NCLEX® High-Risk The Disaster Prevention Manual for Nurses Determined to Pass the RN Licensing Examination Marian C. Condon, DEd, RN, CNE Professor Department of Nursing York College of Pennsylvania York, Pennsylvania

NCLEX High-Risk
®




The Disaster Prevention Manual
for Nurses Determined to Pass
the RN Licensing Examination


Marian C. Condon, DEd, RN, CNE
Professor
Department of Nursing
York College of Pennsylvania
York, Pennsylvania

Karen S. March, PhD, RN, CCRN, ACNS-BC
Professor
Department of Nursing
York College of Pennsylvania
York, Pennsylvania

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Contents


Letter to Nursing Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Should You Buy This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Introduction: How to Get the Most Out of This Book . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Marian C. Condon
Why You Should Read Most of the Chapters in Order . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Why You Should Keep Track of Your Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Why You Should Create and Review Nugget Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Why You Should Make Preparing for NCLEX® an Absolute Priority . . xx
Why You Should Access a Source of Additional Questions,
If Necessary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
How to Know Whether You Need a Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx

Chapter 1: Are You at Risk for Failing NCLEX®? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Marian C. Condon
Risk Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What It’s Like to Fail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Being at Risk for Failing NCLEX Does Not Mean You Will Never
Be a Good Nurse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 2: Are You Using the Right NCLEX Prep Strategies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Marian C. Condon
Ineffective Prep Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Two Things You Must Do If You Want to Pass the NCLEX . . . . . . . . 13
When to Start Studying for NCLEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Review Courses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Test Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 3: NCLEX-RN®: Purpose, Format, and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Marian C. Condon
How the Exam Is Developed and Administered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17


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, How the Questions Are Written and Structured . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
What You Will Be Expected to Know: The NCLEX Test Plan . . . . . . . 22
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 4: CAT-Anatomy: How Computer-Adaptive Testing Works . . . . . . . 25
Marian C. Condon
What Computer-Adaptive Testing Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
How NCLEX Is Scored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Test-Taking Strategies You Should Never Use on NCLEX . . . . . . . . . . 26
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 5: Registration, Results, and Test-Center Smarts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Marian C. Condon
How to Register to Take NCLEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Avoiding Pretest Disasters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
What to Expect at the Test Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
What You Don’t Have to Worry About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Getting Your Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 6: Test Yourself: How Good Are You at Doping Out Test Questions? 33
Marian C. Condon
How Well Do You Analyze Test Questions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The Optimal Question-Analyzing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 7: Test Yourself: How Good Is Your Knowledge Base? . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Marian C. Condon and Karen S. March
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Comprehensive Practice Exam 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chapter 8: How to Use What You Don’t Know to Pass the NCLEX . . . . . . . . . 59
Marian C. Condon
The Nugget Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Strategies for Enhancing Memory and Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Basics of Memorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Preferred Learning Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Using Visualization to Enhance Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Designing and Timing Your Study Sessions for Maximal Retention 71
Using Keep Track Boxes to Monitor Your Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

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