Why hello there!
How are you all?
I'm a recent College grad of my local Community College's RN program, and even more recently, I've become a licensed Registered Nurse! I passed the NCLEX in 75 questions!
I want you all to consider something before you pay hundreds of dollars for these NCLEX preparation courses (Kaplan, Hurst, or otherwise). I also want you all to know things about me so you can compare yourself, to myself, which is I'm telling you all, I'm a Community College graduate. I think it would be helpful for you to compare yourself to myself so that you can see that:
- You are likely more knowledgeable or as knowledgeable as me.
- I'm nothing special, and I've passed the NCLEX in only 75 questions.
- You don't need to stress if you graduated from your program. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX.
Point three is a big one. You are likely smart enough to pass the NCLEX! I know this, and so do all of these "preparation" test corporations.
Lastly, the main goal of this post is to decrease stress/anxiety among everyone who thinks they will be taking the NCLEX. The very close second goal of this post is to persuade you not to take any "preparation" course, especially if you (like myself) don't have much money to spend.
(skip this part if you don't care to compare my normalcy to your awesomeness!)
About Me
- I have an Associates degree, not a Bachelors.
- I graduated May 2nd and took the NCLEX 2 and 1/2 months later on July 15th.
- I've earned one C, and the rest B's in my theory/lecture classes.
- I've averaged perhaps in the mid 80's on my exams throughout the program.
- I passed the Exit HESI just barely, according to my school's minimum requirements. I received an 835 on my Exit HESI.
- Here are all my other HESI scores (syntax: [Name of HESI]: [1st attempt], [2nd attempt if applicable])
- Psych: 884
- Peds: 633, 752
- Management: 762, 642
- Pharm: 688, 1012
- Fundamentals: 782, 916
- Maternity: 931, 576
- Med/Surg: 1010
- Exit: 835
- (As you can see, I'm not exactly a top notch candidate am I?)
[*]I did study countless hours throughout the program. I'm not sure you could get through without studying for many hours.
- My studying consisted of ONLY reading the book(s), reviewing particular lab values or staging values (like stage x pressure ulcers, or +x pulse strength, etc...), and what I consider pretty awesome, taking pictures of excerpts of parts of the book I just thought may be useful. I NEVER wrote down notes from the book while reading it as, when I did do this in the first 2 semesters of my program, it would take many more HOURS to study. You want to study WAYYY faster? Take pictures instead of writing things down, and/or just simply read the book.
[*]I dropped out of high school in the 10th grade with a 1.x GPA.
[*]I am a normal human being!
Why You Should Consider NOT Paying For A "Preparation" Course
Alright, here we are! I'm going to present an argument for you all, and you can either accept it, as I do, or say, "huh, this dude is a little cray-cray." Either way, I wish you luck! Also, this is mostly directed to Kaplan as that is what I've had most exposure to.
Let me lay out some premises for you:
- On average, if you graduated from your school's RN program, you are likely to pass the NCLEX.
- On average, if you have failed your NCLEX on your first try, you are likely to fail on your second try.
(P.S - I was just assuming these two premises were true but if you look here: https://www.ncsbn.org/Table_of_Pass_Rates_2015_(3).pdf, it actually is true.)
Now then, what is Kaplan's guarantee? Let me recite it for you:
- They give you a money back guarantee if you have NEVER taken the NCLEX.
- If you have taken the NCLEX and failed before, this guarantee is null!
Now let's notice some things about their marketing:
- Their big buzz is the money back guarantee, which is why they will tell you it if they go to your school, and why it is the thing they put right on the front of their web page.
- This corporation WILL poke at your insecurities of failing subtly. If they go to your school (as they did mine), they will tell you why it's so different from any exam you've taken in class ("It is significantly different from any test that you took in nursing school." []File Not Found), hint that some secret strategy that they will give you will make you pass ("The key to passing the NCLEX is strategy." []File Not Found), and of course that, if you fail, you get your money back, so why not?
With that in your mind, let's make some more assumptions:
- Kaplan knows you are likely going to pass the NCLEX since you passed your RN program. They also know you're fearful of failing. They are profiting off of your fear and the irrationality it causes.
- They know that if you failed your NCLEX once, you're likely to fail it again which is why they DO NOT give you a money back guarantee if you take their program.
From that, let's draw some conclusions:
- They make you feel that if you take this course, you will be learning something you don't know. Otherwise, you wouldn't take it.
- Now, what does it tell you that they will not give a money back guarantee to those who have failed once? What it says is that, what they are going to teach you is either going to help you marginally or not at all. In other words, they cannot turn a failure into a winner with any real or significant success.
I think that last point is CRUCIAL. They CANNOT turn a loser into a winner with any real success, which is why they don't give a money back guarantee for those who have failed before. What are you paying for these courses for? You're paying them because you believe that they will increase your chances of winning! Well I'm here to say that based on how they treat past failures, they don't believe that they can increase your chance of passing with any real or significant success! They don't believe they can improve you much, and if they don't believe they can improve you much, neither should you!
And before I end this, here's one thing I always hear. Something like, "If they help me pass, I'll be making a lot more money as an RN sooner then if I fail because I didn't take the course."
To that, I say, "Ahh yes. You're assuming that they will increase your chances of passing, yes? And even if the improvement is marginal, which it probably is based on the way they treat previous failures, if they help you win 5% more of the time, it's worth it because you'll be making a lot more money sooner right? Well, if you consider that if you say... STUDY yourself and do practice questions w/rationals and understand these reasoning's you will gain that same 5% increase in chance WITHOUT paying $500, does it make sense?" - I hope it doesn't...
You understand you are paying them to give you work! Work you already have! Look at your text books! Go to a library/Barnes and Noble and study for free. They don't know anything more than what your text books have already told you.
And you want to know their "key strategy"? It's called the Kaplan decision tree. Literally just Google "Kaplan decision tree" and there you go.
And as for some cheap anecdotal evidence, everyone of my colleagues have told me it was a waste of their money.
They don't have "secret" information that will all of a sudden make you better. They don't have a strategy that's going to make you better than the next random RN graduate. They are trying to sell you magic, and you know what? Magic doesn't exist. If you want to increase your chance of passing the NCLEX, study hard throughout your program and study after you graduate and DO PRACTICE QUESTIONS from books w/rationals and UNDERSTAND them! Understand why they are right, and why they are wrong! And know your labs! Paying $500 isn't going to substitute for simply putting in the hours that it takes to study. Don't pay $500 for magic because only work will get you where you want to be.
You and I are average my friend, and average is all it takes!
I apologize for any spelling mistakes. If you'd like to know any more things about my average self, just ask! I'd also love some opinions and counter arguments if you disagree with me!
Thanks for reading,
-ThatNursingDude
StuffedBear
21 Posts
I totally agree with the OP here.
Personally I took Kaplan Review...throughout all those sessions I felt like I can do this on my own. They aren't really teaching you anything new except for the decision tree which they cover briefly I felt. Also, they give you a ton of work....work you can easily get for much cheaper from books or free from library.
To tell you the truth, readers....I never finished Kaplan Review's modules or completed their couple thousands of questions. I dropped it because I was lazy...that was my own fault, wasted resources and ppl's money. Dumb of me.
However, I can tell you I also passed my NCLEX the first try, and I never really quite went back to Kaplan's methods. To add, I waited 1 yr after graduation to take it too and did Kaplan in early post-grad.
Check out a post that I made in the forum for details on how I pass and my story...should encourage those who are still struggling.
So to conclude, believe in yourself, give yourself more credit!!
You do not need Review Preps that cost $500. All you need is confidence, diligence to study, and most a free review book from the library with a CD. If not available, buy one used for less than $50.
Good luck folks.