Excelsior : Chronicity!

Nursing Students Excelsior

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Specializes in EMT 5 yrs.LPN 3 yrs-Urgent care/Occ.med.

Passed Chronicity today by the grace of God with a "C". I passed health/safety a week ago today and it was pretty easy so I got cocky and scheduled Chronicity for today. The previous posts about SG 101 were right: SG 101 does NOT fully prepare you for this exam!!! My advice is to study other sources too. I am not all about giving a handout but I figure anyone who made it to this test has earned their stripes in my book so here are a few pointers from me: There is alot of sensory questions so know your eye diseases, macular degeneration, detatched retina, increased IOP, eye drops to treat them ears, cochlear implant, etc. Also be prepared to LIST in order the stages of death and dying 1 thru 5. The culture questions were not as cut and dry as the exams on SG 101 either. Know the difference between community based and community health nursing. Thats about all I can remember. My test had 160 questions, not 130 like the normal ones. I heard in allnurses that the 130 question tests were being used again for chronicity but mine was 160. Thought I was gonna be retired before that test ended. Stay sharp, stay focused. take a short break if you need to and just stare at the floor a minute or 2 when you start zoning out. I drank an energy drink before the test and it helped me stay focused. I am not the best test taker on Earth so this exam may be cake for you, I dont know. Hope this helps! Please feel free to share chronicity or any other Excelsior exam comments/questions with me! we will get through this!!!!:yawn:

Specializes in Home Health, Podiatry, Neurology, Case Mgmt.

congrats on passing Chrono, I only prepared in a 2wk time frame for that one as well and got cocky...did it again on LS3 and ended up failing LS3 (i retake it in two weeks) I used the textbooks, and paid for an online audio/visual lessons monthly (wont post the link here as it's against terms of service) but if someone wants the link just PM me =) I only have LS3 to finish then FCCA and CPNE! Good luck in your studies! One exam at a time...

Specializes in EMT 5 yrs.LPN 3 yrs-Urgent care/Occ.med.

Good 4 you! I take all excelsior exams free on post because im in the military. Its easy to schedile too many exams close together when they are free, lol!

Specializes in Tele/Neuro/Trauma.

Congrats on passing Chronicity, I thought that was a tough one too! Mine was also 160 questions :-P

Good luck on the rest of your exams!!!

Specializes in EMT 5 yrs.LPN 3 yrs-Urgent care/Occ.med.

You too! Next up: reproductive on may 5th

do you remember anything about LS1?? Just getting started my self...Congrats I wish you the best with the cpne..Have you thought about going to a workshop? Sherrie Taylor is the best, she is friends with a lot of the examiners, she has a 97% pass rate first timers.... Good Luck.

Specializes in EMT 5 yrs.LPN 3 yrs-Urgent care/Occ.med.

Thanks lm. Im taking reproductive thursday and ls 1 on the 19th. I will keep you posted. Thanks for that cpne workshop info! I am writing that name down!

*** WORD OF ADVICE TO ALL EXCELSIOR STUDENTS: ****

ALL you need to pass ALL EXCELSIOR exams & NCLEX are:

1. Lisa Arends CD's (get them on Ebay for $60...HER STUFF IS ON POINT...like she remembered the whole exam, I swear....word for word it's insane!!!!

2. Pearson Vue NCLEX-RN Book (Barnes & Noble - $60)

Best $120 EVER spent....TRUST ME!

If you can only get 1 out of the 2, get Lisa Arends CD pkg on EBAY (for the EC test takers).

All the best!

Specializes in Telemetry.
*** WORD OF ADVICE TO ALL EXCELSIOR STUDENTS: ****

ALL you need to pass ALL EXCELSIOR exams & NCLEX are:

1. Lisa Arends CD's (get them on Ebay for $60...HER STUFF IS ON POINT...like she remembered the whole exam, I swear....word for word it's insane!!!!

2. Pearson Vue NCLEX-RN Book (Barnes & Noble - $60)

Best $120 EVER spent....TRUST ME!

If you can only get 1 out of the 2, get Lisa Arends CD pkg on EBAY (for the EC test takers).

All the best!

I didn't like Lisa Arend's stuff. Just my opinion but I thought that using an NCLEX book AND SG101 was the better way to go. I borrowed the Lisa Arend's CD's and I thought they weren't nearly as good as SG101. Just my opinion....and don't buy a NEW Nclex book. I paid next to nothing on my older edition one on amazon. Save your money for CPNE and graduation....you'll need it! Just my opinion....everyone learns differently.

Specializes in Home Health, Podiatry, Neurology, Case Mgmt.

It really ends up being relative to each person what study material work, at the beginning i got SG101, textbooks, and audio/visual lessons online...SG101 notes were confusing to me as i'm a "take my notes myself" kind of person, i can not read someone elses notes and understand what the hell they are talking about! =) textbook reading helped me a lot and audio/visual cues help gel them together for me, but that's just how I learn, someone else may very well be different! I'd suggest if you are just starting to get a couple of different ones to "test" out and see how you like it and if it helps you =)

Specializes in Telemetry.
It really ends up being relative to each person what study material work

Totally agree!:)

It took me a day or 2 to like the Lisa Arend's CD's I'll be honest because I felt like there was SO MUCH STUFF EVERYWHERE. She made her notes as neat and organized as she thought she could I guess but I personally realized that her stuff was redundant so when I clicked on Cliffnotes 1 for example, then cliffnotes 2 tab, they both contained same info....almost like she's repeating it but if you can get past that, you'll be OK. It's prob good that it's repeated so it can stick but a bit annoying in the beginning as you are overwhelmed with a LOAD of info that basically looks worse than what it is.

So in a nutshell after ALL my contradicting lol, Lisa Arends CD's turned out to be EXTREMELY HELPFUL especially after reading her REVIEW sections which RECAPPED everything she said would be on the exam BUT IN A MUCH SHORTER VERSION. Hope I made myself clear. Very curious about the SG101 though? But maybe I should stick with what I have if it's working for me lol.

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