The stuff they didnt teach

[EmpathyInAction]

I'm scheduled to take my NCLEX for the first time on the 19th. I've been slowly working through my Hurst material again and practice questions. As time gets closer I have been spending more time on the practice questions and rationale. What seems to make me the most nervous is the sheer volume of questions related to things I wasn't taught. Treatments I have never heard of, drugs that were never taught and don't have a readily identifiable stem (e.g. mycin, pril, prazole, etc) and the like. My school wasn't laxed or easy and is part of a nationally ranked hospital, so I doubt the problem is lack of material coverage in school.

So I'm wondering if anyone else is noticing this phenomanon? How do you handle these questions? The worst is when there is a medication named and no patient details given and then it asks about a common side effect. That gives me nothing to formulate an educated guess.

With all that said, I doubt that these type of questions alone would cause me to fail the NCLEX, but I wouldnt mind trying to get a better handle on them before the exam.

Thanks in advance! :)

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

This is stuff they don't teach, but often helps. Know that graduating gives you about an 85% chance of passing. Try this stuff on your test day:

Something that I did which helped a lot was with each question, I took a slow deep breath. Then I read the question, answered it in my head and then compared that answer to what was on the screen. If something matched, I knew something was close to right. Then I'd go back and re-read the question and look specifically for any key words and phrases that related to the answers. Then I'd go over the answers again and then answer which one was likely the right one. Then once I click "submit" I'd go on to the next question. The one I just answered didn't matter and the next one that I was going to get didn't matter either. The one in front of me was the only one that mattered. Also, I was prepared mentally to go the full 265/6 hours. Anything less than that would be a bonus. In my case, it shut off at 75 and I passed... but I was ready to go much longer than that.

Oh, and yes, the NCLEX was most definitely the hardest test I've ever taken. It's designed to find your limits and it certainly found mine. Don't be afraid of it... embrace it because if the questions are hard, you're working. If they're easy, well... you're not and you should be!

You really have to pay attention to those questions. While they're basically straightforward, you have to make sure that you didn't skip or misread a word because that can have disastrous results by causing you to answer the question incorrectly. Because I'm a fast test taker, I also tend to read questions very quickly. That has led me to occasionally misread a question and answer the question incorrectly... but correctly for the way I'd read the question.

Slow down, take your time. The only question that really matters is the one in front of you. Remember you really do have 6 hours to do 265 questions and plan to go the full distance. If it shuts off before that, great!

[dbrenda1510]

To add my two cents I will you do not run out of time. If you do only the last sixty are graded...makes no difference how well you did before the last sixty. Just fyi

[dan1100rt]

Everyone with whom I went to nursing school came out of the NCLEX testing room with the same stunned expression. I ran into questions about things I had never heard of, but did pass with 75 questions. Rely on the test taking strategies covered in Hurst or Kaplan when in doubt.

[phuretrotr]

I had some of those oddball diseases. You don't know if it is right or not but I just suggest to go with your gut instinct... That usually works because you don't know what you know :)