Why is this question always asked?

jd2nurse · Jul 10, 2014

I'm sorry, but I think your post is completely off base. You should know from personal experience that testimonials are one source of information people use when making choices of any kind. For example, when looking for good study techniques, one method would be to ask successful students what they do, flash cards, outlines, study groups etc. It's a way to gather information about potential strategies.

Your post implies that people who ask the question of successful NCLEX takers are superficial, looking for the "magic method" to guarantee a passing score, etc. You seem to imply that these simpletons, seeking a quick fix, will just run off after getting the first recommendation and drop significant $ for the "sure thing." That's pretty insulting. I'm sure, like you, that these people aren't making a snap decision, but just adding testimonials to their decision making process. Moreover, you should be sensitive to the fact that many people have test anxiety issues or just plain have difficulty with standardized tests. Your post did not help these people, I'm sure.

I suggest you find other, more valuable things to post rather than going out of your way to unnecessarily chide people.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 10, 2014

...
I suggest you find other, more valuable things to post rather than going out of your way to unnecessarily chide people.

You missed the point, so be it. But "unnecessarily chide people" is not what I do here....I am usually found offering helpful information. If you can't see that, can't help you.

Carry on.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 10, 2014

Life in general would be a lot better if people on the whole did some due diligence before jumping in and asking questions without doing some research on their own. I see this in my eight year old daily when she gets home from school...."Mom, I need help with my homework!"....before she has even pulled said homework from the folder. And I force said child to look at and attempt said homework before I will even look at it. Mean mom? Maybe. But if I continually step in and start helping before she even makes an effort, she will continue to do the same thing. I'd rather her learn in fourth grade to make some effort toward knowledge on her own before asking for help.
I really, really, really wish more people used the search function here before posting things. I wish more student nurses looked up their meds before asking what their purpose is. I wish more people checked Snopes before posting pictures and claims on Facebook. But wishin' ain't gettin'.
And I took that test, having reviewed with thousands of questions from NCSBN and Saunders, did a little bit of butterflies in the stomach, passed with 75. I hadn't been regularly posting here at the time, but I'll post it for posterity. :)

Nice to see there ARE people who 'get it' out there :)

AmyRN303, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2014

I try. But being that older student, with life experience, really changed my perspective. I definitely would have been a different student/nurse at age 22, graduating from my first university of choice than I am at almost 40.

I think sometimes students feel not prepared because they've never taken an exam of this magnitude before. They (may, might?) do a search on AN and hear that NCLEX is the "most horrible, no good, worst, very bad" test anyone could ever take ever and be afraid that their schooling didn't prepare them. That's what school is for, folks, to prepare entry-level nurses who not only can pass NCLEX, but who can be hired as entry level nurses. No one, including NCLEX, expects you to know more than what your nursing school covered. If your school has a good pass rate, chances are those students who passed gleaned most of their info from school and not a test prep service.

Is a review helpful? Yes. But be smart about it. Take questions. Know where you're strong and know where you need to review. Then spend the time reviewing in those areas, whether that be through a book like Saunders or your texts from school. Understand NCLEX questions. If you can't get to the marrow of what the question is asking, it may as well be in another language. And I didn't have to do this ultimately, but definitely take a couple of 265 question practice tests so you don't freak out if your doesn't shut off at 75. People with test anxiety, please do this. If you're ready to take the full boat load of questions, you won't freak if you actually have to. It also gives you an idea of how long it takes you to answer 265 questions so you can avoid running out of time.

In the end, it's just another test. Be prepared, but not scared.

jd2nurse · Jul 10, 2014

You've found an adherent in AmyRN303, maybe. I actually think her example is quite different than the point you're making. Rather than me not "getting it," it appears it is you who don't "get it," because you don't seem to understand what I was saying at all. I understand what you're saying just fine. I just disagree with you and I don't think you're helping anyone. The point of your post was (I hope) to help people, but by your reply quoting AmyRN303, it seems like what you're really interested in is finding people who agree with you. Finding people who already agree with you doesn't help them; it just helps you feel acknowledged.

I raise my kids the same way Amy does, but we are not dealing with children here, we are dealing with professional adults in a professional forum. If people want to find out what test prep or study method worked for someone else, fine. So what? The point is that people shouldn't be relying on that method alone. They should do their own research IN ADDITION. Do I feel it's important to write a big post to just go and tell everybody that? No. It seems pretty freaking obvious, especially since we're dealing with adults, not children, as previously mentioned.

Let me share an example. When I was in law school (prior career) way back when, we learned how to do our own research, boy did we ever! We spent countless hours doing research. We also learned an important lesson: We were taught that when we started practicing we would be given research tasks by more senior lawyers. We would be tempted to run off to do "our own" research. If, as would be the case often as novice lawyers, we would be researching an unfamiliar area of the law, we could spend a lot of time spinning our wheels. We were taught that instead of running off to hit the books right away, we should spend a few moments talking to that senior lawyer to get pointed in the right direction. Armed with that direction, we could spend our research time much more efficiently...and since lawyers bill by 10ths of hour, efficiency is extremely important.

My point is this. Adults getting others to point us in the right direction should not be confused with being lazy or wanting others to solve our problems for us. Please don't bemoan people looking for testimonials about test preps and chide them (yes, your post was "chiding") that "instead" they need to go do their own research. It doesn't help anyone. People should be encouraged to share helpful test taking strategies, study tips and test preps with each other. The more information the better! The more informed people are, the better decisions they can make. If some of that information comes from testimonials, fine. The bottom line is that, as far as test preps go, they're probably all pretty much the same anyway. One just needs to pick one or more, sit down, and put in the work studying the material. In case you're wondering, I passed the NCLEX just fine, which was a walk in the park compared to the 3-day bar exam, which I also passed just fine.

OCNRN63, RN · Jul 10, 2014

What ever happened to finishing school and taking your boards? We pay for school, study and test all through classes. That should be enough to prepare students.

Agreed, 100x. If you don't have the basics down by the time you graduate, all those prep books/programs won't make a dime's worth of difference.

AmyRN303, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2014

You've found an adherent in AmyRN303, maybe. I actually think her example is quite different than the point you're making. Rather than me not "getting it," it appears it is you who don't "get it," because you don't seem to understand what I was saying at all. I understand what you're saying just fine. I just disagree with you and I don't think you're helping anyone. The point of your post was (I hope) to help people, but by your reply quoting AmyRN303, it seems like what you're really interested in is finding people who agree with you. Finding people who already agree with you doesn't help them; it just helps you feel acknowledged.
I raise my kids the same way Amy does, but we are not dealing with children here, we are dealing with professional adults in a professional forum. If people want to find out what test prep or study method worked for someone else, fine. So what? The point is that people shouldn't be relying on that method alone. They should do their own research IN ADDITION. Do I feel it's important to write a big post to just go and tell everybody that? No. It seems pretty freaking obvious, especially since we're dealing with adults, not children, as previously mentioned.
Let me share an example. When I was in law school (prior career) way back when, we learned how to do our own research, boy did we ever! We spent countless hours doing research. We also learned an important lesson: We were taught that when we started practicing we would be given research tasks by more senior lawyers. We would be tempted to run off to do "our own" research. If, as would be the case often as novice lawyers, we would be researching an unfamiliar area of the law, we could spend a lot of time spinning our wheels. We were taught that instead of running off to hit the books right away, we should spend a few moments talking to that senior lawyer to get pointed in the right direction. Armed with that direction, we could spend our research time much more efficiently...and since lawyers bill by 10ths of hour, efficiency is extremely important.
My point is this. Adults getting others to point us in the right direction should not be confused with being lazy or wanting others to solve our problems for us. Please don't bemoan people looking for testimonials about test preps and chide them (yes, your post was "chiding") that "instead" they need to go do their own research. It doesn't help anyone. People should be encouraged to share helpful test taking strategies, study tips and test preps with each other. The more information the better! The more informed people are, the better decisions they can make. If some of that information comes from testimonials, fine. The bottom line is that, as far as test preps go, they're probably all pretty much the same anyway. One just needs to pick one or more, sit down, and put in the work studying the material. In case you're wondering, I passed the NCLEX just fine, which was a walk in the park compared to the 3-day bar exam, which I also passed just fine.

I believe RNsRWe was responding to the daily influx of people posting something along the lines of "OMG, I take NCLEX in a month! Kaplan or NCSBN? Help!!!!" type of short posts which appear daily. I totally agree with you that doing due diligence is important, but this thread wasn't really in response to a well-researched, thoughtful post about the finer points of studying for the exam.

It's similar to all the posts about the PVT...."Is this the good pop up?" sort of thing. A little investigation and researching rather than posting first would certainly lead to less of that. That was my point.

jd2nurse · Jul 10, 2014

I genuinely would like to know, since I see it CONSTANTLY. And the question strikes me as odd.
"What did you use to study?" when responding to "I PASSED!!" posts.
They always use the same study tools, so....why the question?
People pass with Saunders, and Kaplan, and Lippincott's, and NCLEX 3500. They pass with Hurst, and LaCharity, and on and on. They also fail with Saunders, and Kaplan and....you get the idea. One person passes...YAY! Great book!! Another fails....argh, horrible book.
Every new grad who is preparing for the NCLEX has the identical list of study/review programs available.
So what is it you are hoping to learn, when you ask "what did you use to study"?
I'd think a FAR MORE valuable way to assess if an NCLEX prep system is good for YOU is by simply taking a look at each of these programs' outline online. That would tell you whether it's set up like you would like....or not.

You make a good point, Amy. People should definitely search the site. It takes only a moment and you can save others' time by educating yourself a bit on you find before asking questions. Nevertheless, the original post wasn't making your point. I quoted it here so we'd have it in front of us. The reason people ask someone who posts they passed the NCLEX what they used to study is that it's a natural question to ask of someone who succeeded. And, as I've said far too verbosely already, there's nothing wrong with asking that question. I mean geez. If I pass a test, right now, right here, I want everyone to know: feel free to ask me what tools worked for me. I'll be happy to tell you! :).

To save everyone the trouble, I used Kaplan, but as I said I think they're all pretty much the same anyway

kawaiibows · Jul 10, 2014

I myself have asked questions also to those who passed as I am also anxious to pass. I am pretty sure those who passed here also did the same thing. They are likely to tell fellow test takers here what they've used because I'm sure they are just returning the favor. I will do the same, if ever I pass the NCLEX in God's time I will also share the tools I used and so on.... It's a matter of giving back cause once we needed help, we asked for help. Now that others are in need I think that it's just appropriate that helping them is the right thing. We must not QUESTION or make ASSUMPTIONS as to how people would like to know for themselves on how to pass the NCLEX.

AmyRN303, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2014

I myself have asked questions also to those who passed as I am also anxious to pass. I am pretty sure those who passed here also did the same thing. They are likely to tell fellow test takers here what they've used because I'm sure they are just returning the favor. I will do the same, if ever I pass the NCLEX in God's time I will also share the tools I used and so on.... It's a matter of giving back cause once we needed help, we asked for help. Now that others are in need I think that it's just appropriate that helping them is the right thing. We must not QUESTION or make ASSUMPTIONS as to how people would like to know for themselves on how to pass the NCLEX.

It's fine in my estimation to ask questions, and fine to offer hints and suggestions. The thing that is irksome is that people seem to put all their eggs in the basket of test prep, and rather than look around, research the methods and ask focused questions, they simply register and start posting panicked questions about which review is better.

I still stand by my recommendations on passing NCLEX, none of which involves prep reviews at all:

Know your learning style. No review is a best fit for anyone, and while I'd hope that a person who passed nursing school would know this already, knowing how you learn best will assist you in finding a way of studying which optimizes your time.

Take preliminary exams such as ATI or whatever your school used, of at least 75 questions (preferably 265) to know what areas need a little tweaking and which ones are solid. Doing review on every possible jot and tittle of everything that could possibly be on NCLEX is a waste of your time and may just increase anxiety.

If you're interested in a review program such as Kaplan, Hurst, NCSBN, etc, do the research on these programs first. A search of AN is great to see exactly what people liked/disliked about them. Don't believe every review you see, positive or negative. Ask your professors what they'd recommend. Then ask focused questions about the programs. A review is meant to do just that: review what you've already learned. I personally used Saunders NCLEX questions book, reviewed my PDA by LaCharity, and the three week NCSBN course, of which I only used the questions.

Lastly, even though it is difficult not to stress, try to relax and breathe. Anxiety makes recollection more difficult, and the last thing one needs during any major test is anxiety. If you were successful in nursing school, what's one more exam, right? Yes, it's expensive and there's a lot riding on it. But if you approach it like this scary, horrifying thing, it will likely become just that.

I'm all about helping other people out, honestly I am. I'm a teacher by nature (drives my kids nuts after awhile) but I think it's responsible to do some homework before asking about test prep, so that one can ask better questions. :)

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2014

Bump!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Aug 1, 2014

Bump!