turdfurguson

Thanks everyone! I used the latest edition of Saunders, I only got it about 2 months ago. I WISHED I had had it all thru Nursing school. I also used my ATITESTING.com account I have thru school, it's still good till 2013. I used my CD that came with my pharmacology textbook and on the CD they had an awesome med memory helper, even some games. The ATI stuff didn't really help too much, but the Saunders Questions were more applicable (the ones on the CD) My NCLEX seemed to focus on prioritizing and on safety / infection control. A LOT of select all that apply. Good luck you guys, I'm sure you will do great. I didn't have much confidence and I'm terrible at nursinig tests, so If I can do it, anyone can!

I just graduated and passed NCLEX.. Today I started the Job Hunt (I already have a job in an entirely unrelated field). The first job I find that has an opening is the very same unit I did my last semester clinicals on, and on top of that, my final preceptorship! So I know this Unit very well. The problem is, I didn't really like the Unit all that much. But it is a great place to learn - it's a step down ICU that gets about every kind of patient. The nurses on this unit are kind of negative and when I was a student (I'm a male) I was taken advantage of a lot in things like patient moves, getting very heavy patients up and ambulating.. that kind of thing.. I didn't mind, but I want to learn and not be work horsed if you know what I mean. Anyway, I think I'll apply.. but My real question is.. is that this position is "contingent".. can new grads be successful in a contingent position? Do they usually do orientation with a new grad in a contingent position, as if the person were a full time nurse on the unit?

I would say the best thing you can do right now, is learn nursing math using dimensional analysis. If you can get dimensional analysis locked in.. you will be able to solve any nursing math question. Teachers expect you to learn the plugin formulas.. so they will throw questions at you that operate "backwards".. or somehow the formula won't quite fit.. At my school they always put the math questions at the end of every test.. usually 5 to 10 questions.. you only have maybe 5 to 10 minutes to answer the math questions.. so if you are kind of befuddled by a crazy heparin drip problem.. if you know dimensional analysis.. the problems almost solve themselves.

This is my first post here, but I've been coming here all throughout nursing school for the great advice. I just passed! Leaving Pearsonvue, I thought for sure I had bombed it. It seemed like every question was crazy hard and I kept getting "answer all that apply" questions one after the other. I did a little reading about computer adaptive testing AFTERWARDS LOL, and I think if students took the time to learn the concepts behind how computer adaptive testing operates, they would have much more confidence as the test progresses. The test is designed to find a point where your knowledge base will give you a 50/50 chance of getting the question right. If you are answering and missing questions, in kind of a seesaw back and forth, above a hypothetical skill line, then the computer passes you when it is 95 percent certain you are competent above that line. So if you are getting crazy hard questions that you seem to think come out of left field, then chances are you are above the competency line. How I studied: I read Saunders cover to cover. I then answered about 2000 questions that came with the CD.. figured out my weak spots and then want back into the saunders book and made flashcards of their "pyramid points". I didn't memorize the meds in Saunders but the classes of meds and made flashcards with the common suffixes - their theraputic effect, AE's and Nursing consids - as a class. The day before the test.. I know you're supposed to just relax, but what I did.. I went and took ALL my old ATI online tutorials and tests over again.. from like 6am.. Then about 9pm.. I said to myself that I can't possibly study any more and just went to bed.. I got up, had a big breakfast bagel from Panera - drank a quart of green tea and cranked some industrial metal on the way to Pierson view. It just seemed like I was on autopilot taking the test.. I didn't feel very confident about my answers.. especially the "all that apply" ones.. but I didn't feel overly out of the ball park either. My test shut off at about an hour and 10 minutes at Question 82 I think.. I was shocked because I was the first one done.. I was the only nursing student there, everyone else was there for EMT or Paramedic. I pretty much spent the next 2 days near a computer checking the board of nursing site for my name! When I saw it come up.. I didn't believe it at first.. It was a surreal experience to say the least.