The NCLEX Exam - Know Your Enemy!!

The NCLEX exam contains a minimum of 75 or 85 questions up to 205 or 265 maximum.

Whether your taking the exam for either RN or PN certification, NCLEX requires that you have the understanding of basic nursing knowledge and practice. Overall, NCLEX consists of questions pertaining to the four major client needs - Health Promotion and Maintenance, Physiological Integrity, Psychosocial Integrity and Safe Effective Care Environment.

The NCLEX questions for both the RN and PN certifications are multiple choice, presented with four choices to choose from. Sometimes, the NCLEX may follow a more difficult format by having multiple correct answers for a given question - meaning you have to work out which ones are correct.

The NCLEX varies in length. Because the exam itself is adaptive, it depends on the taker how long the exam takes. (The length of the exam depends totally on the responses made by the test taker.) In addition, the questions presented during the exam are being chosen based on how the taker is currently performing during the exam. The NCLEX only stops when the minimum required number of test items has been answered in relation to the passing standard. This does mean that the NCLEX can last for five to six hours, inclusive of break times.

There you have it, a quick low-down on the NCLEX.

As you can see, the NCLEX is a no nonsense type of exam, which needs preparation. It is not something you can get over with textbook reading alone. The exam is quite unpredictable that's why practice is definitely necessary.

Yes, note that I said 'practice is necessary' and not revision!

Aside from the usual review methods, you can also use practice exams prior to taking the NCLEX. These practice exams are necessary for you to become exposed to the NCLEX format and what types of questions would most likely come up.

As good as practice exams are, it would be even better when you pair them up with NCLEX study guides and NCLEX flash cards.

Practice exams would expose you to the general format of NCLEX though it does not necessarily follow that the items included in the practice exam would be the same as the actual NCLEX. Practice exams help gauge your current ability to take the NCLEX and also helps you budget your time to be able to cover everything important.

When you use practice exams, you help and teach yourself to become comfortable with taking the adaptive style of test used for NCLEX. It brings out your strengths and weaknesses.

Add to this the same beneficial effect that you gain from revising and practising through using study guides and flash cards and you're getting real close to a winning combination.

Study guides and/or Flash cards empower your review methods. Both of them help to give you a more understandable, effective and manageable way to study. They help you to focus only on the important things you really needed to know and do away with excessive information.

After you've based your revision / studying on the guides and cards - then you should look to retake the practice exams again. The good thing about them is that you can actually use them as a review cycle, utilizing their capability of pointing out your problem areas. Then as these areas arise, target them through the use of NCLEX study guides and flash cards. Do this until every problem area finally gets covered.

Have to say - structure your revision and preparation for the Nclex exam this way and you should be staring a certificate right in the face, first time!