SunshineBSN

My score varied, and then someone told me not to score it and just concentrate on understanding why the answer is correct bc the rationales are what help you to critically think like the NCLEX. It is not formatted quite like the NCLEX but if you can understand why its right, it should help you on the exam. I hope that helps

what do you mean? that they wont hire someone into the ICU because they are thinking about grad school? or that its simply too hard to get into? Even though I still dont get into grad school or thinking about it. I still want to be in that unit.

I graduated a year ago and I'm trying to find a job. I just recently passed the NCLEX-RN. I suppose its the off season now because people arent hiring new grads OR economic depression. I have not had any work experience for a year now, and i know that counts against me. I don't what I should do. Please help!!! Do you think its still possible for me to get a job in the Critical Care Unit, or I need some kind of new grad training or I may have to start on a different unit? I'm lost. Any suggestions will help. Thanks!!!

Congrats. Now we have to try and find a job in this economic depression. oh joy. :) hardest part is over though!

For SATA, I would just look at what the question is really asking you and look at each answer to see if its True or fits that statement. Dont beat yourself up if you get it wrong. Just read rationales. Its hard, and alot of ppl get it wrong. I used a book that was just alternate format quesitons and it really helped even though they were harder than the exam.

I personally like Saunders better bc they break down not only the rationale but the test takng strategy and alot of ppl have been successful on Saudners. If you want, you should look up reviews on what other ppl have said after taking the NCLEX on Amazon.com. GOOD LUCK.

I think you can do well with the resources you have alone. THere are other ways to pass than taking review courses. I know I spent a butt load of money and it didnt help. Saunders is the way to go. And I highly recommend LaCharity!!!

DONT GIVE UP. People wait years and years to figure out what they want to do, and get degrees there not satisfied with, but you know where your passion lies and thats a big step. First I would call your boards to see whether you are eligible to take the NCLEX again. Some make you take more classes since its been so long but I know some states, like Texas, allows up to 4 years to take it. I know its hard when you havent looked at the material again but the best way is to work step by step and learn everything over. I recommend Saunders Comprehensive book 4 th ed. It is a big book that covers everything you need to review for the NCLEX. That will jog your memory about what you need to know. Hope that helps and good luck. Your one step away!! Don't give up. I took it 4 times.

Buy the Saunders Comprehensive book, and follow Suzanne's Plan. Its free. Look at the stickie notes on the home page.

it's been a year now since i've graduated, and it has been a long painful journey. i graduated in may 2008. it is now june 2009 and after the 4th time testing, i have finally passed!!!! before i graduated, and started studying for the nclex-rn, i felt this impending feeling, that i was going to fail. i always remembered how it felt when someone told me that maybe this wasn't for me and maybe i should drop out. (coming from the mouth of an instructor). my nursing experience was tough, and i had a setback for mistakes i didn't make. i didn't even want to apply for jobs until i absolutely knew that i had my license. but all of my classmates were talking about interviews and instructors were asking each classmate and which unit they're working in. so i decided to apply too, and got a job at m.d. anderson leukemia unit, the widely known national hospital for cancer. the first two times i took the exam, i used hurst. i felt that it helped me to critically think, but i never felt that i could just look through that book and think that it was enough for me to get through this. every single day, i had panic attacks, and performance anxiety. i studied every single day for at least 9-12 hours, and did not really eat well, or work out. in june 2008, and again in august 2008, i paid for quick results and saw that big fat word failed!!!! i remember getting the white envelope in the mail, and reading "near passing" on all the categories of client need, and didn't know how to improve on that. i mean, what the heck does that mean anyways???? i didn't know what i was doing wrong. the second time i used hurst, i had an advisor and she wasn't very helpful, because she told me not to look at any test questions until i've mastered the content. i didn't find that entirely true, bc hurst does not use practice tests except the ones in class. my family wasn't very supportive. i come from a family of high expectations. my sister graduated the same time as me and passed her naplex (boards for pharmacist), and my parents wondered why my sister can pass the naplex, and why i can't pass the nclex-rn. i seriously wanted to shoot myself. i was alone, and no one understood what i was going through, and how hard i was pushing myself. i lost my job at m.d anderson, after they extended my offer twice, i was in financial debt, and i had no one to listen to me. in october 2008, after i took a vacation. i tried to clean myself up. i took kaplan for my third time. i started to eat right, did yoga, went to church and got a job at a sushi restaurant cause i felt that no one would ever find me if i worked at a restaurant and not working in a hospital setting. i felt that now i used a content review, i should focus on test taking strategies. i scored 48% on the diagnostic test and readiness test. my qbanks averaged around 58%. i was frustrated because i never got above 60% and i was always guessing between two answers. i still felt that something was missing after i took hurst, a content review, and kaplan, a test strategy review, but i took the exam anyways. i continued to have panic attacks so i decided to see my physician and she prescribed me a low dose inderol, and i had a psychiatrist i went to every week. my study plan for time 4. after spending tons of money on reviews and paying pearsonvue to retake this exam, i finally decided that i should study the best way i felt that i should study. i started googleing and found this website: all nurses. after reading other peoples experiences, i realized that i wasn't the only one. all i saw were all of my classmates changing their statuses to rn, bsn, and i wished that one day i could do that too. i started off using suzanne's plan by completing her first tip, until she discontinued her program. it took me 6 weeks. (for those who don't know her first tip, i basically divided my saunders comprehensive book, and looked at three sections each day for a max of 3 hours, took a break and reviewed those same sections that day). after i completed that, i bought the saunders q&a book and just did a bunch of questions. i read alot about the strategies and rationales they used to approach the questions bc it helped me to get answers correct even though i didn't know the question. it was highly recommended on amazon.com. during the final stretch, i started using the cd and took 100 question exams. i would look at my score to see if i passed all the categories of client needs, and see if there was a trend on particular topics i felt that i was weak in, and focus on that section for the day. i would study that section in the saunders book and take an exam just on that topic, until i was within a desired scored. i took exams after exams until i started to reach an average of 75-80% on them. pharmacology i know alot of you are concerned about pharmacology. saunders is the best way to go. the cd has a section just on pharmacology and it arrows down the side effects of each drug. i first started off my looking through the end of the kaplan book that was provided by the class because it has tables of the most common drugs that would be seen on nclex. i rewrote them by class of drugs, action and side effects. i still felt like i was memorizing when i was studying, but it was beneficial bc it helped me remember the class of drug and with saunders it helped me to prioritize the side effects i should look for. i did not look through the med sections in the saunders book bc it was too overwhelming, and the chances of getting those drugs were minimal, and after all were not studying to be pharmacists! prioritization, delegation and managment lastly, i bought the lacharity book to improve my prioritizing, and a alternative format book for those sata and drag n drop questions. i was definitely frustrated with these book bc it was very hard, but it did help me to critically think. (keep in mind that these book were harder than the actual test.) saunders is good at prioritizing and delegating as well. there is a section in the cd that is dedicated to this. the lacharity book helped me because i can look at a scenario and pick out what assessments were important. for ex: even though it is a problem for chemo patients to have increase wbc and at risk for infection, it is normal for that patient bc of chemotherapy, its not a complication or an emergency related situation. in other words, it may be abnormal but normal for that patient. the test!!! after 3.5 months of slaving myself, and waiting for my att. i finally schedule to take the exam on may 28, 2009 at 12:15. i remembered driving to the testing center and packing all the food in a bag. the first three times, i drank coffee and energy drinks bc it was at 8am, but now i realized that my nerves alone would keep me awake, and it would probably worsen my panic attacks. i brought a lot of sweets instead to keep my sugar up and a sandwich for brain food. the day before i did not study i just went out and shopped, walked around to tire myself out so i could get a good night sleep. when i arrived at the testing center i sat outside and listened to soothing music on my ipod to decrease my anxiety, and i told myself i can do this!!! i walked in and i began the test, and remembering to treat every test question equally. i used to question whether i was in the high level or low leveled questions but then i decided that it would worsen my anxiety, and took my time. i still felt like some of them were easy, but perhaps it was because i studied so hard. i took my break at 1 hour and i ate something. i was at question 30. i felt that i was getting into the high leveled questions because i got a lot of prioritization question and every once in a while i would get a sata. i treated it as if i didn't know it, and i would try to work it out step by step and not get myself down if i didn't get it right cuz i would work harder on the other questions. when i hit question 72, i started to panic a little and i literally spend like 15 minutes on the last three questions, but after i hit 75, the last question was a sata and i knew thereafter, i passed bc it was a high leveled questions and sure enough the computer cuts off on me followed by the survey. i've never had the computer cut off on me ever. the last three times, i either went all the way or i ran out of time. it took me 2.5 hours. i got 7 satas, 0 ob, 1-2 peds, 1-2 psych, and the rest were med-surg, med-surg, med-surg. 0 drag n drops, 0 dosage calculations. 4 pharmacology questions and i remembered that a couple of them were from the saunders cd and i automatically knew what side effect it was looking for. on may 30, 2009 at 11:30 pm, i had all my friends in town and i had them check it for me, cuz i could not look at the screen and see that big fat word fail again. five seconds later, i heard loud screaming. i opened my eyes see them mouth the two words i've been waiting to here: you passed!!!!!!!!!!!!! :yeah::yeah: i want to thank god bc i would not have had the strength, courage, or hope if it wasn't for him. secondly i want to thank all nurses for supporting me, hearing me complain, and keeping me going. thank you all nurses!!!!! annie rn, bsn

i felt fatigued when i tried to remember all the meds that the saunders book was asking me. it may be a waste of time to remember all the drugs, after all we arent studying to be a pharmacist. instead of looking through each section, i would categorize them, learn them in groups. over time, the drugs will be familiar. i would do alot of quizzes in the saunders cd because it narrows down the type of side effects you should be looking for in these medications so when an nclex question pops up, you will have a side effect in mind. with the cd, sometimes it repeats the drug question in a different way, that way you are familiar with the drug and it motivates you to remember it. there are a list of commonly test drugs on the nclex, and i highly guarantee it. i cant find the link, but here it is below: (btw, most of these drugs are tested on the saunders cd as well. commonly tested meds on the nclex-rn: med-surg: adrenaline(epinephrine), adriamycin (doxyrubicin), alupent, aminophylline, amoxil, amphogel, apresoline (hydralazine), artane, aspirin, atrophine, azt, bactrim, benadryl, bentyl, calan(calcium channel blocker), carafate, cardizem (calcium channel blocker), ceclor, chronulac, codeine, cogentin, compazine(antiemetic) se blurred vision, coumadin, cytoxin, decadron, demerol, diamox, dilantin, diuril, dramamine, ducolax, dyazide, elavil (tca), flagyl, garamycin(abx), heparin, inderal (bb), indocin(nsaid), inh, insulin (all types), intropin, isuprel, kcl, keflex, lanoxin, lasix, librium, lomotil, lopressor, maalox (antacid), mannitol, mefoxin, metamucil, micronase, morphine, motrin, mucomyst, mycostatin (statin - lower cholesterols - checks liver fx) , mysoline (anticonvulsant), nitroglycerin, protamine sulfate, prozac, prevacid, reglan, restoril, robitussin(expectorant med), silvadine, sinemet, solu-medrol, streptomycin, synthroid, tagamet, tegretol, tigan (antiemetic), timoptic, tylenol, valium, velosef, vibramycin, vistaril (hydroxyzine), xanaxs (antianxiety), xylocaine, zantax, zyloprim (allopurinol) mental health: clozaril, cogentin, dalamane, dexedrine, elavil, eskalith, haldol, luminal, navane, phenergan, ritalin, serax (bdz), sinequan, surfak, thorazine ob: aldomet, ampicillin, cortef, ergometrine, magnesium sulfate, pitocin, premarin (hormonal replacement therapy - menopause), primaxin, yutopar peds: kewll, nix, oncovin (plus the med-surg drugs) good luck!!!!

I bought the LaChairty's Prioritization and Delegations book. I know alot of ppl have recommended it, but I just wanted to ask for other peoples opinions of what they thought of the book. I feel that it is good for critical thinking and pathophysiology, but I find some of it to be confusing as well. Such as delegations: experienced vs new team personel (NA , GN, or LVN), and the department they are experienced in such that an ED nursing assistant can put a patient on a cardiac monitor? The case scenarios seem alot harder than the actual NCLEX RN exam, or is it suppose to be that hard? I feel like I'm getting alot of them wrong bc im confused with what is defined by experienced and a new. It is written like that in the exam? Has anyone else found this book to be confusing?

Thanks for all the support. It helps alot!!!!

I've been studying for about 3 months now. This will be the 4th time taking it. In the past, i have used HURST, and Kaplan. This time around I have reviewed the whole book of Saunders Comprehensive, and used the Saunders Q&A for practice exams/ questions 100/day. I've been getting 65-84% on my practice exams. Mostly 70s. And I've been doing La Charity's Prority and Delegation book. I feel like I dont have enough delegation questions. I recently took a practice exam from Kaplan and scored 62% and I believe I'm borderline. I was confident up until I took this test to determine how far along I am. I believe 70% is the pass rate for this particular practice exam. The first time I took this diagnostic test, i got 48% so I know I've improved. I'm starting to raise systemic anxiety and I'm taking a couple of days off. I was gonna take my exam next week, but now I feel like I'm starting to forget things and I dont know if its because of my anxiety or because its been 3 months. I rescheduled it for the end of May, which is in 3 weeks. I dont know what else to do except answer more questions and look at what I did wrong, and look over areas I have difficulty in..but I dont know if thats sufficient enough for me? I feel like I'm not really reaching the top of the mountain, just stagnant. Please offer me some support and incite. Thanks

I wanted to take my test in April. I thought that I would get my ATT in the beginning. Turns out that they sent it to an inactivated school email account. I just called them today and they sent my ATT to the right email address. I've been studying randomly on my weak areas. First read the Comprehensive Saunders book for 6 weeks. Did questions from the Saunders Q&A 4th edition since the end of March. Since the 1st of April, I've been waiting for my ATT and while that was going on, I did alot of studying on weak content. Now I'm just studying and without structure so although I feel like I am studying, I didnt really look forward to anything except wait for this ATT, now I dont know if I'm prepared. Should I continue studying or should I schedule the exam now?