Published Jan 24, 2008
Thedreamer
384 Posts
I take my NCLEX-PN in a week. All of my hard work means nothing until I pass this test. No pressure right? *passes out*
MMARN, BSN, RN
914 Posts
Try to take a deep, cleansing breath, and study as best you can. You will do fine. Good luck! :)
CABG patch kid, BSN, RN
546 Posts
LOL I feel your pain. In one week from today I will be wondering if I passed! I just study a bit everyday and then go about my other business. Try not to stress on it and keep telling yourself "I have studied and will continue to study, there is no reason I won't pass"
Good luck!:balloons:
racing-mom4, BSN, RN
1,446 Posts
I just took my boards last week, let me tell you, it is really not that bad. If you do NCLEX questions at home on the computer it is just like that. I did ATI focused questions 1st to see where I was weakest at, then I targeted my Saunders and Davis disk to those sections. After I was getting 80%s or better in those topics I just started taking random test. I would go between Davis (my favorite disk) Suanders and some Mosbys. I also had a note box of 4000 Nclex cards I would take with me where ever I had to go,detist appointments, kids wrestling practice etc etc. I did so many questions that about 5 days before my test I felt as if I couldnt retain any more and I stopped. I drove up to the test site knowing I could not be better prepared. I left 45 min later taking 75 questions and I knew I passed. What a happy car ride home. Lucky me I got my results posted in less than 24 hours.
You can do it. Just do lots and lots and even more Nclex questions and I am telling you, you will be amazed how similiar the Boards are.
Best of luck!!!!
I just took my boards last week, let me tell you, it is really not that bad. If you do NCLEX questions at home on the computer it is just like that. I did ATI focused questions 1st to see where I was weakest at, then I targeted my Saunders and Davis disk to those sections. After I was getting 80%s or better in those topics I just started taking random test. I would go between Davis (my favorite disk) Suanders and some Mosbys. I also had a note box of 4000 Nclex cards I would take with me where ever I had to go,detist appointments, kids wrestling practice etc etc. I did so many questions that about 5 days before my test I felt as if I couldnt retain any more and I stopped. I drove up to the test site knowing I could not be better prepared. I left 45 min later taking 75 questions and I knew I passed. What a happy car ride home. Lucky me I got my results posted in less than 24 hours.You can do it. Just do lots and lots and even more Nclex questions and I am telling you, you will be amazed how similiar the Boards are.Best of luck!!!!
You give me hope in driving away from that place with a smile. So many people say they feel nauseous and dreadful after testing, it is refreshing to hear of someone who had a good experience
HeartJulz
305 Posts
I take mine in 11 days and I tell you I feel like I cannot prepare enough ... I dont know when I should stop!! I think I might be overstudying? I have been studying nearly straight up to 6-10 hrs for the past 2 weeks ... I have done an array of books from saunders to mosbys lippin cotts, etc etc. I have done a ton of ques. some of them are super hard and other books not so bad.... Im freakin out!!
That is exactly how I was, taking test all day long. I would get up and take a 20 question test before my shower, and then another 20 question while I was waiting for my hair to dry. ( I liked doing smaller tests vs larger because I am a bit impatient) at least once a day though I would take a larger test 75-100 questions. Remember the Nclex is basically a 50% test, as long as you have more right than wrong, your good. and i never scored below a 50!. My teachers always said shoot for 80% on practice test and that worked for me.
I can not stress enough how similiar the boards are to say a Davis or a Mosby disk. I only had a hand full of long questions, most were just a senence or two with short answeres for choices.Almost every time I could narrow it down to 2 answeres. THere was not a single topic that I did not have a question like at home. So many of the quesitons I was confident that I knew the correct answere that when I came to one that I had to narrow it down to two, I still felt OK because I knew I had got so many right before.
A ton of my questions were who would you see 1st. Then I had 3 choose all that would apply and 3 easy easy math.THere was a lot of pharm tossed into the mix such as what drug would you question, and a hand full of diet type questions, such as diet for someone on MAOIs, and Diet for some wiht Dumping syndrom.
Here is why I felt so confident I passed, when I got to #75, I read the question slowly, and totally knew the answer adn then the computer shut off, now why would it shut off if i didnt get it right? Had I have missed it and I was still on the 50% line it would have given me another questions. I figured when it shut off at 75 either I did really well or really bad, and I knew so many of the answeres I knew I didnt do really bad.
The test test for minimum competency and if your doing hundreds of quesitons a day and scoring above 70% , well you are above minimum competency---you will do fine.
I did take about 5 days off before the test and didnt do hardly any quesitons, just maybe 20 in the morning.
I am excited for you. Just keeping thinking 75!!!
I was out of there in 45 minutes and it felt wonderful!!!
Good luck!!!
ava'smomRN
703 Posts
racing-mom4- great advice. i am starting to hear more and more, that if you do enough questions you will be more comfertable and feel like you are at home during the exam. thanks for your great advice!
I dont want people to think the test is easy by any means---but the fact is, it does test for minimum competancy. If you made it through nursing school and understand basic concepts of body systems and the fact that the test is seeing what we as nurses will do---ex: dont call the DR, the test is not for what will the Dr do, it is what will we as nurses do..and you can complete many practice test at either 70 or 80% then you will be fine. They are not going to throw something at you that you never heard of before. If by chance you do get something you never heard of, you have taken so many test questions by this time, you can almost narrow it down to two choices just by the answeres. I have heard horror stories of people throwing up in the parking lot after taking thier test, or people having to take it multiple times. I did not want that to happen to me, doing practice questions will not hurt you, only help and I belvie in Quantity...do as many as humanly possible before you test. I really felt like I was at home taking the test. I was so focused I didnt even realize there were 9 other people in the room with me. I didnt even know I had completed 50 till I looked down and saw. I also think you should do the test questions at home fast. Go with your first gut instinct and dont change the answere. In school every single time I changed the answere it was wrong....
I can not stress enough, the test is not tricky. It is almost identical to a Davis or Mosby disk. Short questions with pretty simple answeres. I only had a few paragraph length quesitons. and the math. mg/kg/dose--and tabs per dose. Math was much much harder in school.
I am excited for you. It will be such a nice feeling when your done.
Thank you! I have hope! last night I did a lot more questions .. this Mosbys book I have been working on its crazy each chapt has around 4-500 questions ... just doing 3 pages is doing 120 questions!!! I still come across stuff I have never even heard of ... thats when I kinda get worried. I do remember reading in one book @ the bookstore stressing that NCLEX is about keeping people alive and what we will do as NURSES and mostly basic brand new nurse ... so I always keep that in mind ...and sometimes in ques. I forget when its a nursing process question to always make sure to gather data first before anything else ... I went over dumping syndrome, celiac dis., all the newborn assessments, a TON of stuff I have on a good file I bought back in Oct. its been a lifesaver! anyway its morning time and here i am again! I kinda wish I were taking it this friday ... cause I feel somewhat ready but I dotn want to push it .... thanx again!!!!!
A simple thing I was taught in Hurst review is "What can you do as a nurse to help the patient's problem?" And sometimes there is NOTHING we can do, so it is okay to call the doctor as long as you absolutely cannot do anything to help the problem. For example, if a patient is post-op and you think they might be internally bleeding, CALL THE DOC! There is nothing we can do to stop that, do not take vitals first, do not give pain med first, do not delay care in your answers.
And remember, how you answer the question is your one opportunity to send the NCLEX people a message. If you could only do ONE thing for the patient, what would it be? That's how I answer a question when I get stumped and it has been working in my practice questions.
As far as doing questions fast or slow, just go at your own pace. It took me about an hour to do 50 questions yesterday, but I did very good on them. I think the main thing to remember in your pace is that you don't want one little question to hold you up. If you spend more than two minutes on it, you probably aren't sure of the answer anyway. Make your best educated guess and move on, the test will give you a new question to prove your competence.
Best of luck to all of us this week and the next :)
Oh dear god.. 3 days left.. I havent been able to eat since Saturday. I have to stay focused though, I will do well. I study hard, I get good scores on my practice exams, I know my stuff.
Positive attitude.. As dory would say, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.."