Specialties NP
Published Jun 26, 2012
You are reading page 4 of Does School Really Matter?
23 members have participated
cnsrv3
3 Posts
Easy to say, I just spent 20 thousand dollars at Walden already. In addition, no school is probably going to accept enough of my current credits to eliminate retaking classes, I have already taken. So far, I have completed all of the Core courses required by Walden.
futureeastcoastNP
533 Posts
Seriously? Just take the flipping GRE. It is a fairly easy test and the standards in nursing are pretty low anyway, even CRNA schools let in people with very average scores. Just buy a prep book and study for 3-4 weeks. Why are nurses so terrified of the GRE?
Thank you!!!! I swear, the GRE fear mongering thing is insane. Almost every graduate school requires SOME sort of entrance examination to prove you're competent. The GRE establishes that you can at least read and write coherently, and do basic math. I studied for like one week and scored extremely well. It's honestly not that hard, yet future healthcare providers cannot be "bothered" to even do that.
rninme
1,237 Posts
I took the MAT instead of the GRE - check with programs that you are considering, they may accept either test. And I am over the age of 50 ... it wasn't that bad
BCgradnurse, MSN, RN, NP
1,678 Posts
Agreed! You took the NCLEX and will take boards when you finish school. Believe me, I thought the GRE was a piece of cake compared to NCLEX. No "choose all that apply". Your GRE score is only one part of your profile. Don't let fear of taking an exam hold you back from applying to a good program.
tronix304
56 Posts
The GRE is worthless and a money scam.
BostonFNP, APRN
2 Articles; 5,581 Posts
Citation please.
As far as I know the largest study ever done regarding the GRE demonstrated positive predictive value in nearly every spectrum of graduate education.
Kuncel, N. R., Hezlett, S. A., & Ones, D. S. (2001). A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the graduate record examinations: implications for graduate student selection and performance. Psychological bulletin, 127(1), 162.
Chicago
zenman
1 Article; 2,806 Posts
I think a lot of testing is considered this, in spite of research. In fact most research is not worth the glossy paper it's published on. I barely passed the GRE yet made almost 4.0 during grad school. One of our psychiatrists just retook his boards which he said was the most expensive, antiquated worthless testing ever thought up by ivory tower physicians.
I think the GRE is worthless in some cases, i.e. top graduate schools where the self selection factor ensures the student body is quite intelligent to begin with.
With some lower tier schools, especially the for profit diploma mills, the GRE would be a wonderful to at least ensure applicants are minimally competent. Graduate level students should not be responsible for some of the posts I've seen on this website, full of misspelled words and incorrect grammar. There needs to be SOME sort of barrier set up to ensure entering graduate students are where they need to be with their previous education (English, math, science) before they move on.
Don't have the time right now to find then but it talks about one of them here.
Study of Graduate Record Exam shows it does little to predict graduate school success | Cornell Chronicle
mzaur
377 Posts
That article is from 17 years ago, lol.
The GRE in and of itself may be useless, but I do think it has predictive validity of success since it's basically just a measure of whether or not you can study a given set of material, concentrate, handle stress, etc. Though I do hope that one day the AACN gets more serious about NP admission standards and maybe creates an MCAT equivalent for MSN/DNP programs.
ProQuest Document View - An Exploratory Study of Predictors of Academic Success in a Graduate Nursing Program
Heres one. I'll find the others later this weekend and post.