Testing in 2 weeks ~ all advice for preparation appreciated!

Nursing Students NCLEX

Updated:   Published

Hi All,

My (possibly) future job as an RN resident requires I be licensed as an RN by Jan 21st. So I am scheduled for the NLCEX on Jan. 15th!! :scrying: However I graduated mid-late December and I had to move back home, across the country which took up a week and a half. Given the holidays, I didn't get started on studying till Dec. 26th. As an RN BSN student I excelled in nursing school, but at this point I have forgotten some of the key med/surg I and Fundamentals basics. And OB & Peds developmental stages is a weak point of mine. I did score 92% and 95% on two exit HESI exams I took. So I feel at this point, the NCLEX could go either way for me.

I am wondering with the following resources, if anyone has advice or a good study plan. Right now I'm getting really panicked and overwhelmed by everything. I have

-Kaplan On Demand: (I have completed QT 1 with 67%, 2 Q Bank tests with 64, and 70, and Diagnostic Test with 70%). However I admit I did look a couple things up cause Kaplan emailed me and said with my short amount of time to prepare, its okay to just look it up.

-Saunders Yellow Book - Comprehensive Review: I know I need to review much of this book, its just so overwhelming. I took a 100 question test on the Saunders CD and scored 81. I have reviewed the first 8 chapters.

-LaCharity Priortization, Delegation etc: Did a Chapter out of there and did very well.

-Davis NCLEX RN Success: Its a great book but its enormous and I don't know if I have time for it.

So I'm trying to calm down and set a good study plan in the time I have left. It's very hard to focus cause I'm used to studying in my own place, with peace and quiet but my family is disruptive. Does anyone have any advice on how best to use my time in these remaining 2 weeks? If anyone is in a similar situation, I would love to support each other in these last few weeks. Thanks all in advance for your advice! wave.gif.f76ccbc7287c56e63c3d7e6d800ab6c

Specializes in Critical Care.
LadyFree28 said:
Take the practice tests WITHOUT looking it up. If you score between 60-70%, you are ready for the test. Now that is about to be January 1st. Take this time until the 5-7th to go over the rationales on what you got wrong on the practice tests. From 7th to the 11th, go through the practice tests as a time trial to see how you can endure through the exam. Between 11th and 14th, you can choose to study lightly, if you are one who studies down to the wire. Take care of yourself before during, and after the test. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Thank you so much for the advice! I really appreciate it! ? I resolve from now on to be honest and not look a single thing up! Do you feel that the way out of left field stuff Kaplan comes up with accurately represents the NCLEX? At this point I'm planning to do the remaining Q Trainer tests (4-7) and be done with them by the end of this week. I'm going to do the Readiness test the Saturday before the week I take it (3 days before) - do you think that gives me sufficient time to review should I prove to be below the 65% mark, or would you do it now?

1 Votes
Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
\ said:

Thank you so much for the advice! I really appreciate it! ? I resolve from now on to be honest and not look a single thing up! Do you feel that the way out of left field stuff Kaplan comes up with accurately represents the NCLEX? At this point I'm planning to do the remaining Q Trainer tests (4-7) and be done with them by the end of this week. I'm going to do the Readiness test the Saturday before the week I take it (3 days before) - do you think that gives me sufficient time to review should I prove to be below the 65% mark, or would you do it now?

Keep the pace that you are doing. The NCLEX WILL have that left field stuff...farther than Kaplan...but Kaplan has strategies to answer those questions the best way that you can. There were subjects I still were close to the 65% mark, and I still passed. If you are looking some stuff up and you are reviving high marks, you may see a drop, but may or may not be significant *shrugs*. See how it goes...keep me posted! And don't forget to study those alternative format questions!!

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.

Thank you so much! :) I am reviewing all day today - I feel I need to get my content as refreshed as possible to have confidence with questions, and then I will be taking Question Trainer 4 today. My hope is that despite taking it "cold" I still do okay. We'll see haha.

1 Votes

Hi everyone!

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

I'm preparing to take my NCLEX exam soon. I was wondering what are everyone's practice scores??? Mine are usually 66-70%. I'd like to know where I stand

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU.
\ said:

I agree! ? Are you doing Kaplan? I did my Question Trainer 3 this morning - I got 73% and only probably checked about 4 questions while doing that test (reviewing how to do Nagel's Rule etc.). I'm not a total fan of Kaplan honestly - I wonder if its making me over think things and go so far out of left field in an effort to make conjectures to answer these questions. But it seems to have a great track record with people passing so I'm sticking with it. I'm also doing Saunders Yellow Book. Today I watched the videos on Pharmacology and Reduction of Risk - Review of Class Questions (took a good two hours!) but I liked going through the questions with guidance to work on my thinking. This evening I'm going to review my weak spots of OB and Peds in the Saunders book.

Going forth, for the remainder of this week, I'm thinking of resolving to do either one Kaplan Question Trainer or 2 Q Banks a day *and* 100 question Saunder's tests a day and review at least 4 chapters of Saunders/day. What do you think of this and what are your plans?

Happy New Year! ? May it bring us a passing NCLEX on the first try!

Today marks my first (legit) day of studying LOL. I'll be in my library from 10-7 Monday-Saturday. I've been doing Kaplan q bank since August (our school required it) and have completed trainer 1-3. Plan on taking 4 today, as well as using the Kaplan NCLEX-RN book to review content chapter 1 & 2. Peds and OB is my TOTAL weakness, so I'll be reviewing that a lot. I have a job riding on this as well, start in the ICU at Hopkins next month ? happy new year to you too, we'll be RNs by the end of the month!

PM me if you want, maybe we could do a email study chain or iMessage or something!

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.
all517 said:
Today marks my first (legit) day of studying LOL. I'll be in my library from 10-7 Monday-Saturday. I've been doing Kaplan q bank since August (our school required it) and have completed trainer 1-3. Plan on taking 4 today, as well as using the Kaplan NCLEX-RN book to review content chapter 1 & 2. Peds and OB is my TOTAL weakness, so I'll be reviewing that a lot. I have a job riding on this as well, start in the ICU at Hopkins next month ? happy new year to you too, we'll be RNs by the end of the month!

PM me if you want, maybe we could do a email study chain or iMessage or something!

I too am planning on taking the QT 4 today. I have spent the past 2 days reviewing the 1st 30+ chapters of the Saunders Yellow Book (comprehensive). I have found several things that I wish I had reviewed prior to doing QT 1-3, so I feel this review has been a worthwhile use of my time, though it is very time consuming. My goal for today is to wrap up reviewing the first half of the Saunders book and do QT 4. I'll start PMing you from now on & I'm glad I have a study partner! ? I, too, have a job pending in the ICU (starting on Jan 21st and must be licensed by then) so I know what you mean.

1 Votes

Include me in the plan!! I am using Saunders as well...the Kaplan Course book is a bit frightening LOL....

1 Votes

I bought the Kaplan RN prep book and that was basically all I used primarily. I read it over like 2 times and did the tests. I highly recommend it to go along with the Q-bank you are using. Sounds like you have great scores anything over 60 is fabulous!

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm happy to report that I took Question Trainer 4 with no cheating - i.e. I didn't look anything up - and I got a 77.3%. However, I did study a ton before taking it - I did about the 1st 30 chapters in the Saunders Comprehensive review. I am wondering why it is that everyone says doing 100s of questions will help you pass the NCLEX when I find that knowing the content helps me more. Maybe I am thinking about this wrong. My goal for the remainder of the week is to take Q T's 5, 6, and 7 and finish my review of the Saunders book (a daunting task!). Next week I will just do all the Q bank questions, Saunders CD questions, and finish the small La Charity book.

I read stats of people doing literally thousands upon thousands of questions and I get worried cause that is not what I'm doing, however I hate doing billions of questions without being strong on my content. Does anyone have thoughts/opinions on either technique?

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.
DEE S. said:
I bought the Kaplan RN prep book and that was basically all I used primarily. I read it over like 2 times and did the tests. I highly recommend it to go along with the Q-bank you are using. Sounds like you have great scores anything over 60 is fabulous!

Thank you for the advice! I have been reviewing alot of content, but speaking as someone who has taken it (and passed!) do you feel it is really hard or detailed? Or should a good student be just fine with it. My trouble is that the alternate questions really get me. I get hung up on weird little things, for example the "put it in order-type" questions... like do I reposition the patient first, explain the procedure first, check the ID first ?? I think I have pretty good overall content but its impossible to know everything...

1 Votes

Just finished NCLEX. How soon can I do PVT?

1 Votes
Specializes in Critical Care.

Congratulations jnurse21! ?

These are my Question Trainer scores thus far: QT 1: 67%, QT 2: 75%, QT 3: 73%, QT 4: 77%, QT: 69%

I'm getting really burned out but I still have about half of the Saunders book left to study and much of the Q Bank. 10 days to go starting tomorrow!

1 Votes
+ Add a Comment