Review content or practice questions?

If you recently graduated and had 3 to 4 weeks to prepare but could only do one or the other, which would it be and why?

Review content

OR

Practice NCLEX style questions

Thanks in advance!

[izzy09]

i say practice more in answering questions, you just graduated so I assume what you study in school, its still fresh, just review some important topics. :) Some say they review exam cram. :) Hope that helps. And lots of prayers. :))

[caliotter3]

You need to be able to answer questions, but if you don't know the content behind the questions you are not going to be successful.

[EDRN-2010]

I racked up 10,000 questions during nursing school. My school suggests doing 500 questions before every exam and I did 1000 for 3 semesters. BUT, the last semester of school I stopped doing questions and hit the books hard and got the highest and most consistent grades of any semester in school. When my professors would ask me what I was doing, I told them I was not doing any questions, they were surprised.

I have read post after post on this board and have not found many people who chose to review instead of practice questions.

Even though I was most successful in nursing school doing things this way, I worry that this might not translate into the same success on the NCLEX.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

I would agree, practice questions and read the rationale, only review if you are struggling with answering questions in that subject

[MvbRn, ASN, BSN]

I have to agree do the questions. At this point you should know the content. By practicing the questions you are able to see areas you are weak in and then you can look up specific things you don't understand. Questions are the way to go.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I agree. At this point -- if you force me to choose one or the other -- I would recommend focusinng on questions ... reviewing the content when you find yourself not understanding the rationale.

However, in real life .... there is no reason to have to choose one strategy or the other. I would do some of both. I would be doing some practice questions to keep those skills sharp and to also use them as an assessment of my knowledge. I would then do some content review on those areas that the questions identify as my weak areas.

Since doing some content review is how you are "used to studying," it might help you feel more secure and therefore help your performance. Because that is the case in the OP's real-life situation, I recommend that she do some of both.

[oscarfarnacio]

I would recommend you to do review questions, if you stumble over a question you have no clue about, thats the time you should crack the book open so you can read on the content you might have forgotten :) 100 questions a day is fine, dont do too much, it might be overwhelming! good luck!

[Lisa1980]

I agree, do the questions. I studied review content more than questions and I feel it contributed to my failure on NCLEX earlier this month. I am focusing more on doing questions now and I am unsure about something I then do a review on what i don't understand the rationale for. Good luck!