3000-5000 questions

I was told in school to do a minimum of 3000 questions. I know some people that did at least 3000 questions and failed. I've heard of people doing very few questions and passing. I think I may have done around 2300-2500; about 1300 were written, and the rest on cds so I'm not sure. I passed the 1st time in 75 questions. However, I also made notecards of labs, and other pertinent info for the diff subjects/ depts of nsg. I think it all depends on the person.

The reasoning for doing so many questions is to become familiar and comfortable with how questions are written, and because as I was told "you can only ask and answer a question in so many ways. The question may change, but the content remains the same". It does help you learn.

Personally, I used Saunders NCLEX Review, made notecards of the "pyramid points" and took their little quizzes. Quite time consuming, I gave it up after I got to the Peds section. Then I took up Mosby's Review Questions. I did Almost 1/2 the book while using the CD before I ran out of time. I would answer all the questions to a section, then highlight each correct answer as I checked them making sure to read the rationale for why each available selection was right/wrong (even the ones I got right!)...You'd be surprised how many new things you'd learn from the rationales. Then each chapter has quizzes that I'd take and see how well I did. Then I'd move on. When using the CD, you can choose the difficulty level. Most of the time I answered only "hard" questions, but then moved to "med. difficulty" questions to see what they were like (sometimes you can't tell!). Then like 2 days before my exam, I popped in a Saunders Q&A CD and used that as it doesn't go by body systems, but by content areas (i.e. health and safety, etc..).

I say all this b/c even though it's an earful, it shows that it is all in how you learn, and how you prepare. What works for one, doesn't always work for all. I didn't and wouldn't focus so much on the number of questions you need to do, but rather how you go about doing the questions you can get done. I made the most out of what I could get done, with the time I had. Sometimes I got a lot of Qs done, some days I didn't, but I always had my notecards with me to review and my book was my best friend (it really did go wherever I went!)...It paid off in the end. And most of all, you can't forget to RELAX on test day! Hope this helps.

:smiletea2:

When I do questions, I make notecards or write down in the notebook what I missed and then I go back later to read what I missed like 30 minutes before bed every night or getting up 30 minutes earlier every morning to just read things I miss. I also read every rationale for right and wrong questions. Hope this helps. Good luck on your exam.