NCLEX Critical Thinking Skills

Whether you're looking at taking either the NCLEX RN or PN, actually getting your Nclex critical thinking skills right is going to be a big part of passing the exam.

Now you're probably thinking "Oh great!. Not only do I have to make sure I have learnt everything there is to know about nursing - I have to find out and learn about how to actually think critically too!"

Don't worry - we've got you covered.

It's a two part solution really - based on our experiences. The first is the 3 Top Tips below for adapting your thinking process towards the Nclex exam.

The second is the review material, the nursing exam study guides, further down the page.

Let's start with the Top 3 Tips shall we?

1.  "A comes before I ".

Learn it - because it stand for one of the most important thinking approaches you can take in order to pass the exam.  "A comes before I " means "ASSESS comes before IMPLEMENT"  It is very easy to get caught up in the event and trip yourself up by actually implementing a nursing action before you've actually assessed the patient. Make sure you Assess before Implementing!

2.  Establish the Priority.

Look for words that give you a clue as to the priority such as greatest, most, first, best etc. Gravitating towards these words will help you avoid the info that you don't need. (Think along the lines of "Which patient would I see first...?")

3.  The land of the Nclex exam is not the land YOU currently live in.

You might very well know a stunning process to use for 'Mrs. Yourlastpatient'.......but the exam is looking for a text book answer - not a 'well, based on my experience......' answer. Keep strictly to answering questions with text book perfect answers only!

If you follow these 3 top Nclex tips then you'll find the thinking skills that you need will be much easier to develop. From here, it's a short step to making sure you pass first time. Which brings us to books - namely, Nclex study guides and Nclex preparation books.

We'd actually suggest you look at two Nclex revision aids - the study guide and a set of Nclex flashcards.

Flashcards work incredibly well because they use the human ability to soak up learning via repetition. Keep flicking through the cards whenever you can, wherever you are and you will be happily surprised as well as impressed by just how much you seem to suddenly and effortlessly know!

Our recommendations for both, the study aid and the flash cards are below. Having used and actually tried a few different products, both of these came out top of our preferred product because they are top quality - both for content and presentation.

'Nclex Secrets'

Price:- $39.95

Released By:- Morrison Media LLC

Available via:- 1.) Instant Download e-Book 2.) Printed Book

'The Advice Centre' Score:

Written by actual Nclex examiners and containing a wealth of knowledge for a very small price, "Nclex Secrets" just has to get our recommendation as the best possible Nclex study guide you can get.

(If you also add into your consideration process that it comes with a 1 year 'No Quibble' returns policy then it is a really outstanding deal.)

Now normally, when people are listing out all the Bonus items that come with something, I tend to tune out, to be honest. I either want what they are selling or I don't - bonus bits aren't really going to make any difference to me.

Had to eat my words on the Nclex Secrets package though.

As well as 5 or 6 bonus items that follow a Nursing/Nclex revision type theme - one really stood out as a major bonus - and really had me extra hooked.

Apart from books with information on topics such as:- "Basic Review of Types of Fractures", "Pharmacology Generic / Trade Names of the 50 Key Drugs in Medicine" and a "CPR Review  (Cheat) sheet" - the huge bonus for me was the free copy of 'Med Terms Success'. For those who don't know it, this is an easy-to-use guide that goes into detail about everything you need to know about medical terminology on the NCLEX.

Written by a team of medical experts it covers areas such as:-

• Provides practice test questions related to medical terminology to help prepare for the NCLEX test

• Understand what it takes to become proficient at medical terminology that will be found on the NCLEX and how much you need to understand

• Empowers you with all the most important prefixes/suffixes and root words that allow you to be able to dissect any medical term found on the NCLEX

• Allows you to recognize surgical abbreviations that will save you from making common mix-ups on test questions

This alone is an excellent bonus but if you add in the other topics covered by the other 7 bonus plus the depth and quality of the Nclex Secrets book itself - you have a winning Nclex study guide that will help you tip the balance in your favor and make passing easier.

'Nclex Flash Cards'

Price:- $39.95

Released By:- Morrison Media LLC

Available via:- US Postal Service Mail - Oversee Post Available

'The Advice Centre' Score:

Following on from our recommended book above we also have to point you in the direction of these Nclex flashcards.

For those who are not familiar with flashcards - flashcards are tough cards that have questions and answers printed on them.

By 'flashing' the question part to yourself and trying to answer without looking at the answer printed on the back, you learn by repetition.

Study after study has shown that repetition is the most effective form of learning - and nothing beats flashcards when it comes to making repetitive learning fun and fast. Flashcards engage more of your senses in the learning process with the flipping action getting you actively involved in the learning process.

There's 615 Nclex flashcards in this collection and they cover all of the main and secondary areas of questions from the Nclex RN and PN exams.

If you use these along with the Secrets book mentioned above - you are going to greatly increase your chances of success.

(Here's a final little tip as well.) Once you've used your guide and flashcards, don't bin them. The quality of these are excellent so, conditional on you looking after them normally as you use them - why not look to sell them on after you've finished with them! They'll still be very desirable for others and should be in really good condition.

Also - if you're looking for more general advice about the NCLEX exam, Nclex preparation or even just an overview of it all - take a look at this Nclex Guides site.