struggling to find time to study

I have seen many ends of the spectrum; people saying that studying was a waste of time, others saying that they didn't study at all, but passed, anyway, but most people, including myself, found the test being incredibly difficult, yet, most of them pass the first time.

I found that my NCLEX did not relate much to any of the many questions I studied from, and I used many CDs as sources of practice, from Saunders, Delmar's, Incredibly easy and Mosby's. I also used the extension on line course. I began to really think that if a certain disorder was questioned, what they would usually want to know is... but NCLEX proved me wrong on that one. I do think that something panned out with my critical thinking, test taking skills and knowledge base because, I did pass with minimum questions, but it was NOT easy by a long shot! In retrospect, I would not have placed so much energy into the exam to the point that I lost focus with the outside world and reality. However, had I not done so, I wouldn't have known if I had failed because I didn't give it my all or not. I did walk away from that exam thinking that there was nothing more or less I could have done, because it was really a crap shoot. I find it horrible to hear that many people got drugs that they have never heard of, meaning NO common drugs. That was not quite my experience. I had 10 meds, knew about 6-7 of them. Mostly got questions on neuro, digestive and Hep A, TB and 7 pick all that apply in a row (scary). The co-horting questions confused me because we were not taught that in school at all. Nothing on endocrine, maternal health, one cheap shot peds question, no psych (but saw how psych was probably mixed in there-something like a 2 for 1 question of sorts). Thank goodness it is over.

And, no, it is NOT true that if you get the last question wrong, you automatically fail. Think about it; if you get 75 questions (RN) or 85 (PN) and had more than 50% correct, what sense would that make that the last question ruled the results of your exam?

Good luck!

What books are you using and are you able to give a couple of hours a night to study, on my days off I was able to commit to a few more hours. That is what I did the final time I took the exam and I continued to work full time. Also when are you scheduled to sit the exam?

send me a pm if I can help in any way or if you want to discuss more