NCLEX...a year after graduation??

[tcdaniels]

Hi all,
Need some advice. I graduated from nursing school w/a BSN back in Dec 2004. I did not go into nursing at that time. I took the NCLEX for the first time in June 2005 and basically had a panic attack in the middle of the exam and failed. I have since taken a Kaplan course (in October 2005) and am considering taking the NCLEX again very soon. I also ordered an NCLEX audio cd so I can listen to it on my way to work. I currently do not work in the medical field but do have a full time job. Does anyone have any advice/study tips for someone who has been out of the industry for a while? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[nursinghumor]

My feelings are, that if you went through the **** of nursing school, it would be a damn shame not to get licensed and work for a few years. Even if you don't feel you're cut out for the bedside, nursing experience can open doors you never knew existed in other industries.

re: Studying for the NCLEX:

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.

As we went through, 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.

*************************************************

If you have the money, buy the books (even if they're a year old or two, the question content doesn't 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
Nurses' Views of The Nursing Profession
http://www.nursefriendly.com/views

[tcdaniels]

That is great advice, thank you. It's hard for me to do 6 hrs/day as I work full time but I'm trying to get in at least a couple hrs/day. I just started back studying again...I seem to go through spurts where I'm pretty good about doing it for a while and then something will come up and I don't crack a book for a few weeks. Hopefully I can stay on track this time. My other thought was to just go ahead and set an exam date for about a month or month and a half out and that would force me to study.

Thanks again for the tips!

[BlackC]

That is great advice, thank you. It's hard for me to do 6 hrs/day as I work full time but I'm trying to get in at least a couple hrs/day. I just started back studying again...I seem to go through spurts where I'm pretty good about doing it for a while and then something will come up and I don't crack a book for a few weeks. Hopefully I can stay on track this time. My other thought was to just go ahead and set an exam date for about a month or month and a half out and that would force me to study.

Thanks again for the tips!

Forum Chat http://www.socanon.com/ has help me out alot, to find out about the Nclex BC

[steviemcnasty]

I was out of nursing school for over 7 years before I decided to take the Nclex so that I could move from Canada to the US. I purchased the Nclex study guide w/CD from Ebay and dedicated every available hour to studying.

I passed after 75 questions! I was so excited I started a blog about nursing and the Nclex. Check it out if you get a chance. If you have any specific questions, let me know...I'm here to help. You can leave me comments on my blog as well, I'm always adding additional content.

[carissa73199]

I live in Oklahoma and graduated LPN school and took my boards once and failed. I was so disappointed!!! I have my books and everything and try to study but it is hard to do it by myself. How can I study by myself and do well on my NCLEX? I am a poor test taker and got really nervous when I took it the first time and forgot everything!! How do I get over that? PLEASE HELP!!!!! Im ready to become a nurse!!!!