Hi ladies.
I am about to take my nclex rn for the third time and I am stressed to say the leaset I was wondering if anyone could give me tips on what they used to study for the nclex rn. and what worked for them also has anyone used any of the online sites to take tests off I am talking about the ones you pay for and use for a period of time and take practice tests. Any help advice would be much appreciated thanks in advance. Michelle Murray
I took some college sponserd review class and had some books but luckily I did't really have to study too much. I did the old paper and pencil test. If you know the information maybe you need a test taking class.
I took a review class with Kaplan. I highly recommend it. Kaplan teaches you test-taking skills, which was something that I needed!
Oh I am sorry to say this.. Not making fun of you in any way... 17 years of being an LPN... But you probably don't wanna go that route.. Actually, I took it on the computer in the lab at my University as often as I could..
WR,,, three commas for Becca
Hello Michelle,
My personal advice is this.
Buy or borrow five different NCLEX® Review books (libraries usually have several). There's AJN, Barrons, NLN, and a dozen other brands. Any review book with an index and explanation of answer rationales will do.
Then sit down with a medical dictionary, a drug book and your nursing textbooks handy and start going through questions.
Set aside at least a few hours/day for several weeks to a month before you're scheduled to take your test.
My classmates and I did an average of 6 hours/day just going through questions and different review books for a month before we took our boards.
We each answered 75 questions and passed on the first try (19 in my class).
As we went through the questions, any terms we did not recognize, we looked up in our med/surg books and flagged it for review later.
In a good day, you can get through a few hundred questions. Do as many as you can stand in a sitting.
When you need a break, go for a walk, go shopping, have a snack, then go back and do some more.
As you go through the books, you'll start to recognize more and more terms.
The ones you need to look up the first time, you''ll remember the next time!
Even if it all seems unfamiliar at first, it will pass as you do more questions and review the items you're unsure of.
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If you have the money, buy the books (even if they're a year old or two, the question content doesn't really change).
We marked ours up liberally as we studied, jotting down the page # in our med/surg books next to the question in the review guide.
It saved a lot of time when we needed to look things up for a second time or when we needed to review.
Hope that is helpful!
Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursingstudents.com
Geeeeeeeeeeeeeesh why bother to go to nursing school...
Wonder if I could do that and pass the medical boards.
Nursing isn't a bunch of facts you cram for in the last days before the NCLEX. Nursing is a process that takes time to digest, absorb, and implement. Boy I know I'm going to Belize when I get sick.
IMHO your advice stinks..
WR,,, three commas for Becca
P.S. Why bother with all these books.. Take the test at your school's computer lab.
I agree with WanderingRN, the best way to study for the NCLEX is practice on a computer. If you can't reason through enough answers to pass, you missed the whole point of your education. It's not about facts, it about learning the bigger picture when assessing your patient. I've been an RN for 9 years and now in grad school. You can always tell the "book learners" form the ones with experience by the way they approach what they see. When you read a question, think, if I was to walk into a room, found this information, what would I do? Use your computer lab and good luck!
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raymond said:
I agree with WanderingRN, the best way to study for the NCLEX is practice on a computer. If you can't reason through enough answers to pass, you missed the whole point of your education. It's not about facts, it about learning the bigger picture when assessing your patient. I've been an RN for 9 years and now in grad school. You can always tell the "book learners" form the ones with experience by the way they approach what they see. When you read a question, think, if I was to walk into a room, found this information, what would I do? Use your computer lab and good luck!
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Heh, heh,
Glad to see you've learned how to post appropriately, for the moment Raymond.
I'm not about to sell my stock in Barron's, AJN, Princeton Review, Mosby or the other publishers of NCLEX Review Guides.
Computers are great, but they won't be replacing study guides with indexes and rationales for quite some time to come.
The fact is more students are more comfortable with books than they are with computers. Practice tests on the computer are encouraged, so it will prepare them for the real exam, however most students still study the old fashioned way.
The best way to study, is what works for the individual. And computers are not a panacea.
The guide publishers themselves include study disks, as a "supplement" to the text.
Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursingstudents.com
I just took my NCLEX on Thursday and will supposedly receive my results later today. My computer shut off at 75 and I am 50-50 on whether or not I passed. I studied with Kaplans and Saunders and did not started feeling comfortable with exam until I was in the twenties.
What was wrong with the way he was posting..Low blow there ....
If I'm gonna be taking a driving test in a truck why would I practice driving a motorcycle???
Inquiring minds wanna know.. Your reasoning seems flawed to me. If I have test anxiety shouldn't I confront the thing that makes me most anxious .. The test and how it's administered..ON THE COMPUTER??
WR,,, three commas for Becca
As an aside, I can only hope that those who are worried about passing the test aren't only worried about passing; but that they want to be excellent nurses. That's why most of us are advocating understanding of nursing.. If I understand a basic concept or issue in a question I really don't need to "study" a bunch of facts and values.. AAMOF every question I had on my RN boards in 1997 gave me normal values and parameters..i.e. normal dig levels, lab values for K+ etc...I could learn all the formulas and "facts" about nuclear physics, ( well probably not) but I wouldn't trust me with the switch and I hope you wouldn't trust me either.
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