Struggling with NCLEX Prep: UWorld + Kaplan

[Test Stress, BSN]

I'm a recently graduated BSN student scheduled to take their NCLEX in mid-July. I've never been a great test taker and it shows on all the practice exams I've been doing so far. For reference, here are my Kaplan trainer scores and UWorld statistics.

Kaplan

Trainer 1: 53%

Trainer 2: 55%

Trainer 3: 55%

^Taken before graduation

Trainer 4: 43%

Trainer 5: 45%

Trainer 6: 46%

^taken post-graduation

NCLEX Sample 1: 38%

NCLEX Sample 2: 42%

NCLEX Sample 3: 70%

NCLEX Sample 4: 24%

^all taken in early June

Current Qbank progress: 52% correct, 875 questions left

UWorld Self Assessment: 53% with a "borderline" chance to pass

UWorld Qbank progress: 42% correct of the 30% questions used.

I still have one self-assessment left on UWorld, and my school recommends that we take Kaplan trainer 7 a week before the actual test date. I've heard from other nurses that content review is much less helpful which is why I've been doing more practice questions (50-75 questions a block, with around 150-200 questions per day) but at this point, I'm worried that there's no way I'm going to pass the NCLEX. Is there anything else I can do at this point to boost my chances other than continuing the repetition of practice questions?

I'm aware that test scores don't "mean anything" long term and I can still be a great nurse but the fact still stands that I have to pass to even be able to practice as a nurse. Any tips are appreciated!

[magnumGI, BSN, LPN]

The scores do mean something, just not in the way that you think. They're useful in revealing your weak points. Remediating on what you're missing is vastly more important than ruminating on what your scores are. 

The one area where I do worry more about scores is how I'm scoring on particular questions relative to peers. Most people pass the NCLEX, so you should be striving to get what most people get right. 

I don't care about missing a question 3% of people get right. I'm not going to waste time cracking open my med-surg book to read about some obscure disease they didn't even bother covering in class. You don't need to get those questions right to pass the NCLEX. You do need to be getting most of the medium-level questions (that 40-60% of people get right) and need to be very concerned about missing things that more than 60% of people get right. 

The NCLEX is adaptive. It's going to give you your next question based on how you've answered previous questions. Your goal is to be getting more than half of passing level questions right so you can stay above the passing line. 

The easy stuff is your safety net. Getting those right basically every time keeps you from falling too far under the line to recover. The medium difficulty stuff is your bread and butter. If you're getting more of them right than wrong, you stand a good chance of staying above the passing line more consistently than beneath it. The better you do at those, the better your chances are. If the NCLEX is a video game, the hard stuff are your power-ups. You don't have to get them to win, but getting them makes winning easier. 

That said, it isn't a productive use of time to focus on hard stuff if you can't keep yourself out of the easy stuff, because if you can't keep yourself out of the easy stuff, you probably won't be getting many shots at the harder questions anyway. 

 

 

[Test Stress, BSN]

I can't figure out how to edit my post, but an update: I ended up passing in 75 questions!

[jjj333, BSN]

Hey. I wouldn't let the UWorld scoring get to you as much. I did pretty bad on them as well, but I passed the NCLEX in 75 questions. UWorld is much more specific compared to the NCLEX itself, but it definitely prepares you.