ArceusAlpha

If you confronted me as a student, I would say "BITE ME!" But now that I'm a staff, I've turned a complete 180 and now will bite any students who dare park in our staff parking.

I'm an AHS employee, it's been hard for me to apply for any positions too. I've applied to many internal postings and no calls so far. It really boils down to your experience and seniority. I can only imagine how difficult it is as an external applicant. I've also been hearing rumours of the hiring freeze that started in Dec 2017.

No that is a common misconception, getting a lot of SATA questions does not guarantee anything. There are SATA questions that are also at below the line so the SATA's do not mean they are necessarily at a difficult level.

I suppose do what's best for you. I personally did randomized because that is how the NCLEX will be. Also, I'm not fond of doing a systemized test because I feel like time will be spent on various topics, only to be forgotten "later on" while focusing on another system later on. Going through all the questions will take some time. So going random allowed me to be tested on all subjects from Day 1 till I finished. Also I do not recommend doing 200 questions because that is a lot of questions/info to retain or go over. Pace yourself and do not try to rush through the qBank! I luckily passed on my first try Good luck!

To be honest, when I used Saunders, it was information overload. There were definitely a lot of good information to know (especially the red highlighted texts which actually helped me answer several NCLEX questions!). I also used UWorld, and I relied mostly on that AFTER quickly going over Saunders. Most of my friends also had Saunders, but used it casually but no excessively. What I did with Saunders was read the chapter (not entirely, you just need to try to figure out what info should be studied and what info can be ignored---up to your discretion really) and answered the questions on each chapter. The questions on Saunders is NOT NCLEX styled questions but they test you on the content of the chapter. If I got less than 65% wrong, I would re-read the chapter. I only wrote notes on chapters that I knew I had little exposure on like oncology and pediatrics. Otherwise, that's all I did with Saunders.

A unit manager (RAH) I spoke with stated that it puts a face to the applicant, to which she prefers. To say that it gives some benefits over online application, I would like to say it does -- for some unit managers, not all I suppose.

You used 3 highly reputable resources to study for the NCLEX. Do you think you have difficulty in certain types of questions (ie. Prioritization), do you have a good understanding of core nursing knowledge and are you able to apply them in questions? It's important to not only practice through questions, but ensure yourself that you have read it thoroughly whether you get them right or wrong. I really can't say much because I don't know how you study.

None of us here will be able to give you a response with certainty if that predictor gives a 'good indicator' if you will pass the NCLEX. Obviously it is only a predictor and it appears that you have scored highly to determine just that. I took those assessment exams (#1 & 2) and passed both with "very high chance of passing" and indeed I passed my NCLEX on the first time. However, I have heard stories here who have had "very high chances" and unfortunately did not pass, whereas the opposite has been true as well where some didn't get a favorable chance of passing but still passed the NCLEX. I'm not trying to say that the UWorld predictor is unreliable, it's just the reality of these things just present a dichotomous scenario that is solely to that individual. In the end of the day, no one should ever feel too confident that they "know everything"; I think in my opinion, it is a normal feeling to never feel prepared for the NCLEX. If you have studied well and feel confident enough in your core information, I do suggest you take the exam. Prolonging your exam can be a bad thing simply because more days will past from the last time you reviewed particular content-- to which you may forget. It doesn't matter what your percentages are, just know the rationales! Good luck!

Can you elaborate on how your experience on the NCLEX vs UWorld? Personally, I found the NCLEX harder than UWorld, but I thought the questions were very very similar in style. In fact, I had a few questions on the NCLEX that was almost like a few I had on UWorld. Everyone's NCLEX will be different but I can't imagine the question formatting to be dissimilar. Anyways, I know a few classmates just used HURST and passed on their first time. When you study, do you write down any notes? Do read over the questions even if you get them correct? Do you re-do the incorrect questions? Also, I think a big mistake is to be studying for several months before writing the exam. You mentioned you did UWorld over 5 months (I used/studied Uworld for just 1 month) and studying over long periods isn't a good thing to do simply because you will most likely forget many details from the earlier months. There were a lot of "tiny" details I was able to retain from UWorld simply because I hammered myself with the content within the month so they were all relatively fresh in my mind. So perhaps its best to have a study plan no more than 2 months.

Very very interesting to see 3 brand new members commenting right after the other lol. So let's examine their 3 reasons for not using qBanks.... Right, it's best to use questions banks AFTER studying core content. Though, its not exactly wrong to start practice questions as well, because they can tell you WHAT you may be lacking in and also assess yourself in what your current capabilities are. Otherwise, test questions test your content knowledge and how you can critically think and apply. How it isn't logical nor helpful is quite the opposite of what they are saying. Because questions allow you to examine what you do not know. You can study core content all to your liking, but how do you know what you do not know, until you come across a question which you may have "some knowledge" but not enough to fully interpret the question. That is the logical aspect of benefit of practice questions! Well... like I said above, practice questions are best after studying core content. It is quite obvious that many of us will feel like we are not prepared for the NCLEX. I know I didn't and that is why MANY people use preparation courses in the first place to help them study and feel prepared. While I wouldn't admit my feelings as "fear and doubt", even though it was exactly the pure apprehension of the art in the first place, it was exactly the REAL MOTIVATION to study to the best of my ability. I've studied my core content for a month, and while I felt like I knew a lot of content, after coming across some practice questions, it became clear that there are definitely portions that I still needed to learn. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that feeling, because confidence in understanding is KEY, NOT over confidence in knowing your content. True, you won't come across a question on any practice qBanks that is exactly word for word on the NCLEX; but you will come to awfully close ones. At least I know I did after using UWorld... different wording but same concept. Had a few UWorld questions that were very similar to what I got on the NCLEX, which helped me immensely. "The only approach guaranteed to work is to know the core nursing content"... this is a little over audacious to say is the only guaranteed way to learn. It is important to know your nursing content, ABSOLUTELY. However, in order to be able to use that content in a deep, critical thinking and comprehension understanding, it is to practice yourself in scenarios where you are given the opportunity to do just that; and that is through NCLEX styled questions (which are all at an analyzing level, not memorization!). Otherwise, they continue to say, "Don't fall into the trap of using test bank questions as your study process. THESE DON'T COUNT!" It is not a trap. I've used the RN Mastery app during my core content review, and it helped to show me what areas I lacked and where to focus on. Practice questions work, thousands of students have used it, and there are numerous success stories out there. I used UWorld which I can give you my full opinion that THAT WAS the biggest reason why I passed my NCLEX on the FIRST try. To suggest that it is a trap and does not count, is IMO absurd to say. Though I'll make it clear, the article is more geared towards using just qBanks alone as your review, which I do also agree isn't the best course of action because like I've mentioned, it is best to use these qBanks after reviewing core content. Your Uworld scores may be on the lower side but that the key is understanding the content, not your percentage. So I do recommend a supplement core nursing content for you to also review. I'm not trying to discredit these people, but it goes without saying that you will improve your skills with practice.

That looks like a Canadian based exam prep. I'm also Canadian, but I've never heard of it, but it seems to be based in Ontario (I'm from Alberta.) They claim a 99% pass rate which is quite a bold claim in my opinion - who knows what the underlying statistic is though. It is expensive for what you get. I mean, you do get a good amount of video content and several review booklets; but it's missing an important aspect of a good exam preparation, and that is practice questions. It's very important to study core content which this prep seems to be focused on, but I don't think they provide NCLEX practice questions which is equally as important AFTER studying core content! So if you do end up getting this, I'd still recommend you spend some on a quality NCLEX qBank (ie. UWorld!!!! Which I Highly highly highly recommend!) Edit: Just rereading your post, I see that this isn't for you but looking for input from others. Sorry about that.

Hey there! I wrote my exam on April 5 with 88 questions, and I also felt the exact same way in that I walked out of the building feeling defeated. It's understandable for us, considering that this is the single most important exam before finally becoming an RN, in addition to all the time spent studying and money spent! My anxiety was off the roof because I WAITED UNTIL APRIL 18 for my exam results! Where I live, it is normal to wait up to 2 weeks to get your results... and it so happened that a long weekend landed on the "2 week" period so my nursing board was closed for like 3 additional days which resulted in me waiting even longer lol. Otherwise, you know already that the exam can go either way. There is no point in contemplating if you failed or passed because that thought will only bring you down. It is best to do EVERYTHING possible to not think about them. Start watching movies, television series, do some physical sports, etc. I initially did also feel like I failed. I even looked up some questions, and I was determined that I got many of the questions wrong! It only made me feel confident that I had failed the exam, and I was just waiting for my "failed" email result. But I passed! So just do what I did, take your mind away from the NCLEX because it will tear you up. Even if it doesn't go the way you wanted it too, it's not the end of the world! :)

Can you explain what you do during the 4.5 minutes per question?

I did not realize that the PVT trick worked in Canada!

I know, but the way the instructor wrote the exam, she definitely wrote it up for failure because the questions were far too specific that you'd literally have to have impressive photographic memory to remember everything you've read on the textbook. This was my experience from this particular class. It makes sense though, especially since you have an extensive "cheat sheet" in front of you, so the questions they decide to use are definitely far more difficult than a normal test I'd think.

^ I don't believe the post above indicating that UWorld has "over a hundred bad questions with incorrect answer options." Nor was that half of the question bank are repeated questions.... absolutely untrue. I've used Uworld myself and it is a quality question bank and I am confident in saying so. I also used Saunders Comprehensive Review, but the questions provided are not NCLEX styled questions because they test you on the content of the chapters. I highly recommend Saunders for content review but not solely for the questions.

I don't know what UWorld you're using, but it was definitely not full of dubious questions/rationales. I've used it, along with others I know, and we live by it as one of the reasons why we passed the NCLEX! There were definitely many times where I felt like I should have scored correctly with the choice I chose, but after careful reading of the rationales and interpreting the context of the content... I just realized that at times, it was my logic that was inccorect. Otherwise, Uworld is still one of the best qBanks out there in my opinion.

I feel like you may have too many sources at one time, especially with how you have time constraints. In terms of content, it's a lot to know, and Saunders in itself is quite overwhelming. Personally, I would choose Hurst OR Saunders, not both. Though Hurst would be the better one simply because of the review video's and practice sheets it comes with. In terms of questions, practice is key. Do as many as you can. Not 1000 questions.... at least 2000+ questions! UWorld, Kaplan, and NCLEX Mastery are, I suppose, somewhat inherently different. I did not use Kaplan myself but do a search here if the "decision tree" is useful because I've heard some contradictory to it. RN Mastery from my experience was an excellent source that heavily focuses on content but tends to lack on other important topics on the NCLEX, like prioritization... and also that they only provided MC's and SATA's, no alternate questions. UWorld, in my opinion, is the best of the three and by far. Not only does the program look like the real NCLEX, the questions were the closest to the NCLEX in terms of style and content. UWorld is complete with alternate questions, and this definitely helped me being comfortable in writing the exam because it all felt familiar. What I did was first study my core content (Saunders) + RN Mastery. After that, I used Prioritization and Delegation by LaCharity (and I highly recommend this because I had quite a few of these questions on the NCLEX; and they are very difficult. You also get a lot of these practice questions on UWorld too.) After using PDA, I used UWorld. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Uhm, but those are all calcium channel blockers, not ACE inhibitors. The suffixes are typically: ACE = -pril ARBS = -sartans Beta Blockers = -olol CCB's = -dipine (but there are cardio-selective CCB's like diltiazem) Answer should be D.

I believe UWorld will help with some of your anxiety simply because the program looks almost exactly like the real NCLEX, and the questions on UWorld are the closest thing to the real NCLEX questions too! Continually practice yourself to UWorld and do as many questions as you can, read rationales, write down notes, and re-do all your incorrect questions. NCLEX may feel like you're doing another UWorld quiz... which I felt like it did :)

I used RN Mastery and it was good but I still thought UWorld was way better. RN Mastery had very difficult questions too but I thought their rationales were inadequate in numerous questions and many questions didn't have rationales to the incorrect options. RN Mastery also lacked any alternate questions, they only had MC and SATA (ordered questions in a MC format because the app doesn't support drop and drag). They also didn't have much prioritization questions (and I had quite a few of them on the NCLEX). Nonetheless, I still highly recommend it.

I had a few open book tests for physiology. I hated them. The questions were made to be extremely difficult and very specific, and the textbook we had to use was well over 400 pages with tiny font. We also had a time limit which made it worse. You spend more time trying to find the answers on the textbook than actually trying to interpret the question. It was probably set up for failure IMO, and it's not what a test should be. A test is responsible for examining your performance on the subject, and open book does NOT do that.

In what context does the RC abbreviation appears on? If pt. is still hypertensive after giving birth, the first thing I thought was postpartum preeclampsia? Or perhaps pt. just had chronic hypertension to begin with. Have you decided on what your top priorities are? You know more about this imaginary patient and its current assessments than we do.

As what was mentioned, sputum is significant when it comes to assessments because having purulent/changes in colors indicates infection. Mucoid may be viral bronchitis, pink/colorless tinged mucoid = lung tumor?, froth pink may be PEdema, bloody may be a PEmboli?, foul smelling could be a lung abscess, etc. But it's not just color you're assessing for; For coughing, you'd be seeing if it is a dry/productive cough, onset, severity, wheezing, duration, pattern, symptoms, prescriptions?, etc. For the sputum, you'd be checking the amount, presence of hemoptysis, smell, consistency, etc.

Yeah, I also took both assessments. They were difficult but I thought they were a lot easier than the questions I got on the NCLEX. It's perfectly normal to feel that you failed the exam, it's no easy feat. Anyone saying it's easier... well good for them because most people don't feel that way haha! I KNEW I failed that exam, I had to wait 13 days for my results. But I passed! So cheers to that.