Q's for prelicensure students/grads

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Mar 22, 2016

Learn your own learning style and tailor your study techniques to it.

I, personally, take tons of notes in class.

I also make my own flash cards. Tons of them.

I listen to YouTube lectures.

I take NCLEX practice Qs related to the lecture content. I use an app called NCLEX mastery.

Some students record lectures.

Some students swear by study groups.

I don't do much of the readings.

I didn't work through LVN/LPN school. Nor did I work through RN school. Though I'm scheduled to graduate in about 2 mos and will start work soon.

I did work super part time through my prereqs.

I only studied for approx 2-4 weeks prior to my NCLEX PN. I predict I'll do the same for my NCLEX RN.

I come to Clinicsls fully prepared. Snacks, nursing tools such as BP cuff, stethescope, pen light, deodorant, hair ties, lab books, med books or at least an app. Plus lots of pens, and other stuff.

SoonerBredExpat · Mar 29, 2016

Hi EmmRee,

Congratulations on your acceptance! I think you will really like the program. I am in the Cedars-Sinai cohort and have about a year left. I love it so far. It's very intense and time-consuming, but I work full-time (40+ hours at a desk job) and have had no real issues with time management. Just a little around the holidays. :rolleyes: I study about 30 to 40 hours a week. Your mileage may vary.

I was like you and wanted tons of information before I started. However, you will, as vintagemother said, need to find your own style. You will find that WGU has so many resources, it's nearly impossible to fail. They want you to succeed, so they give you every chance to do so. They provide resources for different learning styles, so if you are a visual learner, or learn better by listening, or by writing, you have everything you need. It's almost too much sometimes.

What has worked for me is to review the course, the resources, any emails from course mentors, and other stuff they throw at us, then decide how I'm going to tackle the material. If you read and view and study every resource, it will take too long to complete the course. After fundamentals, stick to the ATI books, since that's what the exams are based on. Relax and take constructive criticism for what it is, especially in labs. Attend or watch the webinars as often as you can. Know that the pre-assessments are usually a lot different than the "finals", or objective assessments. Sometimes easier, sometimes way harder, in my opinion. Knowing the material inside-out is key to answering the critical thinking questions that usually make up the objective assessment.

For clinicals, ditto what vintagemother said. Food! Food is good. I'm always starving at clinicals. I would add scissors, dry erase marker, Sharpie pen, small pad of paper.

Maybe we'll see you at lab. :yes: Best of luck to you!

tsm007 · Mar 31, 2016

-What advice do you have for new students?

Use the COS (Course of Study) more as a guide than following it literally. Find other resources to reinforce what you are reading. I liked the "Demystified" series and the "Straight A's in" series. Your number one resource should be ATI because that is what you are getting tested with.

-What helped you most and worked best for studying and retaining given the alternative format? Hard notes? Flash cards? YouTube videos? Simply power through the reading?

I did use YouTube quite a bit for stuff I got stuck on. I did not have time for writing out flash cards. There was just too much to keep up with for that.

What I usually did was read the text as quickly as I could. I didn't reread it if something didn't make sense. (I found I wouldn't understand it any better the second time reading it and my time was valuable.) I mostly read the text to get an idea of what topics were covered. Any topic that didn't make sense in reading I would use outside resources - YouTube, the books I listed above, or google searches).

-Are there any books you swear by for either the course to supplement or the NCLEX to fill in the gaps and whatnot?

See above. I also really liked the MedSurg Success book (and they have a few in that series). That book has a lot of good practice questions. You need to be doing tons of NCLEX style questions. Start doing them early and often in the program. The sooner you get the hang of answering NCLEX style questions the easier the program will be for you.

-What extras(if any) did you bring to clinicals that you think helped make the difference?

I used the Nursing Central App a lot. I know a lot of people in my cohort never even purchased it. I still use it in the work place now. I can't think of any extras that really helped with clinicals.

-Were you able to work during the program? What kind of hours were you pulling and do you think you would still work if you had to do it all over again? Do you think it's realistic to work full time on the weeks you don't have clinicals?

I did not work, but everyone except for me did work. I do think it's doable.

Grads specifically: how prepared do you feel you were for the NCLEX? How much additional studying did you do prior to taking the NCLEX? What book did you choose to help you out and would you choose it again?

I took my test at the earliest date I could test. I did not need any additional study time and passed at 75 questions. As far as being prepared for NCLEX, if you are passing the ATI tests on first attempt you will be fine. If you are finding you are having to retake most ATI tests then maybe you want to take a little more time to study. WGU gives you really good resources for NCLEX. Use them.

I have given this advice before. The only big problems I have had with the program is some of the preceptors suck. Most are good, but some are really not. I didn't want to be the squeaky wheel when I was in. I wish I had squeaked and insisted on getting one of my preceptors changed. If you have a preceptor that is not teaching you push hard for those learning opportunities. Don't focus so much on "skills". Those will come in the work place. It's really not a big deal if you've never done an IV or an NG tube, what really matters in the work place is those assessment skills. I really wish I would have pushed harder on my preceptors showing me how to do a correct head to toe assessment and identifying lung sounds, heart sounds and abnormals. Some preceptors do some pretty lame head to toes. I have gotten a lot more thorough in my assessments in the work place. I would have also worked harder on looking at labs and medications and mapping out them with the disease process. I think their journaling is lame and stupid and would be better used making students map out concept maps and nursing interventions and when to call the doctor.

EmmReeCPT · Apr 5, 2016

You're absolutely wonderful!! Thank you for all the advice!