I was quite paranoid about not passing... so I used all 4 of these methods. For anyone curious about comparisons between study options, here is a breakdown and my own personal opinions of each:
Hurst (I used the online self-paced version, about $350):
These content videos looked like they were from the 1990s but boy did they help me learn and consolidate material from nursing school that I either had forgotten or never learned well enough. The videos are very colloquial and their humor is hilarious - I can hear their voices when I think of certain topics they covered.
I highly recommend this course for the videos, but not for the Q-Reviews (it comes with six 125 question practice tests). Their question rationales were weak at best and a few of them didn't make any sense at all. I gave up on remediating these tests on the third test because I felt like I wasn't learning anything from their explanations.
But I watched each video at least twice, sometimes repeating videos while doing dishes or folding laundry, just to remember things better. Hurst content is amazing for sticking in your mind.
Hurst test scores:
Q review 1: 60%
Q review 2: 62%
Q review 3: 60%
Didn't do the other 3.
Kaplan (online self-paced version, $350):
So overwhelming at first because there's so much stuff available to you on the account. Literally 300+ mini content videos on various topics, about 25 hours of lecture-type videos (the meat of the course), almost 2000 questions in their Q-Bank, and about 11 practice tests of varying lengths. They tell you what order to do things in, so it's not too bad. Kaplan is definitely what I had heard - a lot of emphasis on question strategy using their "decision tree". I thought the decision tree only helped some.
A personal opinion: Despite what Kaplan says, I believe the NCLEX is not more of a strategy test than a content test - it is a content test more than strategy. You can have all the strategies you want for eliminating options, but if you don't know that disease's symptoms then you're not going to know which options to eliminate. Especially for the select all that apply questions - you can strategize all you want, but certain questions (even the high-level analysis questions) require that you know enough about the content first.
The Q-Trainers were fair. The rationales were a bit more organized than Hurst's but still were very lacking. I often found myself having to email Kaplan to figure out what they meant by "Answer 2" being "not as important as the patient in Answer 4". The Kaplan team that respond to your emails about questions were super duper helpful and wrote long emails of explanations to me each time I asked a question, but it would have been more helpful to have good rationales on each question in the answer key to begin with.
I only did like 50 questions in the Q-Bank because I ran out of time before the NCLEX. I did make an intense effort so that I could finish every one of their official practice exams, though (and almost did). The scores were really useful to me because I needed to see how I was doing according to a trusted NCLEX prep company.
My Q-Trainer scores were:
Diagnostic: 60%
Q trainer 1: 57%
Q trainer 2: 59%
Q trainer 3: fell asleep during it
Q trainer 4: 63%
Q trainer 5: 62%
Q trainer 6: 65%
Q trainer 7: didn't have time to do it before the test date
RN Practice test: 68% (surprised by how high my score was)
Sample Test 1: 54%
Sample Test 2: 64%
Sample Test 3: fell asleep during it
Sample Test 4: 20% (absolutely crushed me, but turns out upon researching, other people didn't do so well on this either)
Readiness Test: 72% (literally cried at this score, it really surprised me)
Watch this helpful video, 'From Failure to Success'
U-World (1-month subscription was about $99):
Didn't start this until 2 weeks before my exam date. I bought it out of desperation because I was getting fed up with how horrible the rationales for Hurst and Kaplan exams were. So glad I did. I believe U-World made the difference between me passing in 75 questions and me getting into the 200s. Their rationales for each question are top of the line - they're usually about 5 paragraphs long and include really nice charts and diagrams.
You can also see what % of users are getting each particular question right or wrong - so you won't feel like a total failure if you get a question wrong if you see that only 15% of users got that question right. I felt like I was less in the dark this way.
U-World's interface is really nice and you can see how you rank compared to other users. I was in approximately the 85th percentile by the end of the 2 weeks, after I had done about 1100 questions (there was about 1900-ish total). Overall, I was getting 60% of questions right. Their pie charts and graphs really motivate you to keep going. I also liked that there was a mobile app for it so I could do mini tests of 5-10 questions in bed before sleeping.
Learn more about UWorld NCLEX-RN Qbank Impressions...
P.S. Saunders (book and online question bank access, $60ish):
I only did about 500 questions total and it was the first review method I used. The book is gigantic but good for reference. l only used this in nursing school and it wasn't part of my hardcore studying sprint because I realized Saunders wasn't asking high enough level questions. Their rationales are good though, and I recommend using the book/questions during nursing school before you dive into the big $ review courses like Kaplan and Hurst. I averaged between 50-70% for each topic category.
Hope this helps anyone preparing for the NCLEX! Don't give up on studying. Every bit of studying becomes a tool in your orificenal for your success on the test date.
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jellyroll, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14 Posts
No problem! Glad to hear your input. As for when to start U-World, I definitely wished I had started U-World sooner in my studying sprint than I did. I waited until less than 2 before my test date to start since it was a last minute decision to buy it, and I realized that U-World would have helped me understand a lot of topics that I had trouble remembering in Hurst/Kaplan. Concurrently would be a good idea. I sorta alternated days for those last two weeks - Kaplan one day, Hurst the next, U-World q's every day-ish in addition to doing the Kaplan/Hurst tests. And I would set aside whole days to review U-World's extensive answer explanations. Thank you ? And good luck to you too!