Originally Posted by LilDKessler
I am trying to sort out the info for Excelsior & need a little help. Can I get study material from eBay, yahoo, etc & contact Pearson to schedule test dates prior to enrolling. Basically I am looking to do this for the core classes if possible. Also, do I have to pay the $190 (3 credit) $220 (4 credit) & $280 (6 credit) for each exam if I am not purchasing the guided learning material? Can someone please get me very clear cut answers to what I will be "required" to pay for other than the enrollment, application, student services, CPNE, grad fees? Thanks so much for helping me sort out all the options a little clearer! Have a blessed day.
LilD Kessler:
I thinking I should start an Excelsior info web page - I know so much of the process is complicated, but why reinvent the wheel when others have been through it? For the meantime, let me try to answer your questions, as I am about one step away from where you are (I've signed up to take the first test,) and am still waiting to be "officially" enrolled. If I understand your question, you are only going to take the Nursing Concepts (1-6) exams, then the CPNE. I did the math, and it comes to about 5,000. bucks. That's a few thousand less than doing the last year of an ADN program, assuming you have an LPN. The tests are about 200. bucks apiece, the CPNE about 1,700.
and will the various fees, this is what I came up with. (I'm assuming you will have all your non-nursing credits in science and general liberals done.)
Yes, you do have to pay for the exams, and the Examination Content Guides are free. You can take exam before you've enrolled, and waive the second one if you have an LPN. Factor in the mindless paperwork of an ADN program, along with many hours being a cna for free, it's a great deal. I just don't buy the reservations about online studies. Many students from my old ADN went through two years of clinicals without having ever done a Foley, set up an IV from scratch. I'd rather have the two-day hellish (I hear) CPNE exam, where I walk away knowing exactly what I know, and what I don't know.
About the books - I used a varied approach. I found some of the texts used online for quite cheap, including the login codes for the publishers web site, which have all kinds of handy practice tests, and so on. For some of them, I'm borrowing them from my local library network, where I can have them for six weeks at a time. I did a little table to show which books are needed for which exams, so I can juggle the ones I don't actually own. Fortunately, a handful I already owned, such as the Smeltzer Med-Surg tome.
Let me know if you want me to send a copy of this to you. Hope I answered your questions.
Diahni
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