While studying for NCLEX, learning all the topics is important. But what is more important is the way you learn those topics. There are many ways to study, but not all methods are equally effective. As the nursing students at archer review understand this, we are often asked about the best ways to use our combos to get the maximum results.

Our students from the Surepass program often ask one such question: "After watching the content, should I do questions from random mode or just one specific topic?" 

So, in this article, we will address that question and explain what you should do and the reason behind doing it. But first, let's talk about our NCLEX Surepass Combo so that you can better understand what we are talking about. If you already know the combo, you can skip to the next part, where we answer the question. 

What is the Surepass Combo?

ArcherRevew has a variety of courses for various exam preparation, including NCLEX-RN, NCLEX-PN, USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2, and USMLE Step 3. The Surepass is the combo pack that we offer our NCLEX-RN students. It contains our NCLEX-RN rapid review, both live and on-demand sessions, along with our high-yield question banks. The benefits this course provides to our students are as follows:

• Reservations for the next 2-day live webinar
• 6 months of access to Question bank + assessments
• Live interaction with the instructor
• 2800+ questions & rationales
• Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) mode
• Multiple mock NCLEX - CAT tests
• For two months, you will have self-paced access to a live review crash course video.
• 2 months of self-paced access to high-yield topic-wise webinars
• Printable Handouts / Notes (about 250 pages)

Our combos have 3 steps that help you achieve success in your exams

Step 1: Master the content via Rapid Prep.

In just 2 days (20 hours), our live webinar covers all the essential topics you must know before taking NCLEX. We have distilled the most high-yield topics that NCLEX always asks you questions about. With Surepass combo, you will have access to Rapid review webinars and topic-wise webinars in both live and on-demand access.

Step 2: Practice Qbanks and read detailed Rationales:

After learning the information, it is time to solidify it in your mind by its application. Our question banks have 2520 highly distilled questions to ensure you completely understand all topics within the least number of questions.

Step 3: Assess yourself and know when you are ready.

ArcherReview lets you have multiple assessments where you can test your readiness for taking the NCLEX

Now let's answer your question about the best way to solve the question bank.

Is it better to do questions randomly or according to specific topics?

We strongly recommend you do at least 75 questions every day across all categories and read their rationale in the tutor mode. The reason behind this is-

1. It helps you correlate information:

When you study a topic and do questions only for that topic, you simply recall recent information. While there is no problem with that, it is not the best way that you can study.

On the other hand, when you learn a particular topic and practice questions in a random order across all categories, it helps you correlate information between various subjects. It also helps improve your critical thinking and prepare you for the actual exam by making you tackle random questions from a broader area.

In this way, you can perform active recall (recalling information from memory) as well as interleaving practice (studying different topics or skills in a single study session), both of which are excellent study methods.

2. You will remember information longer:

When you go through a topic and do practice questions for it, you are more likely to get a higher score. But the human forgetting cure is quite steep, and as time goes by, you start forgetting the information and will score lesser marks. However, if you are presented with a few new questions about the topics repeatedly every day, then you are going through the process of spaced repetition, an effective and scientifically proven study technique.

The idea behind spaced repetition is that we do not learn well from "binge education," such as cramming before an exam. In contrast, we learn by being exposed to new skills and ideas over time, with spacing in between.

When you re-learn something after you have forgotten the information (such as by reading rationales), you will have better memory consolidation than when you re-learn it immediately.

The impact of this method on students:

Daily video viewing, 75 questions daily with reading rationales, and one assessment every 3-5 days help students improve their scores faster. Many students even say that when they were given the actual NCLEX exam, they got the same feeling as taking an Archer assessment.

Surepass combo works because it exposes you to the content at least 3 times with properly spaced intervals and in different formats, i.e., videos, practice questions, and assessments. This has turned out to be the key to the vast NCLEX success of our students.

Using up all questions in one category leaves you with no new questions for spaced repetition. Hence you must follow our prescribed method and do 75 questions from all categories daily.

This has been the key to the success of our NCLEX Combos.