Kaplan vs Hurst review for NCLEX prep

uworld

...everyones different, but if you have your content locked down, skip the hurst review and start practicing questions.

I did Kaplan and hurst

I am in my last semester of nursing school and will be graduating this upcoming May, I am just looking for tips and advice on how to prepare for and pass the NCLEX. I understand Kaplan focuses more on testing strategies whereas Hurst focuses more on content, they are both pretty pricey so is it even necessary to purchase the whole review? There is also a review by NCSBN, has anyone done that review or heard of it? Any opinions about study plans or how to prepare are greatly appreciated! :)

I liked Hurst for content review and Kaplan for questions. I also did the NCSBN review but I wouldn't do that one again. I spent majority of my time focusing on understanding content instead of practicing questions. I read through the Saunders Comprehensive Review several times and that helped me with content so I could better approach questions. Whenever I did do questions, I often times used Lippincott's Q&A Review for NCLEX; this resource contains 6,000 NCLEX style questions to practice with rationales provided. I also used LaCharity's Prioritization, delegation, and assignment book to practice questions. This is a great tool used to prepare for higher level delegation/priority type questions. I also found this pdf NCLEX study guide on allnurses (https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/nclex-study-guide-622449.html). I found it to be helpful when I was studying.

My adviced would be, if you don't have a good grasp on content by now, you won't get an amazing grasp in time for your boards. Practice questions trump content in my opinion, nclex is unlike any other test you will take. If you are stuck on a content question, you can still get it right if you know how to break down the question to figure out what fits and what doens't, even if all answers seem correct. Kaplan shows you how to answer, break down, disect the questions and shows you how the nclex questions are formulated.

If you can, do both. The more questions you see, the better you will do.