ATI

Hi,

Our program used ATI, both the RNs and the VNs. It was a required part of our total program. I'll know soon enough if it paid off. I have a week to find out if I passed. My group also used an online tutorial program known as virtual ATI after graduation. I liked it alot and thought it was very beneficial. Good luck.

I graduated in December 2008, took the NCLEX in January, passed with 75 questions.

Personally, I felt that the questions that the ATI predictor test had were significantly easier than the NCLEX. I also felt like most of the questions on MY NCLEX were of a different format. Not that I got a lot of the alternate format questions, just that ATI tended to cover more of the basic levels of understanding like patho or assessment while NCLEX covered more of the "putting it all together" aspects.

The DVD's are a JOKE. They have someone who obviously has NEVER taken a medical terminology corse, let alone a nursing course, mispronouncing the names of medications and diseases while they show BAD Powerpoints full of misspelled words. I laughed so hard I almost cried.

That being said the DVD's are a nice, thin overview of all of med-surg. I used them as background noise instead of the radio. I listened to them while I did dishes and folded laundry. I ripped the audio to my iPod and listened to it in the car, almost like an NCLEX audiobook.

Long story short--it was a medicore review, but it worked for me.

Don't stress too hard...I am living proof there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

My program used the ATI also. With a minimum required to pass the corresponding theory course. I found the material fairly useless, much to condensed to make sense. The DVD's were creepy. I swear they paid the talking heads with BoTox. I think the ATI tests were fairly useful to have questions not made up by our instructors and to let people who really needed some more study know it. I was using NCLEX 3500 to study also but it has stopped working on my computer. I am using Saunders now. I graduate in August so I haven't taken the comprehensive ATI yet. I have used the ATI DVD's for background as another poster mentioned but they put me to sleep pretty fast. I am considering getting some of the audiobooks from Prentice Hall.

ATI was helpful for me in school bc it forced me to study. The books were useful for the most part (but sometimes content in one book would contradict itself in another book). On the downside, it isn't a very good predictor of how people do in the course. Also, I don't feel results reflect how much time a student spends studying content (ie someone could not study and pass with a percentile that is higher than someone who studies the book for months).

On that note, Virtual ATI will be a waste if you don't like ATI. Its the same tests, but different questions. The online instructors dont always answer and they give you study guides that are too specific and nitpicky.

My school uses it. I am actually studying for Med/surg right now (have exam thurs on Med/surg and leadership)...both books will become recycled for T.P. after I graduate...:chuckle I do the practice exams and when I get one wrong I go to the book to try and figure out the answer (tells you what chapters to look into according to which questions you got wrong) and some of the questions do not even correspond to what is in the book or it will be very veg like, "teach your client about diet for gout" but not review what the diet is but ask you a very specific question about gout diet in the practice tests...