How much time to study for exams 1-8

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · May 16, 2011

You might want to correct the title of the thread.....though it does provide a few giggles, at first glance.

RN-DC, BSN · May 16, 2011

Lol...oops. I'm trying to figure that out. I blame all typos on my iPhone.

Editorial Team / Moderator · May 16, 2011

I fixed it for you.

meme048 · May 17, 2011

I took Health Safety in Jan 2009 and got a C. The rest of my exams I got A's and B's. I finshed the exams the end of July 2009. FCCA mid Aug. I got my date for testing in Utica the beginning of Sept. and tested Dec 4th 2009. Graduated in feb. 2010. I'm working as a supervisor in a skilled nursing facility. I have applied for the unit manager position will find out in about 2 weeks if I get it. No weekends no Holidays would be nice.

RN-DC, BSN · May 17, 2011

So it took you from Jan to July to finish all exams? That is great! Can you tell me how much per week you were studying?

Congrats on graduating and the hopeful new position!

meme048 · May 17, 2011

Well I was working full time, but I don't have small children. I'd spend 2-3 hours a night studying, I didn't have any distractions. Although my husband kept asking me when he was getting his wife back and my dust bunnies evolved and started to speak.

RN-DC, BSN · May 17, 2011

Thanks so much for the info, one last question... How exactly did you study? The way I've studied for my pre-reqs was reading the suggested books completely, highlighting, and then writing everything down. Then i took the first practice test, studied what I needed from the results, and then the second. It took me about 1 1/2-2 months per exam (studying on avg 15 hours per week). I want to speed it up and try to finish quicker. Obviously studying more hours per week would help, but I want to learn others' (especially yours meme) way of studying to see if there's something else I can be doing to help get the program done. Any tips would be helpful!

Thanks again!

BeachieRN84 · May 17, 2011

I didn't have to take 8 nursing exams, only 7, but I finished them all within 5 months and got 4 A's, 2 B's and 1 C. I work 3 12 hour night shifts and have a small child, so I studied when I could, which was usually on break at work or in the middle of the night when my son was sleeping. At first, I was gonna do one a month, but once I got into the swing of things, I was doing two or three a month.

I also finished 22 of the 31 gen education credits during this time too. Did a couple of CLEP exams which helped save time and $$.

I am taking the FCCA next month and hoping for the CPNE in August. Good luck with your studies and welcome :-)

RN-DC, BSN · May 17, 2011

Beachnurse..HOLY crap! That is awesome. Please tell me how you studied so I can start doing the exact same thing!

BeachieRN84 · May 17, 2011

Beachnurse..HOLY crap! That is awesome. Please tell me how you studied so I can start doing the exact same thing!

Seriously, once you start taking the exams, it's like you are addicted to them, and you can't wait to take the next one.

My biggest motivator to finish has to do with my job. They are on the way to pushing us out the door and I need my job and my benefits badly. I am a single mom. I want to provide my son the opportunity to go to college and not have student loans, and how can I expect him to care about education if I didn't have one myself.

Not only that, many of the people I work with, they treat me like the dirt on their shoes bc I am a LPN, and instead of getting angry, the anger I feel from that, I fuel my school work with it. Just yesterday I was talking to one of the core measures nurses and she asked me why I did not sign a TPA form on a pt having a stroke (an RN has to sign this for me, which she did), and I told her is was because I am a LPN, and she looked at me flat in the face and said "oh, I thought you were a real nurse."

So everytime I am at work, the wheels are turning in my head, that is where I studied the most, I work in critical care and say when I was taking LS1, I would make sure I was reviewing all my patients who had CHF and COPD, their labs, their assessment findings, the meds they were on, I would talk to them about their disease process. It gave me a concrete picture of what this disease looked like.

My biggest study tool was my Saunders NCLEX-RN. I used this more than anything. I have all the required texts, and I also used Studygroup101.com notes, but for the most part, Saunders is where I studied from... and the practice tests from EC. Worth every single cent you pay for them. My goal is to be taking the NCLEX-RN by October.

I visit these boards and also the Facebook EC site daily. The friends I have made on here and there are the best, we keep each other going, this is our "class" and we learn from each other and lean on each other. Never probably would have done EC if I hadn't found this forum,

Good luck to you!!! Let us know how we can help :-)

RN-DC, BSN · May 30, 2011

Beachnurse: I bought Saunders nclex rn and have been going through it, but am wondering how it helped prepare for the excelsior exams? I understand that it's a great tool for studying for the nclex, and it's great in general for understanding concepts, and test questions, but how were you able to study for the EC exams using it? The Saunders book doesn't have units, and seems to just go through all possible questions that could be on the nclex. Sorry to get so technical, i just want to know if I'm missing something?