Excelsior exam: Transition to the Registered Professional nurse Role

Kamilah Coney, ASN, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2015

Well like you said djclark123 this exam is pretty "dry". I didn't utilize the practice exams for this exam, only SG101 and ECs content outline. I have used the practice exams for the last 3 nursing exams. I also scored less than 60% on the practice exams, but still managed to pull out passing grades on the actual exam. It has taken me 3 exams going in to realize that the practice exams are like pre-exams to see if the nursing student understands the material presented enough to answer NCLEX- like questions. NurseEffort if I recall correctly, the SG101 guide was a little hard to follow because the content didn't flow with EC's Content Outline. This exam is the one I suggest everyone takes first, so that you're over and done with it.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Sep 2, 2015

So...I am a medic. I am nervous about my Transitions exam in two days because, well lets face it...this stuff is dry and it kind of sucks. I purchased the SG101 and have been getting 65's for a grade on each quiz, I also bought the EC practice exams and I got a 59 on test A, and 51 on test B (second time I rushed...probably could have done better). Was wondering how bad the test really is and the success rate of these quizes vs the real thing. I dont want to have to take it again.

I would suggest going over the answers and rationales on the Excelsior practice exams over the next couple of days. Good luck!

gears · Apr 21, 2016

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum. I'm sure I'm dragging this thread from the relics, but I think it's important to let other Excelsior people who have not taken this exam know that it is no cakewalk. Prior to going to take this exam, I had read several threads about this test and was lulled into a false sense of security. I already have a degree in another field (Aerospace) and, with the exception of Sociology and Life Span Psychology, all my prerequisites were completed at my university and a local community college. I took these two exams with Excelsior and made an A on each, but neither one was easy. As yall know, it's very hard to study subjects that just don't click, and neither of these did.

Back to my point. After skimming over these threads and reading the posts, I expected this test to be relatively easy. However, I started wondering how Excelsior graded their tests and came upon this link that I will place at the end of this post. It's Excelsior's Technical Handbook and it gives the percentage of people who make an A, B, C, D and F for each exam. I had found this link a few months ago and remembered it a couple of days before I took my exam. After reading the posts on this and other threads, I'm CERTAIN that Excelsior has changed this test to make it much more difficult than in the past. I know a woman who took this test a while back. She said she didn't study at all and made a C. She's far from dumb, but she's not the sharpest knive in the drawer, either. She stated, much like I've seen on here, that the test was basically a history exam with some common sense legal jargon mixed in. This, of course, added to my sense of security. However, according to the Technical Handbook, during the time frame of their data collection for this exam, nobody made an A. Easy tests in which people of average intelligence can make a C without studying SHOULD yield several A's. I'm thinking the ones of you who were lucky enough to take the older version of this exam were fortunate.

I studied for this test for about 3 weeks. In that time, I read both books and revisited the material a few times, even making a few flash cards on Cram.com. In that time, I felt like I became quite familiar with the subject matter. I took the practice exams. Did okay, but wasn't phased since I did crappy on the practice exams for Lifespan Psychology and Sociology, and made an A on the actual exam on both. Either way, I took the exam, yesterday. Rolled out with a C. Made a 77.3, to be exact. Almost 1/4 if this exam was "select all that apply" Yes, I went back and counted. There were 30 of the 129 questions that were of that format. And we all LOVE the dreaded "select all that apply". I would advise anyone who is going to take this exam to really KNOW anything in this subject that has a list of characteristics. And there are several. Good luck. Here's the link to the handbook. It's page 91.

https://my.excelsior.edu/documents/78666/102207/Excelsior_College_Exams_Technical_Handbook.pdf/fc8eecbe-a7dc-4457-8b72-8cb10bf34046

AlleycatLady, BSN · Apr 24, 2016

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum. I'm sure I'm dragging this thread from the relics, but I think it's important to let other Excelsior people who have not taken this exam know that it is no cakewalk. Prior to going to take this exam, I had read several threads about this test and was lulled into a false sense of security. I already have a degree in another field (Aerospace) and, with the exception of Sociology and Life Span Psychology, all my prerequisites were completed at my university and a local community college. I took these two exams with Excelsior and made an A on each, but neither one was easy. As yall know, it's very hard to study subjects that just don't click, and neither of these did.
Back to my point. After skimming over these threads and reading the posts, I expected this test to be relatively easy. However, I started wondering how Excelsior graded their tests and came upon this link that I will place at the end of this post. It's Excelsior's Technical Handbook and it gives the percentage of people who make an A, B, C, D and F for each exam. I had found this link a few months ago and remembered it a couple of days before I took my exam. After reading the posts on this and other threads, I'm CERTAIN that Excelsior has changed this test to make it much more difficult than in the past. I know a woman who took this test a while back. She said she didn't study at all and made a C. She's far from dumb, but she's not the sharpest knive in the drawer, either. She stated, much like I've seen on here, that the test was basically a history exam with some common sense legal jargon mixed in. This, of course, added to my sense of security. However, according to the Technical Handbook, during the time frame of their data collection for this exam, nobody made an A. Easy tests in which people of average intelligence can make a C without studying SHOULD yield several A's. I'm thinking the ones of you who were lucky enough to take the older version of this exam were fortunate.
I studied for this test for about 3 weeks. In that time, I read both books and revisited the material a few times, even making a few flash cards on Cram.com. In that time, I felt like I became quite familiar with the subject matter. I took the practice exams. Did okay, but wasn't phased since I did crappy on the practice exams for Lifespan Psychology and Sociology, and made an A on the actual exam on both. Either way, I took the exam, yesterday. Rolled out with a C. Made a 77.3, to be exact. Almost 1/4 if this exam was "select all that apply" Yes, I went back and counted. There were 30 of the 129 questions that were of that format. And we all LOVE the dreaded "select all that apply". I would advise anyone who is going to take this exam to really KNOW anything in this subject that has a list of characteristics. And there are several. Good luck. Here's the link to the handbook. It's page 91.
https://my.excelsior.edu/documents/78666/102207/Excelsior_College_Exams_Technical_Handbook.pdf/fc8eecbe-a7dc-4457-8b72-8cb10bf34046

This is good insight. The content break down should give a good idea of where you should concentrate your studies the most. Since no one got an A on Transition to professional nursing...it looks like they didn't concentrate enough efforts on two sections, foundations of clinical nur prac and The nur prof roles and resp which were both 35% of the content respectively.

(I abbreviate a lot)

emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 24, 2016

So no one got an A, out of over 2600 people, no one got an A, and also no one got an F. I find that extremely hard to believe. Just out of sheer luck if someone guessed on certain questions, they should have been able to push up to an A.

Im getting ready to take this exam in the next few weeks, as i have just finished up all my prerequisites so I have a major interest in this. But statistically someone would have to have gotten an A or an F.

Editorial Team / Moderator · Apr 24, 2016

Im getting ready to take this exam in the next few weeks, as i have just finished up all my prerequisites so I have a major interest in this. But statistically someone would have to have gotten an A or an F.

This is only for May 2014-August 2015. I'm sure it's changed somewhat since then, because the point-biserial is not in a desirable range from what I can see. But maybe you can be the first A!

emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 25, 2016

The amount of hours I have been putting in studying I should get higher than an A , if that were possible

NicoleB1234 · Jul 26, 2016

Hey everyone, I recently took this exam, and I passed my first time with a C, but I was upset because I study so much of the wrong stuff, all nurses the previous comments helped, but the test have changed, I will recommend, going over the practice exam, several times, that will help you tremendously, also I used the books very little, I used study guide 101 and the practice exams and I only studied for about three weeks, I schedule my exam before I started studying. Even though I only studied about three weeks, I got a C because I focused to much on those theorist and those dates, but I barely had any questions about those things on my test. I was so upset lol!!! Practice exam Practice, you have to use them, it will really benefit you!!! OK good luck everyone

lexywill1215 · Sep 29, 2016

Where do I get the study guide 101? And was there alot of questions that asked choose all the applies?

lexywill1215 · Sep 29, 2016

Did you take the transition exam yet? How was it?

NurseSuzy22 · Sep 30, 2016

MyStudyGroup101 LLC they have a ton of practice questions and a couple hundred select all and priority practice questions. Get the excelsior practice exams too!~

there are about 20 select all that appy questions. You only need to know basics about theorists but more on nightengale.

bwhiteside09 · Apr 23, 2017

I just took my transition test. I passed with a C. I will say I did not study until the week of the exam. I did not purchase any books or use the excelsior study guide. I bought the $10 study guide from study101 and I also purchased the excelsior practice tests.