Hey everyone!
Took my exam yesterday (Basic)...for the 3rd time :wacko:! I took the class in Spring 2006 and slacked off (being a full-time college student), waiting almost a year to take my NR for the first time. In any case...
Around 120 questions..waiting anxiously for my scores to come out....passed
I can't explain if my first two failures are due to my lack of efforts in studying hard enough (waiting a year to take the test and trying to remember some of the minute details)...but I do know one thing that I would like to share with all the basic test takers...
First off...
Kaplan sucks
I bought the book as a "review" to refresh my memory on the material which I thought would be sufficient (especially since Kraplan has a pretty good reputation in the market for review material)...the information might have been good to get you through the written exam but is a joke for the computerized test. I failed the first time and thought I didn't study hard enough, so I went back and read through the whole book again in addition to skimming through the book by Mistovich, 7th ed. (which is what we used in class). Still didn't help and failed yet again.
This time...I threw the Kraplan book in the trash...spent about a week in the library with my class textbook, going through most of the chapters and
taking notes on important procedures on how to treat "X" issue. In addition to that, thanks to this wonderful website and the posts by all the users, which has great references and resources for the test...for example, using emtb.com for practice. The exam is not going to test you (for the most part) directly on facts (although I did get one question "What does "M" stand for in SAMPLE?"
). It is going to test your knowledge in the material and your ability to use that information when you get out into the field and a pt's life is in your hands. Yes, I agree that some of the questions are ridiculous and some lack the info we want to know...but just as other people mentioned, you can almost ALWAYS eliminate two choices and if you're stuck between the other two...always choose the top choice (50/50 chance of getting those questions right)
And about the last question passing theory..I'm not sure if I got the last one right since none of the answers for that question seemed to pertain to what I learned in the book...
Other than that...remember your ABCs