For the last session today (the first session was for independent taking of the Kaplan's Readiness Test) included a review of questions from the Readiness Test. Not all 180 questions but just the ones that students generally miss (not just our section, but Kaplan-wide). Helpful, but many of the questions I had gotten right. But there were a handful that I had gotten wrong and were surprised by the correct answer.
For the last half hour of class, our instructor talked to us about what we need to do going forward before taking our NCLEX exam. Completing all the Question Trainers (1-7), completing at least 90% of the QBank questions (total 1300), and aiming for a cumulative performance of 60% or higher on the QBank questions. Expectation is for us to review every question and rationale in every Trainer and after every QBank test. They suggest doing no more than 150 questions a day so that we really spend time reviewing every question and rationale and spend time looking up content that we don't know or understand.
My head is spinning. But I've broken it down and here is my initial plan with the materials provided by Kaplan:
At this point, I do not expect to study seventeen days straight. No way. My goal would be maybe five days a week. Kaplan suggests answering questions every day. Eh. There certainly will be days when I simply can't. Plus, who knows what's going to happen regarding work. If I get the job, then this schedule will have to be modified in a big way. I'll know more after Monday's interview as to their goal for hiring and orientation. But reality is that if I'm offered a job it will be at least two weeks before I'd start work because there are drug tests and background checks that have to get done. So if I can get at least ten full days of studying done before starting work, that would be awesome. Maybe I really should push myself to study every day and then if I do get the job, I'll still be able to take the NCLEX in early July.
And of course this schedule is just reflecting Kaplan resources and does not take into account my earlier expectation to use Saunders and LaCharity resources. Maybe I won't need to? I will continue taking flash cards to the gym (this has worked REALLY well with the cards put on rings) and of course I can apply Decision Tree to the flash card questions.
So the question is... when to start?
At this point I am glad that I did Kaplan's prep course. I'm glad I did the "Classroom Anywhere" format. A few bumps (see Kaplan: Day One post) but these were largely due to the fact that I was going through my school for Kaplan and my school did not adequately communicate with us. Can't blame Kaplan for that. The Kaplan instructors and staff were all very good and very helpful and managed the online aspect very well. The only downside was the chat window and dealing with people who don't follow instructions. But that's life, right? I guess the true test will be whether I pass NCLEX the first time or not. But then again maybe I would have done fine without Kaplan. I DID get a good score on the Diagnostic before I'd even taken Kaplan course. Well, we won't know now will we?
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