SECOND YEAR TIPS

I just finished the 3rd semester of our A.D. program thanks to Jesus. The 3rd semester has been the most difficult semester so far; granted, I still think the hardest exam in the program was the fundamentals final in the 1st semester, but then again the advanced med surg final I took this past Wednesday morning comes very close to being just as hard if not harder.

Clinicals, at least for me, continue to be progressively easier as you are just building upon a (hopefully) sound foundation. In our clinicals, we were pressed to know why our patients were on the drugs listed on their MAR, along with class, main side effects, adverse effects, contraindications, and what labs must be reviewed and when.

For theory classes, I found the ATI books (used, current version) to be far more helpful than any other semester. Lippincott Q&A for the NCLEX RN and the Davis Q&A Success series were part of my tool chest as well.

I think it depends on which school you're at. At my school, the general consensus is that second semester is the hardest, so I'm breathing a sigh of relief as I go into 3rd semester. My game plan is to use the strategies that worked for me this past year and to flexibly make adjustments where needed.

I really like Sander's NCLEX review. It breaks topics up and gives you a "need to know" knowledge about the subject. It's a helpful adjunct to the textbooks and lectures, for me at least. Their NCLEX review questions, however, are lacking in my opinion. There's not very many questions and all of the questions are too easy--those questions probably won't prepare you for test questions in class. So I'd be curious to find more resources for practicing NCLEX questions as well.