Preparing for the NCLEX-RN

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Hi guys. I have been preparing for the NCLEX-Rn exam. I went through Saunders and read about 600 pages and also "Comprehensive Review for NCLEX-rn" by Mary Ann Hogan and read 650 pages. I also started to practice Saunder's Content area questions (about 600 questions) but they seem very easy and the problem is that I memorized them and I know the answers automatically and I am not sure that will be helpful taking the NCLEX because from what I read it does take some sort of logic to be able to pass the NCLEX just memorizing stuff won't cut it.

I feel a little bit overwhelmed and not sure if I can finish the whole thing in two months when I plan to take the test.

Saunder's it's so detailed that, as hard as I tried to memorize content there is no way I could know all.

The Mary Ann book is a little more settled down and less detailed but still I cannot memorize all in it either.

Can you guys suggest a good way to manage my studies? I feel like it will take me forever to finish studying for this test.

For example:

  • A good source for question bank that I can just stick to it or Saunder's is fine?
  • A good source for content or Saunder's and the Mary Ann Hogan book is fine?

Am I studying too many materials and I should just stick to one? Which one do you think is most appropriate?

I also heard from some nurse that he used Kaplan, what are your thoughts on that?

Sorry if I am another that asks the same questions as most people who post here but just thought some advice could help me lots.

Thank you.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

My suggestion is you should know your stuff so concentrate on answering questions and reading the rationales even if you got them right. Rationales will help you understand what key words to look for

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Ok that sounds good

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I am studying the content area for now. I am up to 900 question and about 3500 more to go. Then the other areas have about 3500 questions also. I guess in about a month and a half I should finish. I have been taking the quiz every area I practiced questions on and got 90% or better.

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UPDATE

So I am at about 1500 questions on the Content Area of the Saunder's CD. Content area questions are about 4400. After I am done with those I will read the Prioritization and delegation book and then I will do the Kaplan question bank or vice versa. I think that should be enough for the test. Things are getting very clear as I go through and questions are very easy but to memorize the rationale is a very tough thing to do. Most of the time I feel overwhelmed but o well I'll keep on pluging away. I really don't want to fail it the first time.

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I am assuming another 3 months or so of study.

If anyone has any advice please give. :)

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Wow I haven't been here for a while.

Since may of last I quit studying for the NCLEX and waited for my paperwork to get done.

Being a foreign RN took a while to get approved to take the NCLEX RN.

Finally my paperwork went through and I was allowed to test in April of this year.

So I have two more weeks besides this one and will be taking the NCLEX RN which is about 10 days to study because of my full time job.

For the past month or so I have been studying Hurst and Kaplan both.

Hurst I have been only listening to the Med Surge lectures on my days off for about a month or so.

Two weeks ago I started going through Kaplan's QTrainers and whoa bad scores indeed.

I am getting between 39%-50% with Qtrainer 7 at 39% which I just finished on last Saturday and reviewed it on last Sunday.

Upon my review I saw a lot of questions wrong after 80 or so that I could've done right so my attention span lowers after two hours or so. I stayed there for about 5 hours and finished 265 question straight. Never again.

Today I am having a bit of a headache so I didn't practice any questions or reviewed anything but read that 35 pages study guide that was on here which I think is great. I finished memorizing most of lab values of that that was on that sheet of paper.

I don't have much longer until my test (10 day of studying due to a full time job). When I am home I dedicate the whole day to studying questions.

Much content I don't have time to study any more. I will focus on questions and rationales.

My conclusion so far is that I may not pass the first time. I feel that I still need to practice questions and knowing what they are asking. I don't feel content is a major problem but the questions themselves that can be tricky to me. I've been out of school for a while so that may be a problem into passing this test also.

I work in a hospital already (not as an RN) and some of my coworkers that were nurses apprentices and Cnas passed the NCLEX first time and some didn't this year. One of them did over 5500 questions on a six week span from Saunders and passed with 75 questions, one girl did Hurst review and studied only the Med Surge section and passed with 75, she said her friends watched the Hurst videos and passed with 75 questions also. One guy did NCSBN review and passed with 160 questions and said that one of the questions on the test was pretty much like the ones he reviewed. All these people were very stressed out taking this test and some girls cried afterwords thinking they did not pass. That's how much stress this test can be on people.

As far as I am concerned I am doing my best with the time I got right now. I will keep this thread updated until I pass the Nclex Rn first or second time or idk. :)

If you guys have any questions about the review materials please do ask.

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Thank you for sharing with us. How did you manage to read Saunders?

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I hated it. Kind of forced myself too. It was the only review book I had at the time. Didn't get much out of it but got used to certain terms. It was too much info.

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Thanks a lot and good luck to you

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you welcome

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i just took the nclex and the test shut off at 75 questions. according to PVT i passed.

i did all the kaplan qbank questions and question trainers and also took the hurst online review about 6 days before i took the nclex. the hurst online review was pretty much the only content review i did and it helped clarify some of the content i was having trouble with but definitely doesn't cover enough in my opinion if you're weak on content. the reason i didn't do much content review was that i graduated in january and felt that most of the info was still somewhat fresh in my mind. i used the saunder's book for reference when i wasn't sure about something. i also did some questions (about 6 chapters) from lacharity's prioritization, delegation and assignment book after i finished hurst review, which i thought was helpful but definitely nowhere near the level of difficulty of the nclex. in the end, i didn't have enough time to answer more questions from lacharity which is why i only managed to get through only 6 chapters.

from what i've heard, kaplan's questions are on par with the questions on the nclex. but after taking the nclex, i found the nclex questions to be much harder than the kaplan questions. if i were you, i would try to answer as many questions as possible, especially "application" and "analysis" questions.

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