NCLEX reviews

Nurses General Nursing

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I will be graduating May and would like any and all advice/opinions about NCLEX reviews. A lot of my classmates are taking the Sylvia Rayfield one and I'd like to know if anyone out there knows about her workshops either firsthand or by word of mouth. Is she GOOD? Is there a particular one out there that anyone highly recommends? Also, do these reviews really help, I mean is it worth the bucks? Please respond with your input, advice, opinions. Thanks.

Ill be taking the NCLEX this summer, but I decided not to go to a workshop. I did buy a book, not sure what the name is, but is was endorsed by the NSNA, so I thought it must go good :)

The reason that I decided not to take a class, was that if you do, you have to sit and listen to areas that you might be very comfortable in, and wait for your weaker areas to be discussed. On my own, i can spend as much time as I need on my weak areas (peds) and I dont have to spend as long on the areas I feel confident in. I discussed it with my advisor, and he thought my reasoning for opting out was logical, so I am comfortable with that. I just do the book and CD on my own, and work on what I need to. Ill find out in the summer if my "method" is effective :)

Best of luck to you!

BrandyBSN - 53 days till finals are over!

The book I used to study for the Boards with was First Aid for the NCLEX-RN by Don Anderson. I'm not sure if you can still get it (I graduated in 1997); but if you can, it's definitely worth it. It was the better of the ones I had bought.

Hope that helps.

Best of luck on the Boards! :roll

Specializes in SICU.

I bought a few different NCLEX books and studied my weaker areas. A lot of them have self tests that let you see what you may need to concentrate on... and boards weren't that hard anyway.

Now, I DID take them back when they were the old paper and pencil ones, before those testing centers...

Do they even offer paper and pencil boards anywhere anymore? Or is it all just computerized?

Originally posted by SICU Queen

Do they even offer paper and pencil boards anywhere anymore? Or is it all just computerized?

I believe it went totally computerized in 1996, or at least it did here in Massachusetts.

Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

I don't know where you are located but I just graduated in December 2001 and took the live Hurst Review. Marlene Hurst is from Mississippi and does reviews mostly in the Mid-South. Usually the student nurse assn at the schools she does the reviews at contacts her about setting it up. You can check out her website at hurstreview.com. She was INCREDIBLE! She is a registered nurse, CCRN, MSN, former nursing school clinical instructor. She is really good as explaining things so you understand them and cutting through the BS of endless lists of symptoms so you can associate certain symptoms with certain disease processes. I now understand the different electrolyte imbalances, something I NEVER got in school, no matter how much I studied. She gave good tips for how to choose the correct answer even when you have NO CLUE. I took the NCLEX in February, and it does not matter how much you study, you will get at least three or four questions that you just do not know what the heck they are talking about and cannot fathom which answer out of the four is supposed to be correct. I highly recommend her and even if you can't make a live review, take her internet review. She guarantees you'll pass or she'll keep helping you till you do.

I would reccomend a review class. They are alot of money, but more than just material they teach you how to take the test smart. I think mine was Kaplan. They usually last a week, and totally worth the $$$$.

I have head good things about the NCLEX on-line course by the

Chauncey/NCLEX people, their prices are really reasonable, like for three weeks -$49, 7 weeks-$89 and for 15 weeks-$149, I think most people who do the on-line course pass the NCLEX-RN, I am thinking of doing the course when I get my ATT.

The websit is nclex.com, for the on-line course, check it out !

I took the Kaplan review after graduating this past December. I passed with 75 questions. I thought the Kaplan review was great. They teach you how to understand the questions, which is a VERY LARGE part of mastering the test. I have a friend who took Sylvia Rayfield and she didn't like it too much. She said they went over the items in the Sylvia Rayfield book (Nursing made Insanely Easy). She said she could have done that on her own. Actually, I think I would have done okay with no review at all. I had the NCLEX-RN book by Sylvestri, and I thought it was great.

I graduated last May and took the Kaplan review course in June. I really thought the Kaplan review helped me a lot. We took a pretest and a posttest, and during the classes they went over a numerous amount of questions just as they are worded on the actually boards. The class also focused on the highpoints that the NCLEX tests on. And one more thing, they provide you with a computer disc that simulates the test. I took 1-2 tests each night about 2 weeks before my boards and passed with only 76 questions.

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