Whats more important????

Indian_rn2b · May 20, 2012

I would say BOTH.If you don't know your content then there is no way the strategies are gonna help you find the right answer and if you are really good at your content you still need to learn the test taking strategies coz NCLEX is not a knowledge based test. They are not testing our knowledge that we have from nursing school. They want us to show them that we are able to think critically and solve the problems efficiently. So we need a mixture of both in order to pass this exam..:)

Faye313 · May 20, 2012

Hi!

@Monae2003......WeirdNurse is correct! I know without doubt that you need to know both. Therefore, you should study both!

Monae2003 · May 20, 2012

Thanks weirdnurse and faye313!! I have already took the nclex once, and i know my failure was due to my lack of content. So this time im focusing more on that. I guess i will just try to have as much of a even balance of both as possible.

eeyorelove · May 20, 2012

There are some people who are very good at answering questions without studying. I had some classmates like that. If you're one of those you're lucky! But if you're like me that's weak in content and answering questions, I suggest to study the content first especially on topics that you commonly hear in a clinical setting. I think a month of studying content is good enough. Don't stress too much on some topics that you might find to be less important ( I know every topic is equally important) like eye disorders, ears, etc. We can't always know everything that's out there it's impossible. I had a topic on sleep apnea and sleep disorders on my test that I never even looked at or studied but because I learned the strategy book from kaplan I was able to answer it without difficulty. I suggest to study on the strategy of answering questions and practicing questions for about 2 weeks consistently so you'll get it in your head. :)

Sharmi RN-BSN, BSN · May 20, 2012

Knowing a content and answering questions goes hand in hand.If you do not know how to apply knowledge to the question then it's really hard.So study content first and then practice as many questions as you can.Be prepared and have to build the stamina to sit in the computer for 6 hours(of course with the break).Learn and practice to answer priority questions which are higher level questions.Sometime we go so much in detail that we forget about the basic things.First know all your basic knowledge like location of spleen,liver as they appear in figure so have to know the location.

Good luck

starleviosa · May 21, 2012

I spent more time studying content rather than answering questions. I was able to answer not more than 2000 questions. But you have to know how to prioritize, how to apply your knowledge into answering questions.

Remember quality vs quantity

It doesnt matter if you answer 10,000 questions or 2,000 questions. If you do not read the rationale and understand why it happened then it won't help you. You have to understand why your answer was wrong or why its correct