Lisa Ahrens notes Vs. Studygroup101

Nursing Students Excelsior

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Hello all-I just started with Excelsior, spoke with an advisor have all my pre-req. done. Now I am not sure where to start... please help!!! I am thinking of buying all the recommended books? Also not sure if I should get Lisa's notes or the StudyGroup101 notes...

Any advice? please share your experience...

thanks!

I used both Study Group 101 and Lisa Arends at some point during my Excelsior exam preparation. Not a fan. It takes a lot to impress me though. I felt both sets of notes were sporadic, unorganized and full of typos. It took me more time to decipher them than to focus my energy on the content guide and actual textbooks. On my final exam I realized, there are no short cuts when it comes to preparing for the examinations. For me to feel prepared, it takes studying the actual Excelsior recommended materials and doing the work myself. Good luck!

Specializes in PACU.
I used both Study Group 101 and Lisa Arends at some point during my Excelsior exam preparation. Not a fan. It takes a lot to impress me though. I felt both sets of notes were sporadic, unorganized and full of typos. It took me more time to decipher them than to focus my energy on the content guide and actual textbooks. On my final exam I realized, there are no short cuts when it comes to preparing for the examinations. For me to feel prepared, it takes studying the actual Excelsior recommended materials and doing the work myself. Good luck!

I totally agree. If you stick to the reccomended reading in the text you're much better off. The notes are confusing because there is a lot of abbreviations and typos. Start off by getting the Fundamentals, Med-surge, pharm and peds books and you should be good for a few exams. I also got a few others along the way, but I did buy some that were older editions and they are just fine.

I agree with the previous posts. When I started out I also used published study guides for the subject at hand, i.e. med-surg, peds. Back then, there were not as many resources available, there was no SG101 or L. Arends at all. Best to start with the recommended texts and add to them when needed for clarification. Good luck.

Thank you so much you guys for your recommendations...

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I used both of them as supplements, not main study resources. Liked both of them, once I got over the spelling errors (pet peeve! ;)).

studygroup101 waaaayyyyyy better than lisa's notes! I agree with the other posts though, use it as a supplemental study guide in addition to other study information. I get used college network books and mystudygroup101 and have passed every test easily. I have tried lisa's notes but I feel like its scattered and its easier for me to buy mystudygroup (which is cheaper) and has tons of quiz questions and I can browse over it after studying my main study book.

Specializes in HOME HEALTH.

i liked studyguide 101 better. i used it often, and it worked well for me.

I recommend studygroup101. The last 2 or 3 that I got had few or no typos that I noticed, so maybe they fixed those, anyway - they are way easier to navigate and are more up to date. :twocents:

I also used both, but mainly Lisa Arends.. I did like them, however I just read through them and highlighted what I thought was important. I then when through all my notes from traditional nursing and dissected everything until I completely broke it down. I have a strange way of studying, but it works for me.

Best of Luck.

Specializes in Trauma ICU.

I used study101 and Lisa Arends. I would say study101 is written in a better more organized format and is more user friendly. Lisa Arends has a cartoon nurse behind every page which is distracting and she often stops thoughts in mid sentence or on occasion fails to finish a definition. But both have good info. I used Lisa Arends for maternal anf RN transition without a book. But I chose study101 for my fcca and cpne study info.

I purchased one of larends study guides and really didn't care for it, I doubt that I will purchase another. I did notice that the info is all dated 2005. I like the study group 101 notes much better and it is current as far as i've noticed so far.

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