Are NCLEX prep courses like Kaplan or Hurst really necessary?

[firefly101]

My classmates and I are debating on whether or not to take these prep courses. On one hand it would be a great review, and I'm sure I'd feel more confident in myself in passing the NCLEX after participating. But theses classes are expensive, and many students pass the NCLEX without them. What do you think? Have any of you taken these courses and if so, do you feel like it made all the difference? Is there a "better" prep course?

[bridg0809]

I myself signed up for Kaplan & as the live review course got underway I really started to doubt it but that all changed when I accessed their online resources. Not a fan of the decision tree but their questions are great and very comparable to the real NCLEX. I also liked that your trainer percentages predicted where you stood with the NCLEX as well. Looking back I'm happy I did Kaplan and would highly recommend it!

[Sun0408, ASN, RN]

Our school has a policy, a review course must be completed before submitting documents to the BON. So we had to do one. Several of us signed up for the Hurst live review.. I enjoyed it and yes, it helped. Hurst is big on content. I also used Kaplan strategies. It helped as well, I used both during my exam :)

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

Well Kaplan is not a review in the sense that there is much emphasis on remediating material. And, honestly, at this point, why would you remediate? You've been paying attention, right? No, what you need to do is master question dissection and test taking from an NCLEX perspective and this is what Kaplan is very, very, very good at. If you still want to remediate, fine, go ahead, it's not like you don't have books.

Kaplan teaches that if you can get around 50% on the hardest questions, the level three questions, you will pass the exam. The way the NCLEX is set up, you get a few softballs to put yourself above an imaginary line, then the questions get harder, more SATA, more delegation, more which patient would you see first of these three critical patients, etc. if you can more or less keep bouncing right and wrong here, these are the bulk of the questions you'll get and you'll stay above the imaginary line, ideally, passing the exam with less than 100 questions.

I found it very helpful. I'll go ahead and brag, I passed my boards with 75 questions in about 45 minutes. I really think it was the Kaplan decision tree that enabled me to do this.

[RNpatrol]

I was bummed I couldn't afford a review class, I figured "let's just see". I used the Davis's Q and A NCLEX book and CD, I went over a lot of questions in one week before my test. I passed the test with 75 questions, plenty of SATA and prioritizations. I think going through test questions and reading their rationales and learning how to pick out what the question is asking for is the key to passing the test. Good luck!

[BurgundySwanson]

I felt like the best thing my review did for me was ease some test anxiety by making me believe I had done everything in my power to be prepared. My test stopped at 75 questions and I received the PVT good popup, but I feel like if I was successful it will be because of my critical thinking/guessing skills that I learned in nursing school, not a lengthy review that I pretty much forgot by the time I completed it.

Do I think a review course is a must? Absolutely not, your entire program was basically an nclex prep course (you know more than you think). However, if you can afford one I say go for it. If anything it will help you organize your thoughts and it's amazing how far a little extra confidence can go when those palm/finger print/bathroom key nerves set in.

I'm withholding the name of the review I used just in case any of my statements are viewed as being derogatory towards their services.