Hurst live review, I'm using the Prioritization/delegation/assignment book, and I'll be ordering the book that laughlove suggested in the original post, Lippincott's alt format question book.

I'm hoping that'll be enough!

Good luck to you.

thank you! goodluck too :)

[th3a]

Also, hurst was good about provided med treatment when covering core contents so I be sure to pay attention cause it does help connect the dots at time where your just clueless

yeah, Ive tried reading the hurst book, it was fun to read and informative with the core contents too :)

[johnsover]

That makes me feel soooo much better about the meds! I was really starting to worry about that because in a lot of the review questions that I have been doing seem to heavily focus on meds, and many of them I've never even heard of. Don't get me wrong, I know the main ones, like you were saying (pril, statin, etc.) but in many of the review Qs, it's been chemo drugs and things like that. So I really started worrying that there would be a bunch on the NCLEX that I'm not familiar with.

Glad to hear that Hurst covered a good bit of that too.

Thanks for being so helpful, I really appreciate it!!!

[laughlove]

It can be different for other students. That just happen to be my experience. Just be as prepared as you can be. :)

[memern14]

Congratulations

[johnsover]

It can be different for other students. That just happen to be my experience. Just be as prepared as you can be. :)

Just wanted to update you, I passed! Thanks for your helpful advice!

[catmom713]

What are the 8 categories? I take mine in a month haven't heard about this. Thanks