I took the test this A.M. It stopped at 75 questions. I didn't feel it was that hard... there were a lot of questions I wasn't 100% on of course but at least I was able to eliminate answers on most of the questions.
Also, as for pharm, for those who haven't taken it yet, all I can say is DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED. I read a lot of responses and all of my friends have said "It's not worth studying. I didn't even recognize half of the drugs." I studied pharm a lot and I recognized all but 1 drug on the test. And the drug I didn't realize I got a little blurb about what it was for before they asked the question. So, it is worth it to study.
I would say the content area stuff for the test breakdown was definitely accurate. The percentages of maternity, pediatrics, pharm were all relative to the % listed on the NCLEX website.
Also, I got a ton of priority, delegation, and select all that apply questions. On a recommendation from here I bought the 250 alternative items book at B&N this week and went through to do the practice questions. I found it so helpful! Those were my weakest area and I felt better at least having had some success answering the ones in the book.
I hope I did alright on it... otherwise I'll be back here posting a lot while I wait to retake it and get a lovely vacation from work... I will be back to post my results when I get them. Best of luck to everyone who is about to take them or who took them today. I know there were several of us!
the secret is probably to keep studying. i did review pharm very intensely for about 5-6 hours a week before the test. i felt like i got it that night. had never done that before (we didnt have a dedicated pharm class in school) and it seemed to come together. good luck!
That 250 alt question book was definitely helpful. Everyone's test is different but the material in there is very general and covers ALL areas (pedi, maternity, cardiac, renal, gi disorders, infection, etc) so it is an EXCELLENT review! Not so many priority questions in there-- mostly select all that apply and math for those who do happen to see some math on the test.
Still no word on whether I passed.
But as for my materials, I had a kaplan book but did not buy the questions or the classroom from Kaplan. If I had to retake it I think I would do the qbank and trainers from Kaplan.
I used Drexel's video course, Lippincott's alt questions, Lippincott's test questions with five 200 question practice tests, and a Saunders book with cd (didnt read any of the material in there- just did the questions on the cd). The first few weeks I reviewed videos about 1-2 hrs/day. Then I reviewed videos for about 1 hour/day and did 25-50 questions/day. Then for the last month I did 1-200 questions/day. Throughout the 2 months I did several 200 q practice tests to gauge where I was at. In the end, I did 5000 questions.
Still waiting on results... good luck to those who are still studying. Hang in there and keep it up! At this point, it feels good to have put my all into it no matter what the results are.
Can you please share what grades you got on saunders questions (average) before you took the exam?
Also- you said you studied pharm- what source did you use for studying pharm?
Thanks!
I used Saunder questions on a study mode. For pharm I used Mosby's Pharmacology Memory NoteCards written by Zerwekh, Claborn, Gaglione, and Miller and Kaplan. Did you take Kaplan?
:balloons::smiley_aa:yelclap:
grnmtngirl
48 Posts
no answers yet, still waiting to hear...
the secret is probably to keep studying. i did review pharm very intensely for about 5-6 hours a week before the test. i felt like i got it that night. had never done that before (we didnt have a dedicated pharm class in school) and it seemed to come together. good luck!