I graduate in three weeks and have not signed up for a prep course. I have explored various sources of information as to whether I should or not, and I am not convinced it will be worth my time or money.
I would like to hear from people who did not take a prep course and are now RNs, whether or not they'd recommend the same route to another graduating nurse or whether they would have done things differently if they had to do it over again.
FWIW...I have made very high grades in all the nursing courses and have always tested at level 1 in ATI, and I also do well in clinical.
No prep course. I just used the Saunders book. Passed with 75 questions. In my graduating class, I think only one person failed the NCLEX - RN (as far as I know), and most of us have RN jobs right now (LTC and hospital).
I wanted to take a course but it was just too expensive so I just tried to review on my own in between work and homeschooling my ds. Thank goodness I passed.
Specializes in Med/surg, L&D, ICU briefly, Informatics.
I did not take any prep course, mostly because it was (in 2004) $275 and I was dirt poor by the end of nursing school. I got an NCLEX practice book and did a lot of the questions. But I have to say the key for me was the Kaplan review book. It was all about test taking strategies and how to pass. INVALUABLE. I checked it out of the library the weekend before I took the test. I wasn't as lucky as most...had 235 questions, swore I failed, etc. Passed on the first go.
Oh, and several of my classmates that paid $275 for that "guaranteed pass" review class failed. Not once. Not twice. THREE times. Save your money. Get the Kaplan book. You'll still be a nurse when it's all over :)
i graduated from nursing school in june and sat for boards in the very beginning of july. i passed with 75 questions. i did not take a nclex preperation course offered by the college. my instructor told me she has never had a student pass the nclex without a preparation course. until i came along, that is. i did self study at home with the med-surg textbook and a bunch of other reference books i had picked up over the two years. i also bought the huge monster of a review book by saunders. it all depends on how you learn best, really. i learn best by self study. some learn best by doing, others by discussion, etc. it'd be helpful if you learned by sitting in a class and having facts thrown at you for hours. if that is not your learning style then do not do it.
Hi, this is a question from a pre-nursing (soon to be nursing student...YAY ACCEPTANCE LETTER!) Why is it that almost all of y'all passed the NCLEX w/75 questions? Did everyone here get the same score, or did I just get that impression from my ignorance of the NCLEX system?
Hi, this is a question from a pre-nursing (soon to be nursing student...YAY ACCEPTANCE LETTER!) Why is it that almost all of y'all passed the NCLEX w/75 questions? Did everyone here get the same score, or did I just get that impression from my ignorance of the NCLEX system?
You don't get a score on the NCLEX. You either pass or fail. The minimum number of questions is 75. The max. is >200--I forget the exact number. When you get a question right, the next question is harder. If you get it wrong, it gets easier, but you have to consistently get harder questions right to pass. So, you can pass or fail with 75 questions and you can pass or fail with 265 questions. I know that sounds a lil complicated. Let me know if you understand. Also, maybe someone else can explain better...
I did not do a review course, my school used ATI, offered a free review course with ATI, couldn;t attend however I did do there tests on line and studied using La Charity and Kaplan I think, anyway I used question books with rationales, taught you how to take test, especially those pesky SATA, which seemed like every other question on my exam 75 questions and passed, good luck
morte, LPN, LVN
7,015 Posts
Didn't review, didn't study; passed.