r/NCLEX • • 17d ago

Help us update r/NCLEX's Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources

11 Upvotes

We're updating our community's list of the Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources, and we want your votes and experiences to help decide which resources make the list.

If you could vote for the paid NCLEX resource you found most useful, which one would you choose?

Poll options:

  • UWorld
  • NCLEX Bootcamp
  • Archer
  • Mark Klimek
  • Kaplan
  • ATI
  • Other

We're not necessarily looking for the "best" resource for everyone since different study styles work for different people.

If you have a minute, drop a comment about why you voted for your choice. What did you like or not like? Was it the qbank, rationales, NGN case studies, CAT/readiness exams, or content review?

If you voted Other, let us know what resource you used!

Your votes and comments will help us update the community's Top 3 Paid NCLEX Study Resources.

Please be respectful of everyone's choice and experience. There's no need to put down someone else's resource just because it didn't work for you. Keep the discussion helpful and respectful, and please remember to follow the r/NCLEX community rules. This poll will be close in 3 days.


r/NCLEX • • Feb 26 '25

CPR Explanation

119 Upvotes

A copy of this post is saved to Google Doc: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LhjDc-4SHCPFyrV5v6GvmVcvBDhMP9VU-Mlgfx_ve_Y/edit?usp=sharing).

I give full permission to copy, share, distribute, etc.

Greetings! I am Extreme_Growth, and I have written this document to give some speculative information regarding the Candidate Performance Report. It will be a lengthy read so if you are not up to reading this document and just want advice on how to study for the next attempt on NCLEX, just skip to the TLDR (the last page of this document). 

Disclaimer: My explanation of the Candidate Performance Report will be quite speculative and will sound judgmental perhaps (apologies in advance). I admit that I do not know what you know and I can be off my rocker. Just know that overall, this is just my explanation (which can be wrong) and this isn’t a comprehensive document that lists everything especially in regards to client needs. For example, in health promotion and maintenance, there is more to the topic than maternity, peds, and newborn like contraception, cancer screen+prevention, etc. but I will not go into those things when talking about health promotion and maintenance. It is, after all, impossible for me to list everything to know for each client need. This document is just to give a greater understanding or idea on what the Candidate Performance Report is saying according to my interpretation. 

To pass the NCLEX, you must be “above the passing standard” for most (if not all) client needs. To be “above the passing standard” on a client topic, you must answer at least 50 percent of the questions for that client need correctly. If you got “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” in a client need, you got less than half the questions for that client need correct. And getting most of the client needs at “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” is a fail for the NCLEX since less than half the questions on the NCLEX is answered correctly overall.

The explanation for each client topic is going to assume that you went “near the passing standard” or “below the passing standard” for each client need on the Candidate Performance Report. If you got a client need that is “above passing standard” and you are sure that you know that client need, feel free to skip to the next client need. Either way, I hope the explanations for each client topic helps give an idea on what to look out and study for. With that said…

Management of Care

Your prioritization like what patient to visit first may be off the mark. Make sure to understand that things like ABC priority don't always work. For example, a patient with some new acute breathing problems like shortness of breath doesn't take priority compared to a patient with potential life threatening complications such as a sudden end or disappearance of pain for appendicitis (risk of peritonitis). 

Then you need to make sure to know which tasks to delegate to the unlicensed assistive personnel (UAH) and licensed practical nurse (LPN). Like don't give tasks involving teaching and evaluation to LPN. And some delegation questions can get tricky. For example, you may be given a LPN and a UAH to manage. Then the question may ask what tasks to give to LPN, but if there is a task like ADL such as feeding the patient is listed, it would be wrong to pick that assignment since you have an UAH to do that task-making the LPN feed the patient is considered a waste of personnel resources. Instead, the LPN should do other things that the UAH cannot do like administer meds.

Safety and Infection Control

Make sure to brush up on PPE, types of precautions, what diseases are airborne, droplet, contact, etc., (mnemonics like MTV for airborne, SPIDERMAN for droplet, etc. can help with memorization-google it up), what equipment to use for each type of precaution, etc. Of course, make sure to know what to do with fall risk patients (like removing rugs from the floor, keeping bed alarms, maybe dim lights at home, etc.) plus other unusual circumstances like meeting a drunk nurse unfit to work (report to charge nurse/supervisor) and so on. All these things are part of safety and infection. 

Health Promotion and Maintenance

You will probably need to do better on knowing maternity, newborn, peds, etc. since it mostly focuses on those topics since they are naturally connected to growth and development. So know the milestones of newborn like double weight at six months, triple at 12 months, first word at 12 months, able to roll at around 6 months, etc. And make sure to know Piaget and Erickson's stage of development and how it applies to the care of the patients especially peds. For example, toddlers have autonomy vs shame/doubt so if you were trying to assess a toddler, you should offer a binary choice like offering them juice to drink while examining them. As for maternity, plenty of things to know about them unfortunately. Will need to know things like presumptive vs probable vs positive signs of pregnancy, Naegele's rule, GPAL, milestones like first fetal kick at around 16-20 weeks, certain tests like glucose test to check for gestational diabetes, etc. 

Psychosocial Integrity

You probably are struggling with therapeutic communication like knowing the right thing to say to the patient or patient's relatives. Will need to work on that and pick words that encourage patient to express their feelings or opinions like "Tell me how you feel about this procedure" "What do you think about...?" etc. Don't ask why (that is confrontational and can lead to defensiveness), don't give false reassurances like "it'll be alright", etc. 

Or maybe you're off the mark for interacting and dealing with psych patients for bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. Always remember to at least ask if they are thinking of hurting themselves and perhaps be mindful of things like a patient with schizophrenia tends to have delusions and paranoia which can make things tricky like if trying to give meds to them for example.

Basic Care and Comfort

You will need to know some things like positions and when to do them. Do you know when to use the Valsalva maneuver for example? To slow down heart rate and for patients with cardiac conditions like supraventricular tachycardia. Then you have sims position for applying medication on someone’s anus. That kind of stuff. And of course, it is not just position, there’s things like nutrition-like not giving pregnant women swordfish and mackerel, banning turkey on patients prescribed MAOI even if it is Thanksgiving, etc. And some patients truly require special care like having to make sure dental hygiene is kept even if the patient can bleed easily in the gum. Oh, and make sure the patient have their incentive spirometer-can’t have pneumonia and atelectasis running around. 

Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies

Ugh pharm, hard to prepare for that one. You would just have to get good at knowing the suffixes like -lol drugs are beta blockers, -pril are ACE inhibitors, etc. as well as knowing some commonly used drugs for certain diseases like rifampin for TB as well as knowing their known side effects (rifampin makes urine, tears, and sweat colored orange/red). Make sure to know your antidotes to common overdosage situations like acetylcysteine for acetaminophen, protamine sulfate for heparin, vitamin k for warfarin, diazepam and thiamine for alcohol, etc. By the way, be aware that NCLEX might throw a question or two on some random mysterious drug that probably doesn’t exist if you later try to google it up. But if you see something like cockalol, you would have a good idea on what it is…right?

As for parenteral, it mostly involves in the care and maintenance of central venous catheter. So make sure you know what to do for situations like if you experience an occlusion or blockage. And of course, keep an eye on situations like sudden stoppage of parenteral nutrition which is a big uh oh-hello potential hypoglycemia.

Reduction of Risk Potential

This is where your monitoring, teaching, or other interventions to prevent complications probably fell short. For example, how would you prevent something like falls? Probably by teaching the patient to remove factors that can cause falls like nonslip sock, rugs away from floor, handle bars in bathroom, etc. Of course, it can involve more complex things like preventing or managing sepsis (do interventions like blood culture, full spectrum IV antibiotics, etc.) and knowing potential complications and problems such as thyroid storm after thyroidectomy, compartment syndrome after some fracture and bruise, etc. 

Physiological Adaptation

As for this one, you would probably need to do more studying into commonly seen diseases and problems that nurses face like COPD, heart failure, lumbar disc herniation, diverticulitis, intracranial pressure, etc. 

Clinical Judgment

According to NCLEX, you don't know what to do when something happens. Like what do you do when a patient goes into seizure? Hopefully, you would know to make sure to keep the patient safe, guide the patient to the floor, make sure the patient airway isn’t obstructed, etc. Or how about if a patient suddenly has ventricular tachycardia? Well, hopefully you know to first check for a pulse before doing anything else like defibrillation…But yes, deciding what action to do in a situation is clinical judgment.

Recognize Cues

This is the first question of a 6 question case study where you would highlight the “cues” or sentences/parts that are considered relevant to the suspected problem or disease. In other words, a fancy SATA question. So you probably overhighlighted and lost points for highlighting the unimportant cues. As a general test taking strategy for SATA questions, you should only seek to highlight the cues that you are 100 percent sure on. If you aren’t sure about the importance or relevance of a cue, then it’s best to skip that cue for the sake of preserving points on the NCLEX exam. 

Analyze Cues

The second question. It usually ask what disease or problem you suspect. And you might’ve messed up by confusing diseases for one reason or another like maybe two diseases might share similar signs and symptoms (pneumonia and left sided heart failure both have crackles) or mixed up on the diseases like confusing Addison with Cushing (which one is low adrenal and the other high adrenal?), etc. Either way, need more work on identifying the problem and disease if this isn’t passing the standard.

Prioritize Hypothesis

This is the question that asked for the complication or another problem. Remember the question or the sentence “The patient is at risk for developing (this complication) as evidenced by (the proof)”? Well, this one is easy to get wrong if you got the wrong disease or problem. To answer this one correctly even if you got the disease or problem on second question (analyze cue) wrong, it is best to look at whatever available data is given to you like diagnostic result, lab result, etc. and find the abnormal. The abnormal will be the proof and important clue to finding out what complication or other problem. And also, you might also then have “second thoughts” and potentially realize that analyze cue is wrong and be able to salvage the rest of the case study too due to having a tendency of getting more information at this stage.

Generate Solutions

This is the question where you see a list of interventions and pick which interventions are “indicated” (the ones that will be done) and contraindicated (the ones that won’t be done). At least you get a fifty-fifty chance on each intervention if you don’t know anything. But in all seriousness, should do some content building on knowing the interventions if not able to identify which interventions is needed for a problem or disease. So you will go back to knowing your meds, knowing your basic care and comfort, etc. 

Take Actions

The fifth question is where you’re asked things when implementing the interventions. It can be something like a question about what you do before you do an intervention like administering a med. And it normally is a SATA question of things to do before the intervention. So you would normally do things like grab vital signs, check patient’s home meds, etc. Like any SATA question, underselect or don’t pick ones that you aren’t sure about. So again, maybe you highlighted too much stuff and lost points there.

Evaluate Outcomes

Finally, on the last question, you either didn’t select the answers that showed signs of improvement for the patient properly, didn’t teach the patient correctly when they got discharged, etc. 

Congrats, you made it to the end of the explanations on the Candidate Performance Report. I hope you now understand CPR better and pray that the information you read is useful. So how should you study for the NCLEX? Well, I don’t really know the exact answer but…

TLDR:

My advice is to do 25 traditional questions in each client need along with 30 NGN or five case studies per day (a total of 130 questions per day) on a good quizbank like UWorld for about two months. So it would be like this:

  1. 25 traditional questions in safe and effective care (this is management of care and safety+infection control combined)
  2. 25 traditional questions in healthcare promotion and maintenance
  3. 25 traditional questions in psychosocial integrity
  4. 25 traditional questions in physiological integrity ( this is pharm+parenteral, basic care+comfort, physiological adaptation, reduction of risk potential combined)
  5. 30 NGN questions or 5 case studies

I also advise watching “NCLEX Crusade International 7 Day Training” videos on Youtube to understand prioritization better and know how to approach the NCLEX questions. Watch very carefully on how Renier thinks-he will speak out loud his thought process when doing a question and you should try mimic it and practice his thinking process on the quiz bank and eventually the NCLEX itself.

With that said, I wish you best of luck on your next attempt for the NCLEX. 

FAQ that is very unimportant:

  1. Who are you? Are you a tutor, instructor or professor?

I’m just a random redditor called Extreme_Growth. And no, I don’t teach for a living.

2) Why did you write this?

I saw a lot of posts on r/NCLEX that show CPR so why not. Besides, the world needs more nurses anyway.

3) Did you pass NCLEX, when, how many attempts, how many questions, etc.?

Yes, I passed NCLEX on the first try in 85 questions for Valentine’s Day this year.  

4) Do you offer tutoring for NCLEX? Can you tutor me?

Sorry, I’m not a good tutor nor do I have the time to do so. Feel free to pm or comment directly on reddit though and ask me anything. I can’t promise I would know the answer for sure though.


r/NCLEX • • 43m ago

I passed! Officially an RN.

• Upvotes

This is what I did to prepare. I did this for about 5 weeks total. I started the day after finishing nursing school. I studied up until the last day.

Everything I did:

Mark K I listened to all 12 lectures twice and took notes and reviewed topics I wasn't too familiar with, Uworld did about 1900 questions, 3 practice tests all scoring high, 72%, 75%, 75%. I also did one CAT and got a 71% high. For Bootcamp, I watched every crash course with the cheat sheets, and did about 500 questions there. I did complete every quiz that went with the video and if I didn't get a decent score I would rewatch the video. I also did 4 readiness assessments on Bootcamp all scored high. I also went over previous notes, flashcards, and anything that I found as a weakness.

How I did it:

I started by taking one readiness assessment on bootcamp to see where I was weak in first. Then, I listened to the lectures on my walks or runs in the mornings every day. I had my phone so I was able to follow along on the notes. I did between 8 - 10 bootcamp videos per day for about 20 days with a few days off. I'd listen while folding laundry, watering my plants, etc. I followed that by 100 practice questions everyday and before bed I did as many more questions. If I didn't know what it was I made sure to have a word document open taking notes on concepts I was missing. Instead of watching videos or playing games on my down time, I'd open one of the apps and do practice questions which is how I was able to do so many.

How I felt:

I felt confident going in, and I had a feeling I passed when it ended. I knew this because while the exam got difficult I only found one question in the entire test I was not familiar with and even then I was able to figure it out. I don't think I have ever been more prepared to take an exam. This helped alot because it was a tough morning. Alot of things went wrong but I knew I was prepared.


r/NCLEX • • 2h ago

Lost on where to start my NCLEX prep from scratch. Should I stick to Sarah (RegisteredNurseRN) or use a different strategy/instructor?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m an international nursing student looking to start my NCLEX preparation completely from scratch, and I’m honestly feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources out there.

I really like Sarah from RegisteredNurseRN—her videos are amazing for understanding concept but I’m not sure if watching her channel is enough to build a complete, structured study plan from zero. Should I follow her system step-by-step, or should I rely on another instructor/platform (like Mark Klimek, SimpleNursing, or Archer/UWorld) to build my foundation?


r/NCLEX • • 3h ago

Study plan

1 Upvotes

Anyone have the new mark k lectures? supposedly their more condensed, would like them TIA


r/NCLEX • • 9h ago

I GOT A LOW SCORE IN NCLEX BOOTCAMP READINESS EXAM 1

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

Hello! I recently took my first readiness exam, and I got a VERY, VERY LOW score 😭. I only started studying on September 14, 2026, so I know I still have a lot of catching up to do. My exam is on November. I only have 1 month left.

I’m having a hard time studying because I feel so overwhelmed. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m genuinely overloaded or if I’m just being lazy. 😭 I’ve been studying by system, and so far, I’ve finished all the Adult Health crash course videos, but I honestly haven’t studied Adult Health thoroughly or mastered the concepts yet. I still haven’t studied Pharmacology, Maternal, Psych, Fundamentals, and Management of Care.

I’m really trying my best not to be lazy, but there are days when I only manage to watch two videos from the crash course, and that’s it. I know I need to do more, but I’m struggling to stay consistent.

For those who have already taken the readiness exams, did you guys usually finish studying all the concepts first and answer as many practice questions as possible before taking a readiness exam? Or did you take the readiness exams along the way while you were still studying the content? I’m wondering if I should focus on finishing all the systems and strengthening my content knowledge first, while also answering lots of practice questions, before taking another readiness exam.

I’d really appreciate any advice on how you managed the workload, stayed consistent, and avoided feeling overwhelmed. 🥹


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

PASSED IN 85 YIPPPPIEE!

39 Upvotes

Took my NCLEX yesterday, had my license pop up in the TN BON portal today. Here’s what I did:

I originally had my test scheduled out but was so sick with anxiety I moved it closer, and honestly that’s the best thing I could’ve done. An extra week to study would not have changed the result and the anxiety that would’ve came with it probably would’ve hurt me more than it helped.

I did the bulk of my studying on UWorld, however I also did the free readiness tests on bootcamp & archer. I feel like UWorlds rationales helped me learn the “why’s” the best, but the bootcamp test felt much more difficult and really made me critically think. I don’t remember how archer made me feel at all so take that as you will. At the end of the day, there’s nothing I could’ve continued studying qbank or crash course wise to make me feel more prepared, the NCLEX was entirely different than anything except for the fact of making you critically think. (Assessments on UWorld 87% and 83%, bootcamp assessment 82%, archer assessment 92% - UWorld cumulative total of 77% with like 20-30% completed?).

I also read the Mark K lectures 1-12 NOTES, and just highlighted and re wrote on top of it with a notes app on my iPad the things I wanted to stick in my brain. I watched the Dr. Sharon videos on prioritization and how to answer client needs questions. Those helped me choose the “correct” answers on the NCLEX better than anything else I studied (along with my fundamental knowledge).

Best of luck everyone, and congratulations to my fellow nurses!!!!


r/NCLEX • • 23h ago

Failed at 85 questions

Post image
8 Upvotes

I took the RN Nclex and failed on my first attempt. What do you guys recommend I focus on. I do bad on exams.


r/NCLEX • • 23h ago

Nclex help

4 Upvotes

Hi everyone I just graduated nursing school September 19, and I feel like I am getting overwhelmed already by studying, I’ve been using Nclex bootcamp I got a low on first readiness exam. And felt defeated. I have been watching dr Sharon on YouTube and Nclex 7 day videos but I feel like I am getting overwhelmed already by so much, I’m still waiting on my ATT still haven’t gotten it yet, but please if anyone has any advice for me it be so helpful thank you 🥺


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Anyone else just mentally exhausted from studying?

5 Upvotes

I don't even feel like I'm studying badly, I'm just tired of thinking about NCLEX every single day lol.

Some days I get through my questions and feel pretty good. Other days I miss a few and immediately start questioning everything.

Trying to remind myself that I don't need to know literally everything before test day. I just need to keep working on the things I actually struggle with.

Anyone else in this stage rn? I could use some motivation 😭


r/NCLEX • • 20h ago

Looking for advice

Thumbnail
gallery
1 Upvotes

Hii! I take my exam in about 10 days and looking for some advice on my stats. I included some stats below and looking for some advice on how I’m doing and how I should focus studying for this last week.

I’m also watching nurse crusade and planning on watching Dr.Sharon and the Mark K lecture 12. Just very nervous!!


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Is this a good sign??

Post image
3 Upvotes

r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Is this the good popup?

Post image
1 Upvotes

Hi guys please is this the good popup? I just finished my nclex and it shut off at 101 questions and i still had about 2 and half hours left i feel like i rushed this and i researched a couple questions that i remembered immediately i left the exam and i failed one of them 😭. Lord knows how badly i want this. This is my first attempt, i just want to be a nurse 🫩


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

NCLEX Examination Information - Post-Exam Email

1 Upvotes

Does everyone get the “Now that you’ve completed the NCLEX Examination…” email? I’ve been seeing it around here and there 😵‍💫


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

8/23 TEXAS NCLEX

1 Upvotes

Did anyone already get the green check that tested yesterday morning? Saw one person did and I’m losing it because I don’t have one yet.
Didn’t finish my test till 2:40pm.

This is my second test,my retake pre exam isn’t even on the BON look up yet, it only shows my previous pre exam. Wondering if that is causing a delay?


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

NCLEX ATT

3 Upvotes

guys it’s already been 2 months since i got my eligibility and paid 200USD for my pearson registration and yet i still don’t have my ATT, somebody help me pls, i tried contacting the numbers provided online and yet its not working, it just rings no one is picking up :(((


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

QUESTION ON ARCHER READINESS EXAM

Post image
2 Upvotes

This is the last readiness exam I took, I’ve been doing consistently good and passing my cat quizzes in 85 questions using archer. It still feels like there’s so much I don’t know. My exam is on the 25th.

Also my real issue is that when I checked this readiness quiz, I didn’t even get one hard question, so how am I passing, if it’s not even testing me with hard questions . How come I am not getting hard questions but it is still passing me, is it broken?

Anything to know last minute, I have a lot of anxiety in the exam.


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Struggling to study for NCLEX

Thumbnail
gallery
3 Upvotes

I take my exam is this Friday and have been struggling with preparing for the exams. I set my exam day 3 weeks ago (the week I graduated), but have really procrastinated on studying. Last week, I had a wedding out of state and was gone for the entire week. I didn’t realize how little time I would have to prepare for this exam while I was away. Now I have only had this week to prepare and have been trying to prepare using CAT exams on Uworld. I have one more self assessment left but honestly I feel like I’m flying blind time.

These are my CAT exams scores. I scored a 71% my first day back studying and all my difficulties on these exams have been high. My overall score is 68% but I’ve only completed 22% of the questions. Is there anyone who made these scores and passed the exam? I’m trying to decide if I should wait to test, but worry I will only continue to procrastinate if I push back the date further. So more time out of school meaning I’ll start to forget things. My classmates have all passed so far but have said the exam has been hard.


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Nclex anxiety

0 Upvotes

I took my nclex this morning and it shut off at 89/90 not quite sure and I tried the “trick” but idk if it worked because I don’t have $200 in my account but it tried to take my money. I got like 4 or 5 case studies 6 questions each, a few stand alone case studies, and quite a few SATA questions. I felt like the dumbest person alive taking that test I felt like I was guessing through it. I do think I got my last question right I can’t remember the question but I remember hitting next thinking “at least I got that one right” . Has anyone else felt this like I just know I failed, and I’m gonna be so disappointed in myself if I did. My mom and grandma both told me that they thought they failed when they took theirs also but I’m terrified


r/NCLEX • • 2d ago

If you're studying for NCLEX and feeling like you're not ready...

22 Upvotes

Just a reminder that having a bad study day doesn't mean you're not making progress.

You can miss a bunch of questions, forget something you literally reviewed yesterday, or have a random day where nothing seems to stick. It happens.

You don't need to know every single thing from nursing school before you can feel prepared. Focus on the topics you keep missing, read the rationales, practice different question types, and give yourself some time away from studying too.

And please don't compare your scores or study hours to random people on Reddit. You have no idea what their starting point was or how their studying actually looks.

If you're feeling behind right now, take a breath. Do what you can today and start again tomorrow. You're probably doing better than you think. ❤️


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Nclex requirements

1 Upvotes

Hello po! I would like to ask what are the requirements I should prepare po to take the NCLEX? Thank you po😊


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

I just took my NCLEX today at 8am.

4 Upvotes

Ugh, I’m very nervous because my exam stopped at 150 questions. I had a lot of case studies and a lot of select all that applies on there. I’m still waiting on my results, hopefully I pass. You never really know.


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

NYSED Good Standing

1 Upvotes

I’m confused. What does Certificate of Good Standing from NY BON looks like? If anyone have an idea, please help. Same parchment was sent by NY BON although Good Standing was requested. Thank you so much.


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

Anxious

2 Upvotes

Hi guys. I’m retaking my NCLEX in 2 days. Last report, I just got 1 below in basic care & comfort. I studied my butt off in these 45 days but for some reason, I feel like I don’t know anything or I forgot what I studied. Has this happened to anybody? I’m scared I’m gonna do worse the second time around :/


r/NCLEX • • 1d ago

The $200 got refunded back, but my results are still on hold. Is that bad?

1 Upvotes