Consider This Before Paying For KAPLAN Or Any NCLEX Preparation "Course"

Nursing Students NCLEX

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Why hello there!

How are you all?

I'm a recent College grad of my local Community College's RN program, and even more recently, I've become a licensed Registered Nurse! I passed the NCLEX in 75 questions!

I want you all to consider something before you pay hundreds of dollars for these NCLEX preparation courses (Kaplan, Hurst, or otherwise). I also want you all to know things about me so you can compare yourself, to myself, which is I'm telling you all, I'm a Community College graduate. I think it would be helpful for you to compare yourself to myself so that you can see that:

  1. You are likely more knowledgeable or as knowledgeable as me.
  2. I'm nothing special, and I've passed the NCLEX in only 75 questions.
  3. You don't need to stress if you graduated from your program. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX.

Point three is a big one. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX! I know this, and so do all of these "preparation" test corporations.

Lastly, the main goal of this post is to decrease stress/anxiety among everyone who thinks they will be taking the NCLEX. The very close second goal of this post is to persuade you not to take any "preparation" course, especially if you (like myself) don't have much money to spend.

(skip this part if you don't care to compare my normalcy to your awesomeness!)

About Me

  • I have an Associates degree, not a Bachelors.
  • I graduated May 2nd and took the NCLEX 2 and 1/2 months later on July 15th.
  • I've earned one C, and the rest B's in my theory/lecture classes.
  • I've averaged perhaps in the mid 80's on my exams throughout the program.
  • I passed the Exit HESI just barely, according to my school's minimum requirements. I received an 835 on my Exit HESI.
  • Here are all my other HESI scores (syntax: [Name of HESI]: [1st attempt], [2nd attempt if applicable])
    • Psych: 884
    • Peds: 633, 752
    • Management: 762, 642
    • Pharm: 688, 1012
    • Fundamentals: 782, 916
    • Maternity: 931, 576
    • Med/Surg: 1010
    • Exit: 835
    • (As you can see, I'm not exactly a top notch candidate am I?)

    [*]I did study countless hours throughout the program. I'm not sure you could get through without studying for many hours.

    • My studying consisted of ONLY reading the book(s), reviewing particular lab values or staging values (like stage x pressure ulcers, or +x pulse strength, etc...), and what I consider pretty awesome, taking pictures of excerpts of parts of the book I just thought may be useful. I NEVER wrote down notes from the book while reading it as, when I did do this in the first 2 semesters of my program, it would take many more HOURS to study. You want to study WAYYY faster? Take pictures instead of writing things down, and/or just simply read the book.

    [*]I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade with a 1.x GPA.

    [*]I am a normal human being!

Why You Should Consider NOT Paying For A "Preparation" Course

Alright, here we are! I'm going to present an argument for you all, and you can either accept it, as I do, or say, "huh, this dude is a little cray-cray." Either way, I wish you luck! Also, this is mostly directed to Kaplan as that is what I've had most exposure to.

Let me lay out some premises for you:

  1. On average, if you graduated from your school's RN program, you are likely to pass the NCLEX.
  2. On average, if you have failed your NCLEX on your first try, you are likely to fail on your second try.

(P.S - I was just assuming these two premises were true but if you look here: https://www.ncsbn.org/Table_of_Pass_Rates_2015_(3).pdf, it actually is true.)

Now then, what is Kaplan's guarantee? Let me recite it for you:

  • They give you a money back guarantee if you have NEVER taken the NCLEX.
  • If you have taken the NCLEX and failed before, this guarantee is null!

Now let's notice some things about their marketing:

  • Their big buzz is the money back guarantee, which is why they will tell you it if they go to your school, and why it is the thing they put right on the front of their web page.
  • This corporation WILL poke at your insecurities of failing subtly. If they go to your school (as they did mine), they will tell you why it's so different from any exam you've taken in class ("It is significantly different from any test that you took in nursing school." []File Not Found), hint that some secret strategy that they will give you will make you pass ("The key to passing the NCLEX is strategy." []File Not Found), and of course that, if you fail, you get your money back, so why not?

With that in your mind, let's make some more assumptions:

  1. Kaplan knows you are likely going to pass the NCLEX since you passed your RN program. They also know you're fearful of failing. They are profiting off of your fear and the irrationality it causes.
  2. They know that if you failed your NCLEX once, you're likely to fail it again which is why they DO NOT give you a money back guarantee if you take their program.

From that, let's draw some conclusions:

  • They make you feel that if you take this course, you will be learning something you don't know. Otherwise, you wouldn't take it.
  • Now, what does it tell you that they will not give a money back guarantee to those who have failed once? What it says is that, what they are going to teach you is either going to help you marginally or not at all. In other words, they cannot turn a failure into a winner with any real or significant success.

I think that last point is CRUCIAL. They CANNOT turn a loser into a winner with any real success, which is why they don't give a money back guarantee for those who have failed before. What are you paying for these courses for? You're paying them because you believe that they will increase your chances of winning! Well I'm here to say that based on how they treat past failures, they don't believe that they can increase your chance of passing with any real or significant success! They don't believe they can improve you much, and if they don't believe they can improve you much, neither should you!

And before I end this, here's one thing I always hear. Something like, "If they help me pass, I'll be making a lot more money as an RN sooner then if I fail because I didn't take the course."

To that, I say, "Ahh yes. You're assuming that they will increase your chances of passing, yes? And even if the improvement is marginal, which it probably is based on the way they treat previous failures, if they help you win 5% more of the time, it's worth it because you'll be making a lot more money sooner right? Well, if you consider that if you say... STUDY yourself and do practice questions w/rationals and understand these reasoning's you will gain that same 5% increase in chance WITHOUT paying $500, does it make sense?" - I hope it doesn't...

You understand you are paying them to give you work! Work you already have! Look at your text books! Go to a library/Barnes and Noble and study for free. They don't know anything more than what your text books have already told you.

And you want to know their "key strategy"? It's called the Kaplan decision tree. Literally just Google "Kaplan decision tree" and there you go.

And as for some cheap anecdotal evidence, everyone of my colleagues have told me it was a waste of their money.

They don't have "secret" information that will all of a sudden make you better. They don't have a strategy that's going to make you better than the next random RN graduate. They are trying to sell you magic, and you know what? Magic doesn't exist. If you want to increase your chance of passing the NCLEX, study hard throughout your program and study after you graduate and DO PRACTICE QUESTIONS from books w/rationals and UNDERSTAND them! Understand why they are right, and why they are wrong! And know your labs! Paying $500 isn't going to substitute for simply putting in the hours that it takes to study. Don't pay $500 for magic because only work will get you where you want to be.

You and I are average my friend, and average is all it takes!

I apologize for any spelling mistakes. If you'd like to know any more things about my average self, just ask! I'd also love some opinions and counter arguments if you disagree with me!

Thanks for reading,

-ThatNursingDude

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Only 43% of repeat US educated students will pass. OMG!!!!!! I am scared.

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By the way, your post was beautifully written. I agree with you 100%. They feed off of our fears.

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Interesting. I'm curious about what other RNs have to say. My friend failed her NCLEX twice before buying Kaplan and then passing on the third attempt. She said that it didn't really give her any more knowledge than she already had, but that it helped her learn how to answer NCLEX style questions. She also told me that her college did not spend a lot of time prepping the students for NCLEX style questions.

Anyways, congrats on passing!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I paid to attend a live Hurst Review course in March 2010 and have no regrets.

Unlike you, I attended a school of poor repute with chronically low NCLEX pass rates. Only 47 percent of the student body passed NCLEX on the first attempt in 2007, 56 percent passed in 2008, and 59 percent passed in 2009. I graduated in 2010 and was not going to take any chances.

One-third of my classmates failed NCLEX in 2010. I passed on the first attempt with 75 questions. I realize that I don't know what I don't know, and I knew my former school had a history of failing to adequately prepare students, so I opted to attend a NCLEX review course. And I'm glad I did.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

Just paying $500 won't make you pass NCLEX. Actually putting in the time to study the material and learn the decision tree and do all the practice questions & trainers does. I personally felt that Kaplan was very beneficial. Our school gifted us with a "scholarship" for it, so I only had to pay $100 instead of $525.

Nothing is one-size-fits-all. What works for one person, might not work for others. Congrats on passing the NCLEX :)

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I feel that it greatly depends on how the individual is prepared content wise and how well they can critically think. This greatly affects how you are able to answer questions. If a person is weak on content i don't feel that any of the reviews will be very helpful. However understanding why you either get the practice questions right OR wrong is also very crucial. We were exposed to the Kaplan product throughout our program and for me it was beneficial. Everyone is different so what worked for one person may not work for another no matter how similar their nursing school experience is.

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Specializes in LTC, Med-surg.

Because I was so fearful about failing the NCLEX-RN, I took the Hurst Review. I believe it greatly helped me with knowing what core content to focus on the NCLEX-RN. While I had a lot of content knowledge, I have to admit that my concepts were in pieces. Hurst put it all together into a complete picture. But, honestly, I think I may have had a fighting chance if I did not take the Hurst Review. Instead of the Hurst Review, I would have focused solely on answering questions from the Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN and doing practice questions on NCLEX 4000. I think I would have probably passed without Hurst.

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Since no one I know has a magical crystal ball (would that we did!!) we really can't say how anyone would have fared on the NCLEX if he/she hadn't taken the course....or how he/she would have done if he/she HAD taken it. Psychic ability NOT on my resume ;)

What we do know is that for some people, uber-preparations make them feel more confident, and in those cases, they SHOULD do whatever they feel they should in order to best be ready to test. Do they all NEED all that review coursework? Maybe not....maybe....it's really an individual thing.

But is it a WASTE, in every single one of those cases where people spend money on commercial courses to prepare for NCLEX? Absolutely not. For SOME, I do believe it was quite necessary, as their nursing programs were lacking. Not every school churns out students ready to take the exam, so....they have to prepare themselves.

For others, it's just a matter of fine-tuning what's already there. As a "for instance", my own nursing program was well-known to be tough to survive, and graduates had an outstanding pass rate for the NCLEX. If you could make it through that program....you were going to be fine. BUT (and it's a nice fat BUT inserted here), although we all understood the material that was going to be covered, we all understood the kind of thinking (critical thinking is the catch-phrase) that it took to be successful, there were certainly a good number of us who recognized we needed (or might need?) polishing.

My school did not use computerized testing, it was pencil and paper and filling in bubbles on occasion. I had never experienced anything like what I would face on the NCLEX UNTIL I paid for a Kaplan program that included the Q-Bank stuff as well as classroom review time.

The classroom time was good in that it gave me a new instructor to listen to, hear strategies from, etc. I didn't learn a single thing that I didn't already know. But I wanted to make sure :)

Now...the ONLINE part of the program, the Q-Bank, Trainer Tests, etc....that was PRICELESS in my own personal opinion. The computer format was set up to exactly mimic the actual NCLEX I would see at a PV testing site, I became comfortable with the style of testing, and the clock ticking down time (yes, even that was helpful, as I was so anxious about that initially).

By the time I sat for the actual exam, and the screen opened to my REAL test, it looked for all the world just like one more Training exam. Right down to the clock and the colors/fonts ;) Can't tell you how much that gave me confidence, calmed me because "hey, I've DONE THIS, no big deal at all".

Ultimately, whatever any one person thinks he or she needs in order to feel ready is what he or she needs, period. No, it isn't going to magically transform someone who fails into someone who passes, but for those who are perhaps on the line...or THINK they are on the line....it sure can't hurt!

Good luck to everyone who still needs to test, however you get there :)

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Specializes in Emergency.

Great post, Thatnursingdude. And timely for me as I have been looking at different review options.

To all of you saying that there is no predictor or crystal ball for how well you will do on the NCLEX, I wanna say, there are many testing services which offer prediction whether you will pass or not. Two that I know of are atitesting and nlnonlinetesting. Our school provided us access to those in the last trimester. With the last comprehensive RN review from nlnonline, I received a 95% probability of passing the NCLEX.

Right now, I am considering purchasing a couple of test banks. I struggle with answering NCLEX style questions (the ones that go against common sense), and with remembering this is NCLEX Hospital, not the real world. I can handle $50-$60 here and there. You're right though, $500 is too much to pay, and I would feel so guilty about it.

Plus, the predictors that I've taken have given me the confidence that I am a strong enough candidate and can do well just by brushing up with question banks.

So my advice to everyone would be, take a predictor exam first. Many schools offer them, because it is in their vested interest, for the licensing and reputation of the school, that their graduates have a high pass rate. If your school does not offer any predictor service at all, it costs around $50, and it tells you what your weak content areas are. After that, you can choose to focus on brushing up on those areas, and buy a test bank or 2 if it gives you a comfy feeling. Or, as the OP mentioned, use your spidey-senses to find free study materials (libraries, review books gifted from peers, etc)

That way, you'll have spent around $100 instead of $500-$600 (fyi, I just checked the Kaplan site today and I think their prices must have gone up recently, because the live review is now $600).

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
So my advice to everyone would be, take a predictor exam first. Many schools offer them, because it is in their vested interest, for the licensing and reputation of the school, that their graduates have a high pass rate.
My classmates and I took a Kaplan predictive exam prior to graduation in 2010. Everyone passed it.

Guess what? 32 percent of the class failed NCLEX on their first attempts. While predictive exams glean valuable information, they can be grossly inaccurate.

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My classmates and I took a Kaplan predictive exam prior to graduation in 2010. Everyone passed it.

Guess what? 32 percent of the class failed NCLEX on their first attempts. While predictive exams glean valuable information, they can be grossly inaccurate.

I was thinking this, too. I have no statistics, just my own observations regarding the predictor exams when people post about them on the discussion board. Many times we'll see someone posting about passing the exam, and how they did really well on pre-tests and predictor exams. But many times we'd ALSO see people shocked they had failed because they did so well on those same predictor exam. Just made me cautious, I suppose.

I think the BEST predictor of how anyone will do is like I said before: what is your school program's reputation, how did YOU do in that program, and how well did you prepare for the NCLEX itself.

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