Carrington College Jan' 19, +Kaplan Tips

[kingrk]

Hey All! I am applying to start Carrington's RN program in January 2019 and I just took my Kaplan exam last night. I spent months scouring the internet looking for study tips and came up pretty short so I wanted to share mine here to hopefully help someone else out. Firstly I studied out of the Hesi, Kaplan, and McGraw Hill nursing entry exam review books (all purchased on amazon). I also studied off of Khan Academy's SAT prep for reading, writing, and to brush up on grammar. I scored 100% in reading, 96% in math, and 81% in writing. If you've already taken the exam I would love to compare scores, especially if you've applied before! I'm pretty happy with my scores but I have no frame of reference for it they are good enough to get in.

Math: There is a calculator available to you for every question. Most of the questions are working with fractions and decimals and are VERY easy. There were a few very simple "solve for x" equations and a few simple word problems as well. The HESI and Kaplan review book's math section are significantly more difficult than what you will encounter on the actual exam. The McGraw hill is very similar in difficulty but touches on things I found you really didn't need for the exam, like geometry.

Reading: The reading comprehension section was WAY easier than the reading comprehension sections of the Khan SAT prep, Kaplan, and Hesi books. The passages were comparable to those of the McGraw hill book, but honestly I would say a smidge easier. I would not stress about this section, it was very straightforward.

Writing: This section was definitely the hardest. You are given a passage to read and then given a series of questions about how to alter the passage. Some questions ask you to pick the best spot to add a sentence, to pick out a sentence to delete because it is repetitive, to identify which sentence is missing a verb etc. The most difficult part about this section was that I often felt that multiple answers were correct. None of the review books were helpful for this section but the Khan Academy website was. Their SAT writing review section had the most similar questions to the actual exam and going through their grammar review page was extremely helpful in brushing up on things like subject-verb agreement, semicolon usage, affect vs. effect etc.

I know this is long but I hope it is helpful to someone! If anyone has any questions for me I am happy to answer them! Again if anyone else has taken the exam/applied to carrington before I would love to chat with you too to get a better a sense of where my scores are standing!

[Kbay]

Hi! I opened an account just to say thank you! Your post is the only one that I have seen that gives great feedback! I am studying for the exam for next week! Hope you got in and all is good!

[rmc465]

Hello, Just wondering if they make you take the test prior to accepting or after? Also which Carrington College are you attending?

[kingrk]

Kbay- I'm so glad you found it helpful! I did get in!!!! Good luck.

rmc465- Carrington requires that you take the test to be considered for the program. Everyone who is applying takes the exam and then they offer positions in the program to the 30 highest scores. I am at the Reno campus.

[rmc465]

Kingrk,

Thanks for replying! Congratulations on getting in. I believe the Sacramento, Ca. campus does the ATI TEAS testing. I don't believe we take the Kaplan.

How is it going so far? Any tips for when the program starts? I'm waiting to see if I get accepted. Also, could you tell me how the schedule was on your first month and so on? It may differ from the campus I am interested in but, I wanted to know if in the beginning, class is just once or twice a week then goes on to full time and clinical rotations.

[agig]

Took my second attempt at the Kaplan last night,

did amazing on the math and reading super high scores, however the writing killed me. No matter how much I studied when I took the writing it was just straight up hard! only got like a 67% hoping the other scores will bump me up high enough to get in ? I know someone who got in with 230 so I am hopeful

[Kbay]

I had the same thing! Writing killed me- I haven’t talked to Pam yet at Reno so I don’t know my actual score yet. I take my second attempt June 28! Just started summer classes so have to find time to study! What did they say about the 230 score? Is that pretty low or is that ok? I don’t know what is good and what isn’t

[Kbay]

Also what is crazy is I felt the best about the writing then I got my score and was in absolute disbelief!

[agig]

I did so much on writing! everyone says use Khan academy! So id just do that a lot of the answers just seemed right! and I know that it is "the most correct" but still, clinical writing is nothing like normal writing. But it's fine. I do not know what they said about the 230, but she got in with it! It all depends on the average score of all the other applicants. I'm praying I get in, I want it so bad.

[Kbay]

Do you have your actual score as well? I wonder how they calculate the score? I got percentages and I got my first time a 71% on the writing so I don’t know how the heck without some luck that I will get it up higher-

[kingrk]

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delayed response. Someone asked what the first semester schedule looked like. First semester you have to take A+P 1 and the lab, chemistry, political science (online), and communications (also online). I already have my A+P and PSC credits so I only had to take Chem and Comm. Communications was very very easy. Chemistry was hard simply because it is accelerated and because it is a combination of gen chem, bio chem, and O chem. The rest of my cohort that had to take all the classes were on campus Mon, Wed, Thurs for about 3 hrs each day. The online classes are only 6 weeks long and start 4 weeks after the regular classes start. Second semester you have to take A+P 2 + Lab, Micro + Lab, Math (online), and English (online). I already had all of those credits besides Math so I don't have to be on campus at all for second semester and I'm not actually sure what days/times my cohort is there lol! For the math though it is again a 6 week online course and it is SUPER SUPER easy but it is a little time consuming due to its condensed nature. Third semester is Fundamentals + Lab+ Clinical, and Pharmacology.

[kingrk]

I don't know exactly how they calculate everything, but the scores I listed in the OP ended up being a composite score of 293 and I was offered a first pick position! Good luck everyone! Please feel free to ask me anything and I'll try to respond as much as I can. I remember feeling so frustrated at the lack of info out there and desperately wanting to talk to someone about scores and schedules and all that good stuff.