hi everyone! i PASSED the nclex on thursday june 21 with 75 questions. thanks to the goddesses :-)
i read this site a lot and got lots of good studying tips and wanted to share my own impressions of the exam.
i studied for this test much differently than i have done for any other test...i did not memorize ANYTHING. i really believe the key to acing this test is not to learn content, but to practice your questions! i attended a kaplan review and felt like the classroom learning was a waste, but their online question trainers and q-bank were worth every penny. their q-bank tests are EXACTLY like the real deal. there were absolutely no surprises, i felt just like i was at home practicing on kaplan.
i just took test after test in tutor mode (kaplan's q-bank), and every time i missed a question i wrote my rationale down in a spiral notebook, then reviewed that notebook once a day. seriously, that is ALL I DID. it was really hard to resist "cramming" for this test, but i am so glad i did not. a lot of questions on the nclex are so random that cramming most likely won't help, but the ability to think critically will. (even though i am an OB person, hate med-surge and know nothing about buck's traction or the like.)
just thought if there are other "type a" folks out there, my experience may help. resist the temptation to "know it all!" also, my other piece of advice is to take the day before the test off from studying and get some R&R. the day i quit studying was so hard, i had to keep fighting the urge to take another test, so needless to say i was a little wound up.
oh, and this has been said before but it bears repeating: the test is designed for everyone to get 50% wrong, so be prepared to get a lot of questions on the test you don't know. just don't let it trip you up. remember 85% of people pass on the first attempt, the stats are in our favor.
very best of luck to all the test-takers out there!!! thanks again for this great supportive group.
Any thoughts on when I should start studying for NCLEX? I graduate on May 30th. I always like to stay ahead but I don't know if it's going to be too much if I start before graduation...
Any thoughts on when I should start studying for NCLEX? I graduate on May 30th. I always like to stay ahead but I don't know if it's going to be too much if I start before graduation...
I would think a couple of months should do it. Definitely, there are several "modes" I would say. .......
Have down your basic lab values - ncsbn.org spells this out very clearly - what you need to know, and what you don't.
medical conditions, side effects, etc. remember you will never be asked what drug to give for what condition. it's not a nurses job.
meds - this seems to be a "crap shoot" - some people let lots, some dont get any. I got a few and had never heard of them.
I would highly recommend Mosby's priority and delegation book. It isn't very long but I definitely felt that I could do any question of this type when I was done.
practice nclex questions, but don't kill yourself - sure some people will tell you they did 100 questions a day. this is my take - it is far more imnportant for you to completely assess why you got something wrong, and maybe write down your evaluation. for example, you missed it because the question said early symptom, and you picked something that would present itself later on. more on questions - be obsessive about reading the question. the devil is in the details. amazingly, some questions will ask you for a symptom, then most of the answers will be interventions, right interventions, but not the answer.
remember that the nclex is more of a game, a hoop you must jump through to get your license. My personal opinion is that you have to be quite clever to pass it, and nurses must be clever people. On the other hand, very bright people do flunk it first time. Most of all, it is so important for you to really understand the quirks of the test. Look at it this way - in order for a multiple choice test to be of any value, the wrong answers MUST look right. How do they pull this off? This is kind of the holy grail. Rather than say, himmm, which is the right answer here, ask yourself, which answers are pretending to be right, when they are actually wrong. One last thing - those sata, or select all that apply are a real pain. You may know most things about an illness, but not know if the patients skin will be dry or sweaty, etc. I'm guessing the sata ones are often the "test" questions. They are hard.
Could it be that the ten percent, or whatever the percentage is blow it because they're nervous? Remember most people pass it, and even more importantly, it is a pain to fail, but you can take it again. And you will be at a real advantage second time around. Try not to think of it as a sink or swim situation, and this in itself will lower your stress. Everybody is different. My impression from reading many of the allnurses.com posts about the nclex is I had absolutely no way of know what I was going to get in terms of questions. Therefore, I told myself, "why worry about something about which you have no control?" Thankfully, my test seemed to focus on "what would you do first" kind of questions, which I'm good at. Each test is unique - I had the same really basic math problem, dressed in different numbers - I started to freak out - why does it keep asking me this? Am I making a mistake on this simple "what you have on hand, what you need, kind of math problem" I haven't a clue why this was so. Worse, I was thinking I would flunk if I was making the same mistake, but I didn't.
Last tip - it was my observation that the ncsbn.org questions were not only most like "Real" questions, I actually had one that was the same. The ncsbn writes the test, so it figures.
Last thing - wouldn't it be nice for somebody to gather all the tips from allnurses.com, and put it in an organzied form? It really is a game like no other - just know your adversary, and you'll win!
I just passed the NCLEX-PN:w00t:, and and I'm not sure any of the different study questions were really helpful. It seemed to me like I got a lot of "if a train leaves NY going 35 mph, and a train leaves San Diego going 59 mph, what color tie is the station manager wearing in Topeka?" I mean, things where you looked at the screen and went "What?!" Obviously, I did something right, but I walked out the door sure I'd failed the thing.
thanks so much for your advice..i'm now studying for the nclex-rn and i'm beating myself up..just don't know how to study..i start kaplan live course on monday, i have yet to do the qbank and qt..but now after reading your post i'll look at them tonight..i'm just so afraid of not knowing anything!
hi can you tell me where to get the mosby prioritization book please.. i went to barnes nad noble they don't seem to have it..Can you tell me te exact title and year..
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
hi can you tell me where to get the mosby prioritization book please.. i went to barnes nad noble they don't seem to have it..Can you tell me te exact title and year..
hi can you tell me where to get the mosby prioritization book please.. i went to barnes nad noble they don't seem to have it..Can you tell me te exact title and year..
I just passed the NCLEX-PN:w00t:, and and I'm not sure any of the different study questions were really helpful. It seemed to me like I got a lot of "if a train leaves NY going 35 mph, and a train leaves San Diego going 59 mph, what color tie is the station manager wearing in Topeka?" I mean, things where you looked at the screen and went "What?!" Obviously, I did something right, but I walked out the door sure I'd failed the thing.
I took the test today, and this is exactly how I thought the questions went: I kept thinking, "What?!" Who cares what the color of the tie is!!!
My stopped at 85. And I wonder if mathmatically it is possible for me to have failed. I know that I got at least 1/2 of them right That is 30 because there are 25 that don't count. If that is so, then if the test goes to 205, then I would have failed with a potential 85% score. That is a B grade. It makes no sense.
By the way, today, I had no math questions at all, which are my strong point. It was mostly priority in an emergency, meds I've never heard of, and some mental health, some pregnancy and GU. I had to know several lab normal ranges.
I suppose I passed, but it was a nutty test. We'll see! None of the study questions in my Saunders or Kaplan book did me any good!
I took the test today, and this is exactly how I thought the questions went: I kept thinking, "What?!" Who cares what the color of the tie is!!!
My stopped at 85. And I wonder if mathmatically it is possible for me to have failed. I know that I got at least 1/2 of them right That is 30 because there are 25 that don't count. If that is so, then if the test goes to 205, then I would have failed with a potential 85% score. That is a B grade. It makes no sense.
By the way, today, I had no math questions at all, which are my strong point. It was mostly priority in an emergency, meds I've never heard of, and some mental health, some pregnancy and GU. I had to know several lab normal ranges.
This is sooo funny! how does the computer "know" your strong suit, and avoid it? Dunno, it's been my impression stopping quickly is generally a good sign, unless you bombed completely. I'm sure you passed, but of course, you will know when you know. To be sure, this is an enigmatic test. I was given the same type of math question over and over. I have no idea why, but it rattled me. It was just one of those basic "what you have on hand, what you need" kind of things. I kept thinking, oh no, should I NOT put the "placement" zero before the decimal point. No, that's crazy, of course I should. It's incredible that even if we have ourselves all psychologically prepared, something that pops up in the test (such as, why oh why do I keep getting this question) and it can knock us off our horse.
Good luck!!!
Diahni
P.S. You know how many times I have read "the Saunders, Kaplan, (fill in the blank) practice questions did no good??? How can this be? I can say, however, that some of the national nursing board questions were right on target for me. All told, there is a certain trick to getting good at taking the NCLEX. It's hard for me to put it in words. Hard facts and practicing questions comes first, of course. Beyond this, there is a very alert and analytical mental state required. Miss one thing, and it's wrong.
What helped me was little things I remembered from lectures, like Ace inhibitors s/e is a cough. And we did jeopardy often, and the little details from that helped too.
When I came home and looked up some of the questions, I couldn't find it in the practice books, I had to go back and look them up in my Med/Surg book.
Saunders and Kaplan were worthless!
I have also heard that either you do completely terrible or did well. I don't think I did 'terrible'... so I hope I am OK. We did the "predictor" and I did well on that. But, only prayer helps in the long run!
What helped me was little things I remembered from lectures, like Ace inhibitors s/e is a cough. And we did jeopardy often, and the little details from that helped too.
When I came home and looked up some of the questions, I couldn't find it in the practice books, I had to go back and look them up in my Med/Surg book.
Saunders and Kaplan were worthless!
I have also heard that either you do completely terrible or did well. I don't think I did 'terrible'... so I hope I am OK. We did the "predictor" and I did well on that. But, only prayer helps in the long run!
Thanks!
Kay
Kay,
I would feel overwhelmed looking at my texts, maybe not so much my notes. The internet is a great way to refresh our fading info. I think if you looked up ACE vs. ARBs one of the first things the info would point out is the cough. What gets me is it is sometimes hard to figure out the important stuff from written material, while real experience will drive things home. If you have worked with a lot of cardiac patients, you'd know side effects cold. When there is a long list in a med book about symptoms, it doesn't really give a clear picture.
nursing4nena
55 Posts
Any thoughts on when I should start studying for NCLEX? I graduate on May 30th. I always like to stay ahead but I don't know if it's going to be too much if I start before graduation...