Is Kaplan worth the $$$?

[suzw]

Hi all,

For those of you that have taken the Kaplan prep course and taken the NCLEX- Is it worth the money? Did it prep you well?

I have had good grades throughout nursing school, and usually test well, but sometimes struggle with the higher level NCLEX questions. Like I have forgotten the material or never learned it, or answer it according to what would happen in real life vs. the ideal situation according to NCLEX.

The plus side I can see is that it is structured (though I plan on taking the "On-demand" course, but there will still be specific material I need to get through). I do better with structure, I think if I create my own study plan I won't know what to study or have the motivation to stay on top of it. The tests and predictors are a plus too, though there is only one test for each topic, and if you want to retake it, it is the same questions. They say the format is similar to the real NCLEX, but it's not CA testing so the only thing that is similar is the look of the testing screen.

The minuses are the cost (we get a hefty discount through the Kaplan rep if we sign up soon, but it's still $379). And I don't know if the questions are similar enough to the real test, since they don't write the NCLEX.

Thoughts, opinions? If not Kaplan, what do you like?

[scaredsilly, BSN, RN]

I do not think I would have passed NCLEX without Kaplan. BUT-everyone is different, it worked for me and was worth every penny, but it all depends on what you need to focus on and where your weaknesses are.

[sairybear]

yes its worth it.

[TIB217]

YES! It is totally worth the money - I just took the NCLEX not long ago and the questions are very similar and the content the Kaplan covers is really quite phenomenal.

They don't write the NCLEX - but they definitely study it and have a money back guarantee as far as I understand - so I would go for it! If you are disciplined enough to do it on your own - then I would highly recommend it. The content questions are actually quite easy - is the QBank and Question Trainers 5,6,7 that are all high level thinking questions.

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

Our program gifted our graduating class with the 4 day Kaplan NCLEX prep course. We have the online plus 4 days of classroom instruction. We just ended the classroom portion today. If you actually take the time to watch ALL the videos and do the 40 hours of prep work required before the classroom portion starts, it's kind of redundant sitting in the classroom. The practice questions I did were the EXACT same ones the instructor used in class, so I felt like I was just re-hashing what I'd already learned on my own. (ETA: the majority of the class had not completed any of the prep work before the classroom portion)

Having said that, learning the decision tree and how to successfully select the correct answer on NCLEX questions has been VERY helpful. I've scored high on all of my trainer tests, QBank tests and the Readiness exam. I won't be sitting for the NCLEX until June 10th, so I'll know then how well it works.

If you're the kind of person that likes to be able to ask questions and learns well from verbal instruction, the in-person class was well worth it. If you learn better on your own, I feel the online materials & videos were plenty. I prefer working at my own pace, so YMMV.

One thing we did in class is that we graphed our responses to 75 questions throughout the day. There was a passing line in the middle of the graph. Every correct question brought you higher above the passing line, every incorrect knocked you down a square. At the end of the 75 questions, if your graph was consistently above the passing line, it's a fair indication that you'll do well. Our instructor said as long as we're scoring 60% or better on the Trainer tests & QBank questions, we have a good chance of passing.

I feel very prepared. I'm going to be doing 75 to 100 QBank questions per day until I take the exam. I'll update this thread when I know my results. Right now, I really feel like it was worth it