Took NCLEX yesterday morning, got good pop up, here's how I studied

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Hey all, I've been browsing these boards for awhile prior to my NCLEX for good tips and advice, I took my NCLEX yesterday morning (scheduled it for 2 weeks after I received my ATT but I've been studying since I graduated) and stopped at 75 questions which took a little under an hour. I felt confident the whole way through and left the test center smiling. My feelings were confirmed after I got the good pop-up :up:

I just wanted to give my advice for studying for those who have yet to take it.

1. First, unless you didn't pay attention in nursing school or have no clue what something is, DON'T waste time reviewing content. Your studying should consist of doing a minimum of 150-200 questions per day separated into sets of 50 questions each. Most importantly, you need to read each and every rationale thoroughly whether you got the answer right or wrong. The meat of the studying comes from reading the rationales for every single question that you do. Keep track of your daily score, mine averaged anywhere between 60-80% usually, but I wasn't too worried about a low score as long as I read the rationales and understood why I got it wrong.

2. Whatever study source you use, try to use no more than three or four so that you're not all over the place. First, I used LaCharity's priority and delegation book, this book is a MUST. Most of the NCLEX for me were priority questions and the level of difficulty in this book is similar to the real test.

The second source I used was Lippincott's Q&A Review for the NCLEX, it is basically just a huge Q&A book with over 5,800 questions and 6 full comprehensive tests at the end. I've been using this book since nursing school and I finished all the comprehensive tests while studying for the NCLEX; it definitely helped because I feel that the questions in Lippincott were of a higher difficulty than the NCLEX. The rationales are also unbelievably thorough also.

Lastly, I bought the NCLEX-RN review from learningext.com. You can choose to purchase a 3 week, 5 week, or 7 week course. The main point of using an online-review and Q&A is to become familiar of doing computerized questions. Learningext provides a review in addition to questions, but again I did not waste time reviewing. I did the pre-test, post-test, and all the comprehensive practice tests. Have an online question bank is very important because when I finally sat down for my NCLEX, the whole time it felt like I was simply doing online questions at home instead of a test center. Like Lippincott, the learningext questions were definitely harder than the real test so I felt very comfortable during my NCLEX.

3. Read over the review from SenseiRN's thread, it gives good tips and mnemonics especially with remembering infection control; I had a lot of those questions on mine.

Good luck everyone! Remember, it might help to pray, meditate, or perform whatever relaxing ritual you want; but unless you put in the work you might struggle. Just like in sports, repetition is key. If you put in the practice time, you will perform well on game day :up:

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NIce! Congrats! How did you feel about the Lippincott Q&A book? I bought it a few weeks ago. They seemed a little bit more difficult, which I kind of like so it could get me thinking more. I had the Kaplan books too and I thought Lippincotts questions were a little harder. Did you do all the tests in the Lippincott or just the comprehensive. Also, how were your scores? Mine were in the low 60's which is kind of discouraging.

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Congratz!!

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I really liked the Lippincott Q&A Book, I bought it during nursing school and I did NCLEX questions to help study for my exams. I did questions from the chapters of specific body systems depending on what topics my exam was going to cover.

While studying for the NCLEX, I mainly did the comprehensive tests so I could get in the groove of answering questions from different topics which simulates the NCLEX itself. My grades were probably in the low-mid 60's also, but don't worry, just read the rationales and figure out why you got them wrong.

Good luck!

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Cool thanks for the advice. Did you think the Lippincott questions were similar, harder, or easier on the Nclex? I've heard Kaplan's questions seem to be a little bit more difficult than the Nclex.

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Lippincott's questions were definitely harder for me than the NCLEX questions were.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Congrats on passing that is awesome!!! Thank you for the tips also. It's good to know that you found Lippincott's Q&A helpful as I just purchased it! Hoping that it will help me also! Thanks!

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Got my quick results this morning, PVT works, I passed! Good luck to all of you!

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Specializes in RN.

3. Read over the review from SenseiRN's thread, it gives good tips and mnemonics especially with remembering infection control; I had a lot of those questions on mine.

Where is this SensiRN thread? Thanks!

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.

Congrats on passing and thank you for these helpful pointers! I take mine tomorrow at 10am :)

Reviewing that study guide now, amazing compilation!

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Got my quick results this morning, PVT works, I passed! Good luck to all of you!

i just would like to know if the PVt trick works even if you did not pay thru credit card

and you dont have yet made an account in it?? pls hellllp.......:uhoh3::uhoh3::uhoh3:

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