Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

well all i remeber is that my scores were making me sad. lol. So I ended up taking the hurst review. It was 300 for an online course(although it pained me to put myself more in debt). I realllllly liked it. There are video-ed overviews of each system and area. And you have notes to go along with it. The notes have blanks in them for you to follow along and fill in as you go.

Marlene Hurst is AWSOME. and thats all i have to say. She goes over the core content so efficiently and makes it so easy. Its the basics of everything you need to know. Not to mention all of the practice tests have rationales, a handful of which she goes over personally in the videos. She gives a lot of good advice to. So when i did my quizes I remebered her saying your percentage doesnt matter just focus on getting more right than wrong. (So id say just worry about that, since thats what NCLEX tests you on)

Id totally recommend the hurst review to anyone. You can check her out at www.hurstreview.com. Her review like many others has a 98% passing rate for first time test takers. And im proud to say im one of them I just tested two weeks ago and would have loved more time with her review. Your suposed to spend 4 days on it. i tried cramming it into 3. But it still help tremendously.

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

I took my exam last December 2007 and sad to say... FAILED!!! On the process now to take it again for the second time.lsebeg:

I do agree with jay4 regarding NCSBN. Nothing against with NCSBN but the good thing with that online review... i like the way they present the tables of all the electrolytes, pictures, diagram and also it's affordable for those who have a tight budget like me (I bought the 3-week course for.. was it 49 US dollar?...can't recall now).

I feel like i want to enroll in a classroom review to be more focused. I have loads of review tools but i don't know how, where or what to start...I'm still confuse whether to try the KAPLAN. Waaaaaaa!!! I'm here in Las Vegas right now...do u know any NCLEX review center here...anyone?

So, guys...please more input...need ur help to solve my crisis.

And also, how long will it take for me to receive a reply from the BON. I just posted the Application form for retake of exam last 1st week of February. In case if i received the reply before the end of this month ...i'm planning to take the exam again on April (first wk)...is it possible? I mean with the paper works...of course on top of that i need to make sure if my mind is ready to encounter those questions again.

So please...THANKS!!!

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

I passed NCLEX with 75 questions. I used Kaplan, and I think I gained some useful strategies as well as just doing all those questions with rationales. I was scoring low 60's with some high 50s on trainers and qbanks. I only did 5 trainers and about 500 qbank questions.

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

hey jay4! thanks for the info! It made me feel much better because I enrolled myself into a Kaplan NCLEX Course last Friday. I'm just doing the workbook first before going to take the diagnostic test...

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

Thank you for the post. I'm taking my NCLEX in 2 days. I graduated at the end of January and was suprised at how quickly I was able to take it, 2 1/2 weeks after getting my ATT. I wish I had more time to prepare for it. What you've posted about Kaplan makes me feel a little better since I'm doing the Qbank on Kaplan. Thank you.

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

jay4,

I'm so glad you posted that "note to self 2.2 lb=1 kg, not 1 lb= 2.2 kg.". I just had to check my notes and I had it reversed as well. You saved the day!!

Thanks for the reviews. I've tried both NCSBN and Kaplan, and needless to say, I've benefited from Saunders (& Suzanne's plan) the most and that one's FREE. But yes, NCSBN has too much info., the rationales are not so great and they've been having technical difficulties for a long time. You'd think they'd fix them by now. I struggled through Kaplan, hard compared to Saunders. So we'll see.

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

I just got my results, I passed!

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

I totally agree that Kaplan is a structured review. It's like self review. You have to read the corresponding chapters in the book, and then they will give you chapter tests (the number of item varies). The best Kaplan book is the Course Book. I'm not really fond of the basics book. Saunder's is much better. (for me, that is)...

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

Originally Posted by jay4

Before you start to read my review of the two courses, let me tell you about myself. I am an older 30 year old male married with children who had very little if any experience other then nursing school in healthcare. I graduated from a much respected private university that had 98% of their grads pass the NCLEX the first time, according to the States statistics. Unlike many of my classmates, I had a hard time in nursing school. So I am not a smarty pants by any means. The reason why I am writing this review is because, just like you, you’re searching the internet to see what people are saying about the two most popular NCLEX review courses out there, Kaplan and NCSBN. When I was looking around I really didn’t find anything, so I hope this helps and points you in the right direction. Don’t get caught up by reading the testimonies from the review courses websites, they are obviously going to tell you how good they are and not tell you what is bad about their course. So with this in mind here is my review of the courses.

NCSBN
If you lack the knowledge aspect of nursing this review will help. Reviews basic phys then goes through the related patho. Sometimes felt a little overwhelmed with info that did not seem to be important. There are some things in the review that could have been left out, like the word jumble.
The review is made up of 8 lessons corresponding to the content area of the NCLEX and a question and answer (Q&A) section. I can only speak about lesson 1, 2, 8 and the Q&A portions of the review because I did not complete the whole review. Each lesson is made up of several sections. At the end of each section there is a review of the section which was helpful in summarizing the section. Then at the end of the lesson there is a post test.
I started this review 2 weeks before taking the NCLEX again. My thinking was, since these people are basically in charge of the NCLEX then their questions should be similar to the NCLEX, NOT QUITE. I noticed the wording was different and at times confusing (I didn’t know why the answer I picked was wrong). I concentrated on the Q&A section of the review and studied my weak areas according to the NCLEX-RN candidate report I got in the mail after I failed the NCLEX for the first time and the results from the Kaplan readiness report (which I will discuss later). The Q&A section only told you the reasoning for the correct answer and not why the other choices were wrong. It also did not tell you how you did overall or what areas you need to study/concentrate on. There was no way to go back and look at the answers to review. On top everything, the course has some technical glitches, such as accessing the glossary and access to Taber’s online was not working, they said they were having technical problems… NICE. The pretest by NCSBN did nothing for me but tell me what questions I got wrong and what the correct answer was. It did not tell you your weak areas or how you did overall. Bottom-line, I don’t think this course helped much, there is a reason why they don’t offer a guarantee.

KAPLAN
Out of the two review courses I took I strongly recommend this review, at first the $500 seems a lot but think about the money your not earning if you don’t pass, believe me I sure did after I did not pass, IT SUCKS.
The course book, the best review book out of all the books I have (Lippincott’s Review for NCLEX-RN, Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX, Kaplan’s NCLEX-RN Strategies for the Registered Nursing Licensing Exam), the book has all the material you need to know to pass, no nonsense, no unneeded info. The only thing that Kaplan doesn’t really review is drug calc, this I believe hurt me taking the NCLEX for the second time. Once I missed 1, I kept getting the same kinds of questions throughout the test…NOTE TO SELF…1kg = 2.2lbs not 1lb = 2.2kg…DAM IT! So yeah, don’t forget the drug calc, matter of fact, I got the same kind of question again when I finally passed the test, nailed it and never saw another one like it.
Although the majority of the in-class portion of the review is just going over questions, the same questions you can go over yourself in the online portion of the review. The diagnostic and readiness tests are the most helpful, it tells you your weak areas and the questions are very similar to the NCLEX, unlike NCSBN, Kaplan tells you why the answer is correct and why the others are wrong. The readiness test, which you take during the second to last class, basically tells you if you’re ready to take the NCLEX, from the 6 people I knew in the class, 5 scored above the borderline level and all passed the NCLEX within 1-2 weeks after the course, the other person scored just below the borderline level, he spoke with the instructor, studied more and took the NCLEX about 3 weeks later and passed. Keep in mind Kaplan’s review course is very structured and if you follow their recommendations about how to complete the course you will pass the NCLEX, if I passed the NCLEX, you will too. Another important thing about Kaplan is that they have a guarantee, if you don’t pass the NLEX for the first time within 6 months of graduating nursing school they will refund your money. PLEASE LEARN FROM MY EXPERIENCE AND NOT GO THROUGH WHAT I’VE GONE THROUGH. IT SUCKED!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

My school paid for evolve nclex review. It was ok we didnt go over a lto fo questions. I do not want to pay for another review course. Do you think it is worth just buying the Kaplan test bank? Does the test bank have the test you are referring to?

Re: Kaplan Vs Ncsbn Nclex-rn Review

hi
thankks for this .i took twice and failed and depressed...dont know which os the good review course ..what is suzzanne tips .....is ncsbn useful.