Study Plan Tips
I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I had a good question from a Boot Camp member this past week. She asked me how was the best way to study for the NCLEX if you had only an hour a day. She worked and had kids and so I understood her. I had a tutor student last summer, she worked two jobs, had four kids and had failed her NCLEX five times. She wanted me to tutor her. Where there is a will… you will find a way. She needed to pass the NCLEX for obvious reasons (single mom with kids). I tutored her hard for an hour two times a week at 4am. I would be her wake up call. I would call her, she would get up, get some coffee and then we would go. She passed the test.
My suggestions if you have an hour a day, and lets say you can study six days a week.
- Your hour should be uninterrupted, Turn your phone off.
- Use a question database – I like Saunders. To begin choose a 25 random, all content question test. Make sure to click the box that says new questions only. Set a timer and answer the 25 questions in 30 minutes. A time limit will help you be a little more anxious.
- After the 30 minutes, review the questions that you missed for the remainder of the hour. If you need more time than that – jot down what you need to work on.
- Do that for five days – on Saturday review what types (content type) of questions that you’ve missed. Say you missed mostly medication questions, the next week do only medication questions. On Saturday review the drugs you need to work on. Say you don’t know cardiac drugs at all, spend the hour studying those.
- The next week start back at number 1 (do the all / random questions).
There you go. Do that for eight weeks and you will have answered 1000 questions. Continue this even when you go back to school. Start studying!
