Question about Excelsior

Do not use the College Network. Yes, you can use the materials Excelsior offers, (study guides & online resources)and other resources from ebay such as Lisa Arends, Studygroup 101 & Minnays ($6.00- $60.00 per resource no where near the cost of those useless College Network binders).This will save you about $6500.00 I have take all the Nursing exams with Excelsior and stopped using the College Network stuff after failing the first test. Have passed all the others with the other above listed resources. Just retaking one exam,Lifespan #2) which is my last one and so far it is the most difficult. With Excelsior you have to pay all the application fees and each time you take an exam. You also pay a yearly fee and for the CPNE in the end. Go straight to the source and go to www.excelsior.edu for all your info and skip College Network. Best of luck

Excelsior is VERY friendlt about scheduling exams, which are through PearsonVue. It's also easy to reschedule.

DONOT USE TCN. They are entirely unnecessary.

EC RN here.

Yes very easy. What you usually do is pay to take your test to Excelsior and then when approved(about 2-3 days) you then go online to Pearsonvue(the company that gives the computer test) schedule the test at a center near you and go take the test. Results are given that day if you pass or fail(everything except boards) and you then know where you stand. It takes about 3-4 days for Excelsior to get the results, they confirm them and post them to your transcript. Hope this helps.

Hi Zach! I'm also a medic, and I did the EC RN thing last year. The College Network (TCN) is an unnecessary middleman -- a publishing company whose study guides cost more than the exams to which they correspond. (That still makes no sense to me! Anyway ...) Their materials aren't bad, but can be purchased used for a fraction of the original price.

I suggest you go directly with Excelsior. If you haven't already, create a free account on the Excelsior College (EC) website. Once you've logged in, go here:

https://www.excelsior.edu/Excelsior_...ations_Request

That is the publications request page. I suggest you download and peruse the "School of Nursing Catalog" and the "AS and AAS in Nursing Viewbook." Also very important -- the PDF called "How Much Will Your Associate Degree in Nursing Cost?" You can use that third one to estimate your costs. Please be aware that the packaged pricing option in that third publication is being discontinued as of October 2, so if you decide that you want to take advantage of it, you might want to get on the horn with EC sooner rather than later!

Welcome to the madness!

Hi Zach,

I am also a paramedic and graduated EC last August. I used TCN as well but like booziemgm2, I stopped using them after failing a test. So I agree with others, TCN is not necessary. Also, you can also CLEP sociology to save you money.

Good luck and happy studying.

All I used were the texts. Buy med/surg, peds, maternal/child, and pharm. That'll do ya.

Print out the study guide and stick post-its on the chapters it says to read.