Any hope for us non-Kaplanites?!?!

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 8, 2008

I think you will find many pass without using Kaplan. I passed without using it and a few have posted recently on using just Suzanne's plan which only uses Saunders. It all depends on what you can afford, what your study style is and that you practice questions and understand the rationale to the ones you get wrong.

Jack_ICU · Jul 8, 2008

I am a non-Kaplanite myself and I am testing in about 10 days. Confidence? Top of the roof... Saunders book is another good alternative to kaplan and many people passed the NCLEX without using Kaplan.

I agree that Kaplan is good with their Qbank questions and they are good teaching strategies. I only bought the Kaplan book ($35.00) for strategies and I've been using the RN 3500 Nclex review software, Saunders 3rd ed book, the NCSBN online course review and few other books.

Don't feel like you are doomed to fail the test. As long you know your weak areas and do as many questions as you can and make sure that you review the rationales of missed questions, you should be fine!

Keep you head up and best wishes!

beachbum3 · Jul 9, 2008

I passed last month and didn't take Kaplan. Honestly I really didn't review too much at all. I did *some* questions, maybe 200 or so over the weekend before I tested. I used the Saunders review book for the questions I did.

crunchymomx3 · Jul 9, 2008

I couldn't afford to pay for a Kaplan course so I just read the book (which I borrowed from a friend) and studied the Saunders book. I test on Saturday so we will see how it goes.

LittleWing21, RN · Jul 10, 2008

just took it...75 questions that weren't as bad as i thought. i feel like the q&a's from saunders helped alot...but time shall tell. i had mostly prioritizating ?'s (almost every question had the word "first"!). anyone know if thats a good or bad sign? 2 calc., few meds, tons of sata. i'm feeling pretty good, i hope my instincts are right!

Jack_ICU · Jul 10, 2008

just took it...75 questions that weren't as bad as i thought. i feel like the q&a's from saunders helped alot...but time shall tell. i had mostly prioritizating ?'s (almost every question had the word "first"!). anyone know if thats a good or bad sign? 2 calc., few meds, tons of sata. i'm feeling pretty good, i hope my instincts are right!

best wishes! it sounds like you did great. keep us posted!

suzanne4, RN · Jul 11, 2008

You need to be doing alot more questions, many more; before testing if you want to have the best chance of passing.

And it is not doing them, but understanding what answer is wanted for the exam.

Best of luck to you.

The Q and A questions are nothing like what you are going to be getting on the exam.

RN_in_SC · Jul 11, 2008

I did not do Kaplan. I bought one book, Exam Cram NCLEX and read the review chapters and took the chapter review quizzes and one full practice test at the end. I passed.

BUT - I think the testing strategies is the MOST IMPORTANT part to learn!

emsspeedracer · Jul 11, 2008

I know a few that took the nclex right after school and passed. Some other of my classmates took the course and were actually disappointed in kaplan. I think it's good as far as teaching some strategies, but was also disappointed in its overall "review". I also tested good on their test, and failed the nclex. I think you can get just as much out of some of the cheaper books, as you can the expensive.

Just an FYI for some of you who already work in a hospital. Check your policies. Some hospitals will offer Kaplan reimbursement if you pass. I know mine does, and some others do too. If expense is an issue, but you really want to do kaplan, they may help.

pengoo2008 · Jul 11, 2008

(xposted..) I had 75 questions...about 18 SATCs, two math questions (that took me entirely too long, I was so nervous!), maybe 10 meds? (didn't count those) Lot's of priortizing and lots of infection control. I think it is very important to get infection control downpat and as I was taking it I was thinking "wish I had studied this more" because it helped you find the "safe" answer in many, many questions.

I took Hurst review and I really liked it except I thought the coursebook could be a tad more organized (I can see images of my notes in my heads and that often helps me internalize stuff, but their notes were set up somewhat poorly...lots of grammatical errors, bad formatting...but the content was good). I also used Saunders and Davis books and CDs to do questions out of and went to Barnes and Nobles and did about 500 questions from Lippincott the week prior. Saunders was also good to clarify content with, its very organized and clear.

Hurst really helped me organize the key concepts in my heads, particularly Fluids and Electrolytes, different diseases like Addison's etc. It was not as good for drugs IMO and I used Saunders concurrently to learn the drugs of each system or at least somewhat familiarize myself!

Hope that helps someone!

LittleWing21, RN · Jul 11, 2008

pengoo, good luck to you!!!

i guess i should have mentioned that all through nursing school i was using nclex made incredibly easy to study for each of my exams (did the whole psyche section when we covered psyche, used it for endocrine disorders, etc). i think that helped. so to edit my post (and update the #s) i actually did about 1,000 saunders cd q&a, 500 saunders flashcard questions, and goodness know how many nclex made incredibly easy questions (at least 1,000)

i think prep is totally individual depending on the person. i don't think you can say: everybody should do _______ amount of questions to prepare. i know some people who just memorized everything before the nsg exams instead of actually learning it. i would think that they would need to prepare a lot more than someone who was learning the concepts all along.

24 more hrs......gosh i hope i pass!!!!