Excelsior test study guides - where to find information

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I am a recent LPN graduate. I am trying to hurry up and get through my RN, but the schools in my area have 1-2 year waits for the bridge program, and I have a young child, so full time school and work is not for me. I decided to do the excelsior program, but I have been unable to find any sort of lecture notes and I have no desire to read 30+ chapters of textbook material per test, quite a bit of which I already know because I am an LPN. I do not want to join the online classes. I just want lecture notes and the excelsior bookstore does not sell them. I checked ebay and found a bunch of study guides writen by people who say that they have passed the tests using them. I guess what I am trying to find out is, has anyone done it off of someone elses notes? Does it work? Have any of you actually graduated from Excelsior college? I live in Ohio and I have checked with the state board and they say that they accept it, but I have heard that other states (california) do not.

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Specializes in Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Nursing.

I would definitely not base all my studying on someone's lecture notes...you're setting yourself up for failure if you do that, in my opinion.

Download the content guides from Excelsior for the particular test you are going to take and know each item they tell you in the outline.

Then, I would recommend taking the online practice exams from Exclesior and study the style of questions they ask you (because those will be similar, and maybe identical, to the questions that you see on the actual test) as well as the rationales that they give you after you are graded. For $60.00 you get two 100 questions exams that are excellent to study from. A great deal and I found that like 3-5 questions on my actual test were similar/identical to the ones I had on Excelsior's online practice exam.

I would buy some of the chancellor's study guides used on eBay if you can. They're cheap ($30-50 each) and they are pretty much just like lecture notes in that they are not as in depth or overwhelming as The College Network's study guides (which are great, too).

Best wishes.

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Specializes in LTAC, Telemetry, Thoracic Surgery, ED.

I also would not JUST use the notes but almost everything you can find for a price on ebay as far as someone elses notes you can find on the Yahoo study groups, just search for excelsior.

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Specializes in Telemetry, OB, Peds.

It appears that the study guides either from Chancellor, RUE, the College Network (TCN) or Professional Data Systems (PDS) would be helpful to you. I purchased the TCN and PDS study guides from EBAY and really enjoyed the guides. I don't think that I paid over $30 for each guide. All join some of the Excelsior Study Groups on Yahoo.com. Many students have posted tips for the exams to guide your studying. Of course, since you are a LPN, you don't have to take Nursing Concept 2. Good luck.

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Specializes in Certified Diabetes Educator.

Excelsior study guides are free. You can download them from their site or you can call them and have them mailed to you.

www.excelsior.edu

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