Studying for NCLEX

the best time to take your NCLEX is AS SOON as possible--right after you've graduated while the info is still fresh in your mind. i highly recommend either the saunders or mosby's NCLEX books to help you study. the best way for you to study for this exam is to do as many NCLEX q's as you can --so weeks not month after you've graduated. it's not just knowledge but your test-taking skills that matter with the NCLEX. always read the stem of each question FIRST w/o looking at the choices....then narrow your choices down and pick the best possible one for what the question is asking for. MOST IMPORTANT----do not change your answers!!!!!

Moved to the NCLEX forum

I would recommend using any of the NCLEx study books that are filled with questions. the most important thing you can do is to do practice questions. To get the feel for how the questions will be on the test. I used the Hurst review but cannot honestly say whether or not it helped. I do not recall anything specifically on the NCLEX test that I learned through Hurst. I think the most important thing you can learn is how the questions are formatted, how to respond to the questions asked. I do agree to take it ASAP while everything is fresh in your mind. Try your best to relax and realize that you have learned everything you can in nursing school. Learn to read the questions and use the process of elimination to realize the answers that do not fit, and focus on the ones that do. You will do great! good luck and enjoy your new career!

i agree with the above i feel like i had nothing on nclex from hurst. i just took nclex for the 3rd time yesterday and am getting the good pop up. i SWEAR by saunders. i owe my passing to that book. i studied the 4th edition. i studied this time for about 3 weeks 8-10 hours a day monday thru friday. i answered thousands of questions and read every rationals...which plays a major part in learning. good luck to you

I read Saunders NCLEX review book. It's an easy read and the strategies outlined are really really helpful on NCLEX. All the other studying I did wasn't wasted (learning about your field is never a waste of time), but it sure didn't help on NCLEX - which was filled with questions about things I didn't know and hadn't studied! But I passed, and hopefully, so will you! You probably know more than you think and just need some strategies for figuring out what the questions are asking and how to eliminate incorrect answers.

Well I can tell you from my experience what I did and maybe it can help. I graduated in May and got my ATT on July 5th. Up to that point I had been a casual studier, maybe 250 questions total. After that I set my date for exactly one month later and really kicked it into high gear. I used Kaplan which I would say is the ultimate prep course although I never once touched the book and only watched 2-3 videos. I would suggest just buying the Q bank questions. In all using Kaplan, Sauders Q & A 4th ed, Exam Cram and some ATI I probably did 3000 questions in that month. I passed NCLEX with 75 questions. Good luck, you can do it!

i agree to all of the replies here..:) i think enrolling in a review course would be helpful because they will teach you on how to attack questions.. for me, KAPLAN strategies helped a lot.. but if you're after about the content review, i think Saunders comprehensive is the best,.:) it is brief and easy to understand..:) Lacharity book is also a must read. It is more focused on delegation and prioritization which i think nclex is mostly consist of.