Took Kaplan and passed NCLEX with 75 questions

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Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.

Hi everyone!

As I studied for NCLEX these last few weeks, I've been on this site back and forth looking at posts concerning Kaplan scores, study plans, and NCLEX results so I decided to post mine and to post what worked for me as far as studying goes. I graduated from a traditional BSN program this May 2014. After graduating, I took 2 weeks off to travel and see family and friends then I started my Kaplan review course the beginning of June. I received my ATT a week after my Kaplan course ended and scheduled to take the NCLEX in 5 weeks.

During my Kaplan course (4 days long), I took the Diagnostic Exam (57%) and Readiness Test (57%). I chose to take the Question Trainers after I finished the Kaplan course because I wanted to review content. I knew I was weak in content and I knew many of the questions I missed were because I needed to review content. I actually did rent the Saunders book but after reading the first few pages, I realized the questions were just review questions from the previous chapter and I felt like it didn't help me like Kaplan did so I didn't use the Saunders book. I knew reading NCLEX prep books wouldn't help me at this point. I chose to review content just by watching the Kaplan content videos and making sure I understood concepts.

As far as my study plan goes, I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish every day. I have a big erase board in my room and I made a calendar outline from the day I scheduled an appointment to take the NCLEX to the day of my NCLEX. Every single day, I would fill in the board with what I've studied. It kept me in check with my progress and it made me feel like I accomplished things every day. One day each week, I made sure to take a break and just not study at all. This kept me sane. Here's a general week-by-week outline of how I studied:

Week 1 (5 weeks until the NCLEX):

  • Watch Kaplan content videos related to my weakest areas from the Diagnostic & Readiness Tests.
  • Complete Question Trainers 1-3 (QT1 - 61.33%, QT2 - 51%, QT3 - 52%) and review the rationales the day after a Question Trainer was taken.

Week 2 (4 weeks until the NCLEX):

  • Watch Kaplan content videos related to my strongest areas from the Diagnostic & Readiness Tests.
  • Complete Question Trainers 4-5 (QT4 - 54%, QT5 - 93%)and review the rationales the day after a Question Trainer was taken.

Week 3 (3 weeks until the NCLEX):

  • Start the Kaplan Qbank by completing 150 questions a day as recommended by Kaplan. I did this by taking 3 50-question exams per day using the "All Items" option in the Question Reuse Mode (The more I see things repetitively, the more it sticks with me). After each exam, I would review the rationales and write in a notebook any content I didn't really know beforehand or I had trouble with remembering. I never actually went back to review the things I wrote in the notebook. I just retain things better by writing something down.

Week 4 (2 weeks until the NCLEX):

  • Complete 150 Qbank questions per day by doing the 3 50-question exams per day using the "All Items" option in the Question Reuse Mode and reviewing the rationales after each 50-question exam is taken.
  • Complete Question Trainer 6-7 (QT6 - 80%, QT7 - 50%, QT7 retake 1 week later after reviewing rationales - 98%)and review the rationales the day after a Question Trainer was taken.
  • Complete the "Alternate Quiz Type" which I don't remember my score on and it won't show me but I reviewed the rationales for that as well.

Week 5 (1 week until the NCLEX):

  • Complete 150 Qbank questions per day by doing 3 50-question exams per day using the "All Items" option then eventually using the "Incorrect Only" option in the Question Reuse Mode and reviewing the rationales after each 50-question exam is taken.
  • Review the PDF allnurses NCLEX review guide that is floating around this website. Just as I knew NCLEX prep books wouldn't help me with retaining anything, I didn't really retain anything from the guide except the mnemonics and some little things. Pretty helpful when it came to some priority or isolation questions on the NCLEX though.
  • Review any content videos that I was still weak on as shown under my "Cumulative Performance: Test Content" in the Qbank.

Week of NCLEX (I had about 3 days left to review):

  • Take the NCLEX sample tests (ST1 - 52%, ST2 - 56%, ST3 All Priority - 83%, ST4 Mostly Select All That Apply, Drag & Drop, and Med Calc - 40%) and review the rationales after I took them.

Day of NCLEX:

I went to church for mass in the morning and spent some time there after just reflecting and praying. I did this because I knew it would calm me down and it did. I ate brunch, went home and tried to study little things but I realized, there was really no more preparation that I could do or that I could retain. I read somewhere on someone else's post on allnurses that trying to review things on the day of your NCLEX won't help you because it will just confuse you with information you've already learned and studied. I thought that was silly because I always review things before exams and it's always helped me before but I realized what that person meant now.

I got to the testing center half an hour early, checked in, and I remember the moment I sat in front of the screen that this was it. Kaplan's Qbank and Question Trainer format, down to the colors, really resemble the NCLEX like people have said here. I did feel more at ease because of that. I didn't keep track of how many questions I got of each type but I remember knowing the answers to the first 4 questions then getting about 10-15 Select All That Apply (SATA) questions in a row after that. I had some questions with pictures, a lot of Drag and Drop, and no math. I realized most of my questions up until question 50-55 or so were SATA or Drag and Drop. Around question 55, I remember getting multiple choice questions with a few SATA tucked in. I remember looking at the timer and realizing how long I was taking per question. I'm usually a fast test taker but all the SATA's were taking me forever. By question 75, I realized 90 minutes already passed and when I clicked next, the computer shut down then the nice little Pearson Vue survey came up. I walked out feeling ok but as I walked to my car, I got mixed feelings. When I got home, I did the Pearson Vue Trick and it gave me the "good pop up" error ("Our records indicate that you have recently scheduled this exam. Another registration cannot be made at this time"). A part of me was happy to see this, but another part of me just felt more anxious. The next day I checked the board of nursing's site to see if they processed my NCLEX score and it led me to a different website showing my license number, which it did so I PASSED! :)

Overall, I think the fact that I focused on both content and practicing questions really helped me. I'm happy that I focused on reviewing content based on how I know I retain things best. I would read these posts to get a general idea of how other people studied and realized it worked for them because it was based on how they study best. I knew I wanted to stick with 1-2 study materials so I did (Kaplan and a little bit of that allnurses PDF guide). I didn't even read the Kaplan Content Review guide because I felt overwhelmed by all the details so I stuck with the content videos.

Study by how you know you study best. Use these study outlines as a guide or an inspiration to make your own. Only you know how you retain information efficiently so use that to your advantage. Kaplan worked for me because I made it work for me. I completed 100% of the questions but I only did 150 questions a day as recommended unless it was one of the Question Trainers that gave you more than 150 questions. My Qbank scores started from as low as 46% to as high as 96%. I pretty much saw an average of scores ranging from 76-84% by Week 5. Take your time reviewing and familiarize yourself with the NCLEX format. Study smart! Good luck!

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Specializes in Maternal Newborn.

Wow, your post is heartfelt and I'm really happy all your work paid off and you passed NCLEX. Congratulations big time!! Your note is very inspiring and helpful.

I do have a few a questions as I have some of the materials you mentioned. I took HURST (good for a live review class though content is a little narrow). Class and their videos are lively and helpful (narrow in terms of content compared to Kaplan content book/videos and much less than Saunders). Anyway, I have Kaplan on-line (videos, qtrainer, qbank) and also NCSBN. I'm finishing up my review in HURST - and now going to focus more on Kaplan. So far, I've done Q1-3 trainers and read a little of the Kaplan book. I've done about 1,600 q's so far and my NCLEX date is 8/7. Overall, did you think the content videos and doing all the Kaplan q's (trainers/qbank) helped you for the actual NCLEX? I also, have LaCharity's PDA book - not sure if you used that and/or recommend it? Lastly, would you say you wrote things down daily like information from the video and any answers from q's you got wrong (or right though wanted to jot information)? I'm doing this - though like you said I've not been able to review my notes again (atleast yet) though I retain a lot of what I write. :)

Thanks so much again for your inspiring note and tips on what helped "sink information in" and worked for you. Feel free to PM me as well.

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Congratulations to you, nktxo!!!!!! I am so happy for you! :cat:

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Congrats!!! Thanks for the detailed test plan! I have Kaplan questions!

I took the Classroom Review so already completed the Diagnostic, the Qtrainers and Readiness. I'm now doing Qbanks have done 3 so far and my scores went down not up so I started to hit content harder. Kaplan says doing questions is the key so I know that I need to start again.

Diagnostic- 65%

QTrainer 1- 61%

QTrainer 2- 51%

QTrainer 3- 52%

QTrainer 4- 62%

QTrainer 5- 57%

QTrainer 6- 63%

QTrainer 7- 61%

Readiness- 67%

Sample Test #1 52% 50 questions

(I first did the Sample Test #1 then read that you are supposed to those after you are done with the Qbanks. Ugh!!)

Qbank #1 53% 75 questions

Qbank #2 60% 50 questions

Qbank #3 52% 75 questions (It all goes downhill over 50 questions! Yikes!)

Complete 150 Qbank questions per day by doing the 3 50-question exams per day

Can you create as many Qbank tests/day as you want? I though you could create only 1 per day. Not sure where I got that though!

I want to do all of them through once and go back to the incorrect again too.

THANKS!!!!

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You can create as many Qbank tests per day. I created multiple ones daily because I prefer smaller question groups compared to doing 75q straight through.

I know that once you get any question right then you can't use that in creating another test. But, you can always review the tests you created afterwards. I believe that's sort of a flaw with the Kaplan Qbank. I would've like to reuse the questions again once I completed the entire Qbank.

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Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.
Wow, your post is heartfelt and I'm really happy all your work paid off and you passed NCLEX. Congratulations big time!! Your note is very inspiring and helpful.

I do have a few a questions as I have some of the materials you mentioned. I took HURST (good for a live review class though content is a little narrow). Class and their videos are lively and helpful (narrow in terms of content compared to Kaplan content book/videos and much less than Saunders). Anyway, I have Kaplan on-line (videos, qtrainer, qbank) and also NCSBN. I'm finishing up my review in HURST - and now going to focus more on Kaplan. So far, I've done Q1-3 trainers and read a little of the Kaplan book. I've done about 1,600 q's so far and my NCLEX date is 8/7. Overall, did you think the content videos and doing all the Kaplan q's (trainers/qbank) helped you for the actual NCLEX? I also, have LaCharity's PDA book - not sure if you used that and/or recommend it? Lastly, would you say you wrote things down daily like information from the video and any answers from q's you got wrong (or right though wanted to jot information)? I'm doing this - though like you said I've not been able to review my notes again (atleast yet) though I retain a lot of what I write. :)

Thanks so much again for your inspiring note and tips on what helped "sink information in" and worked for you. Feel free to PM me as well.

Thank you! For me, I felt the Kaplan content videos reviewed conditions and procedures very well. I made sure not to overwhelm myself and watch too many videos at once. I wanted to really make sure I understood what they were presenting in the videos. If I felt uneasy about a topic, then I would just search more about it online in terms/explanations made for the general public because it was explained in simpler terms. The Question Trainers helped me with learning more content by reviewing the rationales and getting used to sitting down and taking longer and longer exams until QT7 with the 265 questions. The Qbank also helped me in terms of getting used to answering NCLEX questions on a timer and also reviewing content through the rationales. I didn't find out about the PDA book until a week before my NCLEX so I never used it but I felt some parts of the Kaplan strategies for priority and delegation and a lot of the Qbank questions helped prepare me enough to make priority and delegation decisions. I had a few of those questions on my NCLEX and I used Kaplan's strategies and Maslow's to answer them. Sample Test 3 in the Qbank is all priority questions and that helped me as well.

In my notebooks, I would write down any information I knew didn't stick with me beforehand. If the presenter said something in the videos that I just couldn't remember on my own or that I never knew, then I would write it down. When I reviewed rationales from the Question Trainers or the Qbank, I would review every single question, regardless of me getting it right or wrong, and I would review the rationale for each answer. If I didn't know something beforehand or couldn't remember something, I would write it down. This was kind of my way to make things stick with me. I never went back to actually review the notebooks because I knew it would take too much time and also, since I was on the "All Items" for the Question Reuse Mode, I would see questions repeatedly so this helped me with learning content/rationales because of the repetition.

I realized quickly how impossible it is to know absolutely everything because there's just too many conditions, diseases, medications, procedures, and whatever else out there. For me, knowing general concepts and being able to break down medical terms helped me a lot on the NCLEX - this came in handy when I didn't know a certain procedure/test that question is asking about, I would break down the medical term and try to figure out how to answer the question that way. Maslow's and Kaplan's Decision Tree/Strategies were also really helpful when it came to certain priority and delegation questions. Don't overwhelm yourself and good luck on your NCLEX! :)

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Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.
Congratulations to you, nktxo!!!!!! I am so happy for you! :cat:

Thank you!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.
Congrats!!! Thanks for the detailed test plan! I have Kaplan questions!

I took the Classroom Review so already completed the Diagnostic, the Qtrainers and Readiness. I'm now doing Qbanks have done 3 so far and my scores went down not up so I started to hit content harder. Kaplan says doing questions is the key so I know that I need to start again.

Diagnostic- 65%

QTrainer 1- 61%

QTrainer 2- 51%

QTrainer 3- 52%

QTrainer 4- 62%

QTrainer 5- 57%

QTrainer 6- 63%

QTrainer 7- 61%

Readiness- 67%

Sample Test #1 52% 50 questions

(I first did the Sample Test #1 then read that you are supposed to those after you are done with the Qbanks. Ugh!!)

Qbank #1 53% 75 questions

Qbank #2 60% 50 questions

Qbank #3 52% 75 questions (It all goes downhill over 50 questions! Yikes!)

Can you create as many Qbank tests/day as you want? I though you could create only 1 per day. Not sure where I got that though!

I want to do all of them through once and go back to the incorrect again too.

THANKS!!!!

Thank you! Wow, your QT scores are pretty good and consistent. I felt like mine were all over the place but I know Kaplan wants you to score >60% but I kept hearing 50%+ was fine. You can create as many Qbank tests per day as you want. I just did 3 per day because I did 50-question exams at a time, as it said in Kaplan's recommended study plans. So doing 3 50-question Qbank exams per day meant I was doing 150 questions a day, which is the recommendation. I think by the time I finished studying, I did about 55 Qbank exams using "All Items" and "Incorrect Only" options. Good luck!

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Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.
You can create as many Qbank tests per day. I created multiple ones daily because I prefer smaller question groups compared to doing 75q straight through.

I know that once you get any question right then you can't use that in creating another test. But, you can always review the tests you created afterwards. I believe that's sort of a flaw with the Kaplan Qbank. I would've like to reuse the questions again once I completed the entire Qbank.

Actually, if you place yourself on "All Items" for the Question Reuse Mode, you'll see questions you've gotten right in previous Qbank exams. I kept using the "All Items" option because I learn best by repetition. When I would review rationales, I thought it was nice that I would see rationales for the questions I've already gotten right before because the rationales would stick with me more. Good luck! :)

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Specializes in Maternal Newborn.

You're totally an angel; I really appreciate your kindness in providing me (and others here) feedback, advice and cheer! I totally agree with you, in that I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the resources and toggling between studying content and then q's. Some friends of mine are just studying q's - though I'm finding "hearing" videos and information and reviewing some content is helpful. While I got good grades in nursing school, some things we whipped over... ;)

Did you feel NCLEX q's were hard/tricky like some of Kaplan's? Less hard or ? Were you able to eliminate a few answers off the bat? Were a lot of q's unfamiliar to you or did you know most? I know you can't say the q's you got and specifics - and I respect that and will do the same after I take it.

Thanks so much again for being an inspiration to us here! It means a lot.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neurosurgery, Stroke, Trauma, NICU.
You're totally an angel; I really appreciate your kindness in providing me (and others here) feedback, advice and cheer! I totally agree with you, in that I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the resources and toggling between studying content and then q's. Some friends of mine are just studying q's - though I'm finding "hearing" videos and information and reviewing some content is helpful. While I got good grades in nursing school, some things we whipped over... ;)

Did you feel NCLEX q's were hard/tricky like some of Kaplan's? Less hard or ? Were you able to eliminate a few answers off the bat? Were a lot of q's unfamiliar to you or did you know most? I know you can't say the q's you got and specifics - and I respect that and will do the same after I take it.

Thanks so much again for being an inspiration to us here! It means a lot.

Aw, you're welcome! Posts on here helped me out a lot over the years so I'm more than happy to help others. I noticed many people on here use several resources but I searched through what I thought would be best for me and that was Kaplan. I stopped relying solely on reviews and took the time to look at different types of resources and see if I would actually be efficient and effective with it. I personally thought it was important for me to study both content and questions. I knew I needed to know content to answer questions and I knew I needed to study questions since there are so many strategies to answer NCLEX questions. I wanted to get comfortable with answering all the types of NCLEX questions, which is why I appreciated the variety from Kaplan.

I read on here once about people saying the NCLEX was more straight forward and less wordy than Kaplan questions and I pretty much agree. A lot of the content I reviewed from the videos and the Kaplan rationales helped me answer questions, especially with the SATA. I know I had a few questions that I completely had no idea what they were talking about but I figured it was either a part of the 15 random tester questions they throw in the first 75 or I just honestly had no idea and tried my best to answer it using strategies. I really took my time for the first couple dozen questions but I accepted that it was ok. I knew how important the first few questions are in determining your competence and ability to answer above passing level questions. I learned to get rid of my habit of changing answers and instead to just trust my knowledge and Maslow's/ABC's/Decision Tree. My main goal during studying was to make sure I did 150 questions a day and just add whatever else I needed to do in between. I also printed out mini versions of the Kaplan Decision Tree PDF and stuck it to my wall in front of my desk where I study so it was a constant reminder for me, just like during the 4-day Kaplan class where the instructor had posters of the Decision Tree taped up. Just remember, you still have time until 8/7. Every day counts so just study the way you study best.

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Specializes in Maternal Newborn.

It sounds like you got a good system down and it was very helpful to you on NCLEX.

I think part of my problem is mastering deciphering/breaking down and the strategy piece. Watching videos and reviewing questions (and writing stuff down is helpful and I'm gaining a lot of info) though I still don't think I've mastered or use a specific way to answer q's. Especially, if the question is totally off the wall/unfamiliar... feel at a loss. Sounds like the Kaplan decision tree worked for you. I did watch the Kaplan Strategy/Test Taking video a few weeks ago - I think I will review it again and implement it when answering questions to see if it helps. I did take qtrainer 4 recently and got 64% not bad.

Thank you again!!

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