Question about Excelsior

Zach:

- Under no circumstances should you use College Network. They are a publishing company, and are unrelated
to Excelsior College. In addition, their study guides are not in-depth enough to adequately cover the material
on the exams.

In fact, so poorly written are the College Network guides, that I would NOT even recommend buying them
used from E-bay.

- Best bet would be to purchase Lisa Arends and Study Group 101 study guides from E-bay. They run about
$50 = $60 (for the entire set). Use these as your guides, and then make your own study notes as you read
the material. Can do search on Ebay for these notes.

- Subscribe to the following two Yahoo Discussion Groups: (free to join and participate)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freehe...lsiorstudents/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PassCPNE/

Download all the files you can from these two groups. Use these files to focus your readings. Yes!!!! You must
read the textbooks in order to get good grades on Excelsior exams.

- Go to www.flaschardexchange.com and view the card sets constructed by previous students. This is a great
way to study, and again it's free to use.

- Make sure you purchase the practice exams from Excelsior ($60 for each exam).

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- The Excelsior exams are fair, but thorough. I think you have seven years (from date of enrollment) to complete
the exams. Excelsior does have their own set of pre-requisites, so definitely submit your transcripts for review
so there are no suprises.

- I had to take Lifespan Development Psychology (did this through a Community College). In addition, they wanted
me to re-take Chemistry 101 as I had not taken it since 1981 (high school). Again, I did this course at a local
Community College and Excelsior accepted the credits with no problems.

- Counselors are easy to get a hold of.

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- The downside to Excelsior. You are basically on your own with regards towards studying and learning the material.
You are given the page numbers and a brief set of objectives for each exam. Then you are on your own.

When you are ready.

--> You pay for the practice exams (optional -- but definitely recommended).

--> You pay for the exam.

--> Wait two to four days for your "Authorization to Test" letter (snail mailed to you).

--> Register with PearsonVue for an actual exam date.

--> Go to exam site and take your exam. Grades are posted at end of exam. You also get paper receipt at end
of exam with your grade.

Clinicals are a 3 day process, called the CPNE.

--> Day 1 is compentencies (wet-to-dry, iv rate, IM injections, etc).

--> Day 2 and Day 3 are the actual patient cases.

You can read about CPNE experiences on the CPNE discussion group. Definitely recommend taking a
practice CPNE workshop. Again, can read about the workshops on the CPNE discussion group.

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- My personal story. I failed nursing school (clinicals) with two weeks left to go in an RN program. This, despite the
fact I had a 3.8 QPA. I was able to grab my LPN license as I had completed three out of four semesters (NY used
to let you do this).

- Am currently an LPN working agency (Rhode Island and New York). I work about 50 to 60 hours a week in various
nursing home facilities. Bacially, push a med cart for 8 to 16 hours and do charting, and try to stay out of trouble.

- I started Excelsior in Sept 2007. Did my Chemistry at SUNY, and my Lifespan Development (online via Ivy Tech
Community College, Evansville, Indiana). Have done the first four exams, and have two more to go. Basically, takes
me three months (due to work demands) to prepare for an exam.

I used the College Network guides (bought from Ebay), for first three exams and had B, B, C. I then switched gears,
and use Study Group 101 notes (only run about $10/exam for the notes ... cheap, but good). I use the Yahoo group
notes and read, read, read the textbooks. Had an A, and another A on the last two exams. Am just about ready
for my next exam (Oct 24th).

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- Overall assessment so far....

- I don't like online classes ... as I have to self-pace myself. Also, it's tough to know what's important to study and
what you can skip. Found this especially true with the online Lifespan Development course. The Yahoo groups
help to focus on what's important for the exams. However, if you work full-time and bounce around (I work in Rhode
Island, but live in New York), then certainly online school is a viable option.

- Has Excelsior been fair? So far, I think the exams have reflected my knowledge of the material. I was definitely not
prepared for the the mother-baby exam (which I earned a C in). I used the College Network study guide exclusively,
and found it to be incredibly lacking. Hence, my negative review of them.

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Sorry for the long rant. Just felt like typing away tonight. Was cancelled by agency for my night shift, so decided to
hack away.


Good luck,

John Coxey
(Syracuse, NY, USA)

I'm an LPN, and just started looking into getting my RN a different way than the local college; I just don't have the schedule for a traditional program right now. Would you mind explaining to me how you did it; re: not enrolling until near graduation? I'd love to do this as efficiently/affordable as possible. Any advice you have for me would be great!
Thanks in advance!
Rachelle

I just graduated from Excelsior College and passed my state boards and started my first job this week. Just a little advice. Do NOT enroll right now with EC. Take all your pre req. first through whoever, you mentioned the college network. Take all those you have to take and once you are done. Then you can contact EC and you can take Nursing concepts 1 &2 before you have to enroll. The reason I say this is because they charge you a yearly fee of $500.00 something . If you wait and enroll when you have to you will save alot of money. My study partner didn't know this and has had to pay that fee for about 8 years before she finished. I didn't do that, someone was kind enough to inform me of this information so I am passing it on.
Good luck, I have ran into alot of paramedics who have taken this route and are doing well.
DebbieM. RN

Things may have changed since I was there.
I did send my transcripts in for review & they recommended which classes for me to take. I got the study guide & information for one class at a time & when I was near to finished, i registered with them & prometric for the test. If you enroll, you have to pay extra fees every year, there are some benefits, but to me it wasn't enough to offset the cost. I had to enroll about 1 1/2 years before i was done because CA was no longer going to accept Excelsior & if you weren't already enrolled, you wouldn't be able to grandfather in. You do have to pay the enrollment fees prior to graduation...but you could get away with only paying them for the last year & not the whole time

The way it's set up now is that you have to actually enroll before taking the third nursing exam. I used to hear about people not enrolling until the end -- not sure when they changed it, but they did.

:-) probably because lots of people did it like I did
Still, the 3rd nursing exam is fairly far thru the program if you do the pre-req's first.

I was wondering if hospitals on long island employ grads of the AAS/RN from Excelsior or they frown on that way of attaining the degree.

Anyone works at a hospital on Long island went to excelsior?
Thanks.

I appreciate the long blog entry. It's very informative.

What is the current status of LPN to RN since 2007?

Currently, does NY State accept an LPN that failed nursing school in the final semester of clinicals?

I have seen the LPN to RN route is not valid in all states.
See http://www.indstate.edu/nursing/imag...isu-lpn-bs.GIF
This is for the LPN to RN offered here at Indiana State http://www.indstate.edu/nursing/prog...-bs/lpn-bs.htm

I am sorry but I am still a little confused after reading all the information here and on the website. Where do you purchase the textbooks everyone is talking about? Are these excelsior textbooks or just from your local college or bookstore? What if you just want to take the clep test for your general ed classes? Or should you use excelsiors study guides and text for these as well? I know I have read that it is cheaper to take the cleps but...... How do I take the first two nursing exams without enrolling? Don't I have to have a registration number from excelsior to be able to register through pearsonvue to actually TAKE the tests?

Thank you very much for all your help, I appreciate it.

Things may have changed, so if someone has more recent information, please let us know. When I took the tests, I wasn't enrolled, but Excelsior sent me the number to give Pearson when I paid for the tests.
You can get the books anywhere you want, they're just regular text books & they give you a list you can chose from. Don't buy all of them. One'll do.
My understanding is that it's easier to deal with the college credits if you take the tests thru a college, rather than just doing CLEP.
It would probably be cheapest if you onlywant gen ed & aren't interested in the nursing program, to take online classes thru your local community college--where I am, it's only about $20 a unit.
Excelsior has study guides, which were free when I went there-I don't know if they still are. They also had additional, more detailed guides you have to pay for. There are a lot of places that sell (very pricy) study guides for the excelsior classes. The quality is variable & many people are disappointed.
Hope this helps