Which reason is it that people say meds on the NCLEX are foreign to them?

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

I searched, and the search results never really gave me what I wanted. So I apologize if this has been asked before. :uhoh21: I hear from many many MANY people that the NCLEX gives you both names, but SOME people say they only got one name on their test...bottom line is, I've seen a lot of, "I didn't recognize one drug on my test!". I'm just wondering if it's because the meds really are random meds that most would never hear of? Or is it because on their certain questions, only one name was given for the med and people studied the other name, Generic vs Trade name sort of thing? I'm just wondering which reason? Or maybe it's a combination. Random example off the top of my head(lol cuz 2 of my pts just got these 2 minutes ago), 95% of nursing students know what Zofran and Phenergan are. But some may not recognize Ondansetron or Promethazine...even though those are the same drugs Zofran and Phenergan. Or are they random drugs like Plerixafor and Tolvaptan, etc. I'm just trying to understand the reason.

[kgh31386, BSN, MSN, RN]

I know someone has some info . I'm not asking for specific drugs people got on their test(big no to that:nono:). But just wondering if it was hard because they really are picky random drugs only Pharmacists would know. Or did they just throw one name of it at you, even though I hear you should get both?

[3gheel]

I also had heard that there would be drugs I had never heard of, but I actually had heard of most everything I encountered on NCLEX. Maybe even knew what the drug did for the most part. I really believe I saw both names of the drug on the test. I believe that's what our Kaplan instructor told us, too. The problem comes in that I perhaps didn't study the SE or nursing teaching quite enough for all of the meds I saw. That's when the "educated" guess happens - you know enough to perhaps rule out two answers, then you have to chose between two others. Still, with several questions like that I passed with 75. If you have a good solid working knowledge of most major drugs and if you had clinicals where you had to study, teach about, and give many different medications (and you recall a lot of that knowledge), then you should do fine.

I had plans to study meds really carefully - long lists, lots of side effects, etc., but in the end I ran out of time and most of my drug knowledge came from what I learned in school. I did study thoroughly in school and for clinicals and that helped me the most. Good luck with it!