Hurst - Which part helped you most?

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Specializes in critical care.

If you've taken Hurst and passed the NCLEX (RN), what part of Hurst helped you answer questions the most - the content or the test strategies?

Through a series of frustrating events, I've scheduled my NCLEX for a date far sooner than I've been able to really cement the core content into my brain. I'm feeling like the test taking strategies may do very well to help fill in the gaps of knowledge.

But frankly, I'm terrified and feeling quite frustrated. Thankfully my job has a plan B for if I don't pass, which gives me all the time in the world to get it right the second time. I really hope it doesn't come to that, though.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

In a nutshell, it was Hurst's content review that helped me the most.

Here's a little background. I worked as an LVN for four years before completing an LPN-to-RN bridge program and earning an ASN degree. The bridge program had horrid first-time NCLEX pass rates for several years in a row and was placed on probation by the state BON during my attendance there.

When I refer to low NCLEX pass rates, one year only 47 percent of graduates passed NCLEX, and 56 percent passed during the next year. Although my school was providing a Kaplan NCLEX review to all students, several classmates and I opted to attend a live Hurst Review because we suspected we were being underprepared by our school.

I attended the four-day live review, although it is now three days. I also studied the content in the looseleaf booklet they gave me. I studied about ten pages per day until I got through the 150+ pages. I also answered about 50 to 100 NCLEX-style questions per day to become acclimated to the format.

I passed NCLEX on the first attempt with the 75 question minimum. Hurst helped greatly.

Having taken both Hurst and Kaplan, I would say that Hurst is an excellent review of nursing content, whereas Kaplan is a great review of strategies to tackle NCLEX-style questions. Good luck to you.

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this is good to hear.. i graduated a year ago and my school offered Kaplan as well as a internal review. So how i couldnt grasp Kaplan....i just signed up to take the Hurst live review i hope it helps.

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Specializes in critical care.

Commuter it's bumming out, but I do absolutely appreciate your honesty and thorough answer.

When I say I scheduled it too soon, a week ago, I scheduled it for tomorrow. I was dealing with two states over licensure issues. The one I needed to come through first, didn't. It is a temporary permit, so I can work in one state until the permanent one in my state of residence exists. When I realized that time was out to get my temporary permit sorted, I figured I needed to hop on the soonest NCLEX date possible to get my permanent license in place (both states are compact). My job requires I have a permit or license in place before I started this past Monday. Ironically, the permit came through the afternoon after I scheduled my NCLEX. Now I just feel like an idiot for panicking.

So here I am, thinking I'm walking in to the most important exam of this whole nursing experience, completely unprepared. Before I started having issues with the permit, I was planning on taking it in July. I didn't even activate the online hurst portion until I scheduled my exam and I've worked all week. This will be a miracle if I pull this off.

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Specializes in critical care.

I'm going to vomit. 75 questions and they didn't feel hard. So I'm either awesome or horrible.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'm going to vomit. 75 questions and they didn't feel hard. So I'm either awesome or horrible.
I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope you passed!

NCLEX is not as bad as some make it out to be. You need to answer only half of the higher-level questions correctly in order to pass, so the passing standard is not terribly stringent. I'm sure you passed.

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Specializes in critical care.

OMG!!!!!!

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Congratulations, new RN!!!!! :)

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Specializes in critical care.
I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope you passed!

NCLEX is not as bad as some make it out to be. You need to answer only half of the higher-level questions correctly in order to pass, so the passing standard is not terribly stringent. I'm sure you passed.

So most of the questions were not at all in the hurst content and I did mostly rely on the test taking strategies at the end. I took my time, thought it through, and actually hoped it wouldn't shut off at 75 because I felt like they should be harder. All this hype about how hard it should be had me freaking out completely. So the moral of the story is it might not be so bad after all!!!

Congratulations, new RN!!!!! :)

Thank you so, so much!!!! I had a good cry with the hubs and now I'll sit back and enjoy knowing I get to keep my job and actually call myself a nurse sometime in the next few days. OMG I did it!!!!!

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Congratulations!!! and good luck in your new career. I have a question for you. Even though most of the questions were not in Hurst, do you still think it is worth buying the course? Thanks

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Even though most of the questions were not in Hurst, do you still think it is worth buying the course?
Although I am not the original poster, I took the Hurst four-day live review and it was definitely worth it to me.
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Thank you TheCommuter for answering my question. I am going to try HURST, my report stated that I was below passing level in physiological adaptation and I definitively need content review so I guess that is the best way to go

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