sticky: Tipz for nclex plz--- at the top of the page

[labrador4122, RN]

I have not been a member to this site for very long. And I am always very curious on to how other people study for the NCLEX-RN, just so I could get ideas on how I am doing, and if I could do anything different to improve.

Tonight I happen to look at the first sticky at the top of the forum. And found a few answers to be really interesting.

THis one is one of the ones I found to be most helpful:

Originally Posted by IsseyM

Hi! I took my NCLEX-RN last week and found out i passed with 75 questions. I mostly had priority and education questions, mainly having to do with med/surg but i did get some management, peds, OB and psych. I wanted to share some tips that i used and hopefully it will help many of you.

-I used Lippincott, mainly practiced questions on disk. My school provided us with a HESI book and disk but i noticed the HESI book especially "Hesi Hints" were extremely helpful. The questions on the disk were pretty hard and i was scoring 40-50%.

-Did Kaplan's online Q-Bank, atleast 50-100 questions a day. It trains you to think like the NCLEX. The more questions you practice the better; however i was scoring around 50%, lowest score was 37% and i still passed NCLEX. Don't get discouraged.

-Studied a little bit each day after i graduated but the week before my NCLEX i hit it hard, studied for atleast 8 hours taking frequent breaks. I had to pretend i was in school again.

-If you like Classical music, you may find it useful to listen to Mozart at low volume while studying. I've read how Classical stimulates certain brain waves. I also listened to "Awakened Mind System 3.0" and "Brainwave" from Dr. Jeffrey Thompson while studying. Sometimes i can't study with complete silence, thats when these came in handy.

-Try to eat healthy and don't drink any alcoholic drinks. Skip the junk food, it doesn't nourish your body. I drank alot of water and herbal teas, ate alot of lean protein and healthy carbs for that week. Examples..fish, chicken, spinach, baked potato, beans, etc supposed to be good brain food.

-Exercise or do something aerobic to stimulate some blood flow to brain, can even dangle head over edge of bed a couple minutes a day.

-Do deep breathing exercises frequently to oxygenate your brain.

-If you're into Aromatherapy, put a few drops of Grapefruit essential oil on a tissue and occasionally sniff while studying or you can use this in an candle tea light oil diffuser for the whole room. Grapefruit awakens your senses and helps you focus. Rosemary also helps with memory. Right before the test take a few whiffs of Grapefruit essential oil and it will help you remember what you studied.

-Get plenty of sleep. Go to bed early. I made sure to get 7 and half or 8 hours a night.

-Read the question slowly and carefully! Read it 4 or 5 times if you have to, i did. First, ELIMINATE answers you know are WRONG for sure, then usually you're stuck between 2 answers. You will have some questions in which all the answers are right and you have to pick the MOST important one, so do your best to remember, focus, & concentrate.

-Don't rush through the test because you want to hurry up and get out of there. Take your time with EACH question, you have a time limit of 6 hours and you're allowed breaks.

-There will be questions that you will absolutely have no clue what they are talking about, something you never heard of or learned in school. Do your best to answer, don't be hard on yourself.

-Don't forget ABC's. Heard it a million times from nurses, doctors and instructors.

-Review important normal values if you have forgotten them, especially labs and ABGs. They always told us this in nursing school.

-If you have test anxiety try "Rescue Remedy" from "Bach Flower Essences" Its a natural stress reliever without any side effects. I get sweaty palms, knots in my stomach and i hold my breath when i take tests, this helps me.

-During the test don't forget to take some deep breaths but don't do it so loud that you will disrupt others around you.

-Suck on a piece of hard candy just right before the test...it'll give you some extra glucose for your brain.

-If you believe in prayer...then PRAY and ask others to pray for you.

-Stay positive and confident. I know its easier said than done, but if you go in with a negative attitude you probably won't perform well on your test.

Good luck!! Hope this helps!

:balloons::balloons::balloons::balloons::balloons::balloons:

If anyone is looking to find other ways to study for the "most important test in your life", read that sticky. You will find other replies that you might find helpful.

Just thought I would share, since I personally had missed this posting earlier!!!:balloons::balloons: