I need advice...Is it okay if I only use Hurst for content?

Tracy1275 · Sep 3, 2012

Hi Jess

I just took my boards in August and I'll tell you that I did both Hurst and Kaplan. We were required to do Saunders in school so once school was over I never looked at it again and took it off my computer! :) What worked for me was doing Hurst and Kaplan. Now that I've taken NCLEX and passed my personal view is that the practice questions in the Kaplan QBank are the most similar to the NCLEX style of question. I was scoring in the mid-60's on the Kaplan and I passed the NCLEX with 78 questions. I did all 6 tests that Hurst had and I did all the Kaplan QBank questions. That's what worked for ME. For me reading the rationales when getting a question wrong helped immensely!!! Hurst was a requirement for graduation and it was included in our tuition so everyone got it. If I had to pay for one or the other out of my own pocket I would have only done the Kaplan. I hope that helps!! That was my personal experience and everyone is different. I did both and had success!! I only started to study about 3 weeks before my test. I did about 150ish questions M-F before the test and the day before the test I didn't look at a single question, lab, or anything NCLEX related. Good luck on your boards I'm sure you will do just fine! GOOD LUCK!!

cici98 · Sep 3, 2012

Hey Jess- I took my NCLEX in Feb. and I used HURST and passed on the first try. I had a saunders book and also a few other NCLEX apps that I used to do questions. I found that the Hurst review was the best. I studied for about 3 weeks before my exam and tried to do at least 100 questions a day. I too read the rationales when I would get a question wrong and felt like that help immensely. Good luck I think you are doing everything right and I am sure that you will be just fine. Just remember the night before and morning of do not look at any of it. Take some time just to relax.

I have Saunders 5th ed, the yellow book. I tried to read 1 chapter a day, and after reading almost half of the book, I feel like it's too overwhelming. I went back to the previous chapters and everything's all jumbled up in my head.
I also took Hurst online Review. I am now doing what Marlene suggested, to record myself lecturing. So far I've been doing good. I retain the information better. But I feel like Hurst doesn't have enough content, as compared to what Saunder's offers. Any advice? Should I continue reading Saunder's? or will Hurst be enough?
Additional info: My exam is in 4 weeks. In addition to these two review materials, I also have LaCharity, I'm down to the 6th chapter now. My scores are in the 70s%. I also have Kaplan, and I've read half of it. I'm doing Q-trainers, and Q-bank from Kaplan. My scores are in the high 40s% to low 60s%. I don't have problems with these 2 books.
Please give me some advice. Thank you.

CrazyJess · Sep 4, 2012

Thank you so much for all your input and encouraging words. I really appreciate it. I guess I will just focus on Hurst, and if there's a topic I feel like I need more information, I will read Saunder's. I've been reading rationales from all the Kaplan questions, as well as the Lacharity book. This has helped me a lot too.