Kaplan is frustrating me!

VegasRN · Jun 10, 2005

Whew, Thank goodness! I thought it was just us; myself and 40 or so of my classmates all feel the same way. We're all taking Kaplan review at Merrimack College in N. Andover, MA and I can say that some of us feel pretty stupid right about now. We pretty much all came in at borderline on the diagnostic test and I for one got a 57% on test 1 and a 60% on test 2. Why is it when I do questions with the other CDs like NCLEX 3000 or NCLEX 5 I do between a 75% and 100%??? I'm heading out to Barnes and Noble tonite to buy a Saunders book and CD.
I have to believe that Kaplan has raised the bar high enough so that we will pass NCLEX.
Scott, GN '05 (Northern Essex Community College)

I also am workin on Saunders. I do a comprehensive review everyday. I do 65 Saunders questions which I can do in about 1 hour. Then, I do 2 hours of online study with the Kaplan study center. I do 1 hour of flash card review that goes over labs and meds. then I spend the last hour polishing up and looking up whatever comes to my mind. On days I take a Kaplan question trainer test that is all I do is the test and read the rationales. If you do about 4-5 hours of study a day and make it comprehensive it should help. It has with me. I notice it on my Saunders questions when I study 65 of them. When I see how well I do on Saunders and then see how hard of a time I am having with Kaplan T-1 68 T-2 64 T-3 49 I realize that there maybe something in the level of difficulty. If Saunders and Kaplan assessed the same thing across the board I would think I would be doing just as sucky on Saunders review, but I am actually doing better. Hence to the fact that Kaplan guarantees passing. Why? IMHO...... the questions are harder. If you can pull of a 65 on those tests by test 7 Kaplan can then say they wont need to refund you because if you took any other review you would blow it out of the water and you should do well on NCLEX. They are taking a big gamble promising passing the first time and that 65% reflects that if you get that by test 7. I have also heard rumors of people getting like 61 to 64% on test 7 and still passing boards. I think if you hit it close you got a good shot. Good luck on studyin for boards.... Your not alone my university everyone was borderline with the diagnostic and readiness test! I was told in my review class that 90% of all graduates are borderline with those tests when they take Kaplan. There is also an interesting article I found on the National Council Website about the correlation between passing and the delay period of testing from the time you get the ATT to the time you write the exam. It showed that the longer one waits to test their chances decrease of passing boards. By days 35-40 after getting ATT the pass rate is 86% and I think it just goes down steadily from there. So take it as soon as possible....

Good luck

VegasRN (Colorado State University-Pueblo BSN program graduate)

Kitty-MayRN, BSN, RN · Jun 11, 2005

Hello, :)

Well, I just got the results of the Readiness test. I did do better than the diagnostic. I passed the Readiness with 65% but still it's pretty close to the boarderline so I'm still sweating.

I am going to bone up on content--I need to know my meds and labs a little better, but supposedly, the information in the coursebook should be all that we need. And of course the question-taking skills! I'm going to reread the whole coursebook and then take test #4. :specs:

Happy studying to all!

Kitty-MayRN

:nurse:

icukk · Jun 11, 2005

Hello everyone, I'm still new to allnurses. I just wanted to share with you that I finished the Kaplan course yesterday. I was suppose to take the NCLEX on Thursday, but a friend of mine who took it the week before said the kaplan book were the only questions similar to the NCLEX. So I freaked out, changed my date to Monday, and signed up for the Kaplan. I got a 59% on the Diagnostic and a 75% on the Readiness. I do believe the Kaplan questions are your top level questions. They prepare you to spank that test. No surprises, this is how hard it can be. Now, I have studied were I'm weak also in material. Saunders is good for that because you can do the study test which tell you right away if you were right or wrong and the rationale. Not to mention all questions Saunders has in that area. I've done about 3200 questions with all my studies. (kaplan/saunders). I do like saunders for weaknesses. For example endocrine. I suck at it. There is 163 questions on that.

My word of advice for those of you taking the kaplan. Take the NCLEX soon after. You learn material while doing the questions and that stays in your head. I take my test Monday, I'm nervous but prepared. You cant study EVERYTHING.

VegasRN · Jun 12, 2005

Hello, :)
Well, I just got the results of the Readiness test. I did do better than the diagnostic. I passed the Readiness with 65% but still it's pretty close to the boarderline so I'm still sweating.
I am going to bone up on content--I need to know my meds and labs a little better, but supposedly, the information in the coursebook should be all that we need. And of course the question-taking skills! I'm going to reread the whole coursebook and then take test #4.
Happy studying to all!
Kitty-MayRN

I took test 4 today and it was not easy. I did much better than test 3 and brought up my score to 57 overall. I am praying it gets better... I read the whole course book, it is so hard to retain all of that in your head though. Graphs, numbers, lab norms, abnorms. what to do if there is an abnorm. I pray we will get through this. I will send any good vibes I can your way.

moliuchick, RN · Jun 15, 2005

Thanks everyone for your comments, I feel better. (Sort of!) :)
I do think their strategies are helpful--I guess I just need to practice. And I'm planning on studying up until "The Day". Maybe Kaplan needs to make people panic a little so you'll want to take their classes! :uhoh21:
Good Luck to everyone!!
Kitty-MayRN

Question for you. Which Kaplan review are you taking? Is it the complete course? or the one that you have to go to 30 hr class? Do you have to pay $400 something for your course? I just think it is kind of expensive. Do you think it is worth it?

Kitty-MayRN, BSN, RN · Jun 15, 2005

Question for you. Which Kaplan review are you taking? Is it the complete course? or the one that you have to go to 30 hr class? Do you have to pay $400 something for your course? I just think it is kind of expensive. Do you think it is worth it?

Hi moliuchick, :)

I took the 30 hour class. We had a representative come to our school, and he said if we signed up then he would give us 50$ off--$350 total. I am a bad test taker, so I signed up for the class. We literally did questions all day, so we got a lot of practice on the method to use (decision tree) to break down the question. Not real exciting, but it helped me. And after spending so much money on school books, I figured $350 wasn't out of line! :uhoh3: I haven't gotten my ATT so I'm still hanging!

Kitty-MayRN

:nurse:

Kitty-MayRN, BSN, RN · Jun 15, 2005

I took test 4 today and it was not easy. I did much better than test 3 and brought up my score to 57 overall. I am praying it gets better... I read the whole course book, it is so hard to retain all of that in your head though. Graphs, numbers, lab norms, abnorms. what to do if there is an abnorm. I pray we will get through this. I will send any good vibes I can your way.

Hi VegasRN,

I'm glad to hear that test #4 might be easier than #3. I've been starting my new job and I haven't had a lot of time to read the exciting Kaplan course book! :chuckle I'm going to force myself to take it this week, to keep up on my "tree skills"! Good luck to you too. Are you studying with other books as well?

Kitty-MayRN

:nurse:

cloudydrms · Jun 15, 2005

I'm taking the complete course. I paid $299 after a discount. In Delaware if you're already hired by a hospital they will pay for the course for you, so then it costs you nothing. I'm not sure how it works in other states.

Cindy

Question for you. Which Kaplan review are you taking? Is it the complete course? or the one that you have to go to 30 hr class? Do you have to pay $400 something for your course? I just think it is kind of expensive. Do you think it is worth it?

HappyNurse2005, RN · Jun 16, 2005

I'm taking the complete course. I paid $299 after a discount. In Delaware if you're already hired by a hospital they will pay for the course for you, so then it costs you nothing. I'm not sure how it works in other states

This is not a state to state thing, but a hospital to hospital thing. i am in VA and the hospital system I am working for requires new grad nurses (RN) to take Kaplan, so they pay for it and pay me my regular salary to be there.

Good thing, cuz I have now finished 2 of the 4 days of Kaplan and I sure wouldn't have paid my own 400 bucks for it.

moliuchick, RN · Jun 16, 2005

I'm taking the complete course. I paid $299 after a discount. In Delaware if you're already hired by a hospital they will pay for the course for you, so then it costs you nothing. I'm not sure how it works in other states.
Cindy

You are correct about the hospital pays for the course. The hospital that I am going to work for they are willing to pay for my Kaplan course but they can only pay for it if I am doing the review course in their state. Since I am going to relocate to their state, they will not pay for the Kaplan that I am going to take here. And I cannot and will not fly there early just to take the free course. I think I might have to end up paying for it, it sucks. Do you think it's worth it?

Nurse2B2005 · Jun 16, 2005

You are correct about the hospital pays for the course. The hospital that I am going to work for they are willing to pay for my Kaplan course but they can only pay for it if I am doing the review course in their state. Since I am going to relocate to their state, they will not pay for the Kaplan that I am going to take here. And I cannot and will not fly there early just to take the free course. I think I might have to end up paying for it, it sucks. Do you think it's worth it?

Well, maybe not $400 worth - but there are some valuable tips that you can get just as easily if you go to your bookstore and buy the Kaplan 2005-2006 book. It includes 12 chapters of their test taking strategy and 180 practice questions. I think it sells for about $30. With attending the live review, you get about 500 questions in class and in the online access they give to students, and then another 1000 on a cd that they give you with the class, so it's not as detailed as the book, but the book does have the strategies that Kaplan teaches in-person.

Is your hospital willing to pay for the course if you take it online? Or does that not count since you are still not taking it online in their state?

RN-TO-BE · Jun 22, 2005

I have a question about the Kaplan Question Trainer CD. I did not take the Kaplan review course but I do have the Question Trainer CD that I got from a friend. I was wondering when you all speak of a passing score of 65% on Test 7 on the CD are you talking about the overall passing score or the score of the application and analysis sections of the Bloom's Taxonomy. That is supposed to be an indication of how you did on the harder and more difficult questions, are am I wrong?? I am really confused.

Thanks...