Starting NCSBN 5 week course

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

I did the diagnostic pretest and answered 99 out of 150 correct, meaning I missed 51 questions. Not bad imo. But honestly I can't tell exactly how well or bad that is since it gave me a 66% I printed out my results and have been looking over the questions I got right and those rationales and the questions I got wrong and those rationales. Some I was way off on, others not much. For example one question asked "Which blood serum finding in a client with diabetic ketoacidosis alerts the nurse that immediate action is required?" I put pH below 7.3, the answer was HCT of 60. I was correct, but the HCT of 60 comes first as it showed the patient is dehydrated. I think if I had remembered my normals for HCT I would have gotten that one right. But its questions like this that I miss, something with two right answers, but which is the priority. Also, I thought you always assessed first, but I missed one that after I read the rationale I understood why.

I did this all through school, missed the so called gimme's and ace the harder ones. Granted, I say gimme with a huge grain of salt. I am trying to hone into exactly what I miss most. I think there is no one strong area.

On delegation though exactly what can a UAP do and not do? It varies by state doesn't it? And are UAP's CNA's or what? Delegating seems pretty straight forward, but then they seem to throw a curve.

So my question is this. Am I going down the right road study-wise? I'm trying very hard not to do more than 2-3hr blocks at a time. I know me, I can very easily sit on the computer all day and review the course. However, somehow I don't think it would be a good idea.

This is part vent, part question so it might be a bit rambling lol. Thank goodness the Olympics is on, something to watch to take a break from studying.

Oh, btw I am scheduled to take boards Sept 23, 2008 at 1030am :yeah:

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

A UAP is any assistive person who is not an LPN or RN. In general, UAPs can be assigned standard, day-to-day, unchanging tasks on stable patients, as long as the tasks don't require assessment or teaching; no nursing judgment or decision-making allowed. Think routine tasks with predictable outcomes.

I think you're wise to limit your studying like that -- I'm the same way, I can sit on here all day and read stuff. But after a point, it's probably not retained or constructive!!

My employer (hospital) paid for me to have access for 3 weeks to the NCSBN materials; I thought it was decent, but I used it more for the practice exams than anything else (I ran out of time to use it). A few typos in there that threw me off -- I mean, hello, spell check? LOL

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Specializes in Surgical Telemetry.

I too am doing this same course and I too got that question about the HCT wrong. Most of the time I can manage to narrow it down to 2 answers and then I always pick the wrong one. I try and comfort myself by telling myself that there's no way I am going to get them all right anyway. That way I don't get that worked up about it. I am moving forward as best I can and not trying to put so much weight on my scores from the self-tests and stuff. Otherwise I'm gonna be a big anxiety-ridden mess. I test next Saturday afternoon.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

LOL ... I just looked at my pretest, and I got that one wrong, too. I was distracted by the lowered pH! :D

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

LOL which is why they call them distractors right?

I know this sounds bad, but at least I know I'm not the only one who fell for that one :clown:

I just need to sit down and look over things.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
LOL which is why they call them distractors right?

I know this sounds bad, but at least I know I'm not the only one who fell for that one :clown:

I just need to sit down and look over things.

Ha! Glad I could make you feel better. :) And maybe this will help, too -- I got 65% overall on the pretest before studying anything, and I passed the NCLEX on the first try with 75 questions. :D

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

That helps alot :bow:. Its nice to know that I actually know more than I thought I did.

Studying by computer has been hard lately since my laptop keeps freezing up. Also AOL doesn't seem to want to open the course page from learningext.com, neither does mozilla. Internet explorer does, but sometimes. I wonder whats up with their website. Studying has also not been fun due to a broken tooth that I have that now seems to have an exposed nerve :bluecry1: My boyfriend is taking me to the dentist in the morning to see if I can get the thing pulled as the pain right now is excrutiating...orajel isn't helping.

So between computer issues and tooth pain, methinks I'll just read my saunders book tonight or continue to review the pretest :typing

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.
I too am doing this same course and I too got that question about the HCT wrong. Most of the time I can manage to narrow it down to 2 answers and then I always pick the wrong one. I try and comfort myself by telling myself that there's no way I am going to get them all right anyway. That way I don't get that worked up about it. I am moving forward as best I can and not trying to put so much weight on my scores from the self-tests and stuff. Otherwise I'm gonna be a big anxiety-ridden mess. I test next Saturday afternoon.

I'm trying to do the same. I'm trying not to worry about every little missed question. Even the ones that after looking at it again, I kick myself as I didn't go with my first choice. I'm good at that...second guessing myself.

Good luck on your boards. I'm sure you will do just fine. :D

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Also AOL doesn't seem to want to open the course page from learningext.com, neither does mozilla. Internet explorer does, but sometimes.

It's only set up for Internet Explorer -- I use Firefox more than IE, but the site said that IE is the only browser to use. You have to make sure you have pop-ups enabled, too. It's definitely not the easiest site to navigate! (I used to be a web designer in my "old life.")

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Specializes in Surgical Telemetry.

Yeah I can't say I'm too pleased with the fact that you can only use Internet Explorer to navigate their website. I wanted to do this review because it was pretty cost-effective but I have a Mac and they don't make Internet Explorer for Mac so I've been using my bro's computer to do the review questions. Oh well, this'll soon be over. :)

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

I didn't realize that IE was the only browser used as I like mozilla better. My computer sometimes doesn't like IE and even though AOL uses IE it does not want to open that website.

I was on it last night and couldn't get the post test for lesson 1&2 to accept my answers. I'm going to try again tonight.

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing.

Well, I'm well into the course and I thought I was doing ok until I did the first two post tests. I failed them. I'm going to review tonight. The safety section and did miserably on the post test. I am so glad I'm doing this review as I think I am over reading the questions. Either that or I'm not absorbing the information. I will get through this.......:typing

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