KAPLAN or HURST?

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I know, I know there had been many questions about this topic. I also know that it depends on the test taker if either of the two would work. It's just that I don't have all the money in the world to do both. If only I did I really would. I recently took my exam on 10/06/14 and failed on first try at 89 questions. I am a foreign educated nurse who is not among the 30% that passes on the first try. I had given myself some time to put it together and is now willing to study again. I have re-registered with the boards and peasonvue. Now what irks me is, how should I study this time around? What should I use? What review should I take? My first try taking it I took the course called NCLEX75 of SIMPLENURSING.COM. It cost me $350, now that they have refunded that amount I want to try KAPLAN or HURST and see if it works this time. I also used the PDA by LaCharity book and Mary Ann Hogan Comprehensive review. I also purchased the NCLEX MASTERY APP for $30 I believe.

Please help as I am as lost as in the beginning. Thank you in advance.

anyway, i would get both... i have hurst, ncsbn, lacharity, and saunders material... the ncsbn is over-the-top in terms of content. almost similar to reading that med/surg book. LaCharity is overhyped on this forum... i have my reasons for dismissing. though it was cheap enough to purchase. i used saunders for questions... the questions seem based off content/memorization not "critical thinking" so i stopped that. people who have the kaplan say the questions closely mimic the NCLEX... these are people who have a solid foundation of content. and they help you strategic guess when you have no clue what they are asking. get both...

Hi thank you for your reply, I had also heard that Kaplan = Strategy and Hurst = Content. To be honest the PDA book did help me during NCLEX though it was a pretty good book I believe. I'm looking into taking HURST just because I've been out of nursing school for a bit. Thank you for your reply.

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I enjoyed both. My school had the kaplan software which provided you with a structure on how to answer nclex questions. I think it was good with priority and delgation questions as well. Hurst help me remeber things a little better, but the questions were very easy to me. Kaplan has much more difficult questions

In your opinion, do you think more difficult questions will help you prepare for the NCLEX better? :) Thanks.

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Hi Suzy I don't know if you remember me but we had many and I mean many posts and replies to each other when we we're still applying. From CGFNS to the Boards. I thank you for all your help, unfortunately after all those I am not successful with the NCLEX. I would really look into the books that you recommend. I wish I could do both Kaplan and HURST to make a comparison myself but I just can't afford it at the moment. In what areas do you think your confident with kaplan and hurst? What makes them different?

Hi :) of course i remember you lol

I failed my first attempt too! I went to florida as you know for 3 weeks and i thought whilst i was there i could sit it , i realised i was not ready so i called to cancel it , however my test was for the monday and i phoned on the friday , which they said i could not cancel !!

At that point I only studied NSCBN which was a lot of information, i sat the test knowing that i would fail :( , so when i did i was not devastated.

However when my report came back i was close to passing standards. So i got hurst , after reviewing hurst i felt much more confident, i could remember stuff so much easier I kept my NSCBN course and did that whole course again , thats a cheap course , but too much and then i purchased Kaplan.

Too ask what to get it depends where you are , if you feel strong in content get Kaplan , if not get hurst!

Now Kaplan have a review content as well , but its not as good as hurst! However there strategy is better, my scores on Kaplan are at the 60%. The easiest thing to say is that hurst and Kaplan compliment each other! If i had to choose i would get hurst , buy a Kaplan strategy book from eBay , download the content review book from amazon ( which is free ) and maybe get nscbn ( its only 50 dollars for 3 weeks) but thats what i feel for me ,

Nscbn course is very broad, there is a huge amount of info, but hurst concise that info,

Hope that helps and good luck to both of us :)

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Yes good luck to both of us... AGAIN. Lol, well at least all the stress from when we were registering the first time is now put aside. We now know what to do and was able to do it previously. I appreciate your opinions about NCSBN, KAPLAN & HURST. I am officially starting to review hurst. I purchased it just yesterday and printed all the PDF workbooks today. I will probably do NCSBN after this or along with this but not Kaplan since I don't really have that much to splurge. I will probably go ahead and purchase a Kaplan strategy book on ebay like you said. It's difficult to compare when you really have no clue what their content would be. I'm giving hurst a shot and hopefully it will work for me. :) I was also near passing and also knew I failed so it didn't hurt that much. How did you feel about your exam?

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Hi what made you say that Kaplan is not as good as hurst? Can you please do a comparison of both in your opinion? I would really appreciate it. :)

probably because the strategies taught from the Kaplan are not 100% guaranteed... i have read their "decision tree" and whatever else they teach can steer you in a random direction (from the answer)...

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Yes good luck to both of us... AGAIN. Lol, well at least all the stress from when we were registering the first time is now put aside. We now know what to do and was able to do it previously. I appreciate your opinions about NCSBN, KAPLAN & HURST. I am officially starting to review hurst. I purchased it just yesterday and printed all the PDF workbooks today. I will probably do NCSBN after this or along with this but not Kaplan since I don't really have that much to splurge. I will probably go ahead and purchase a Kaplan strategy book on ebay like you said. It's difficult to compare when you really have no clue what their content would be. I'm giving hurst a shot and hopefully it will work for me. :) I was also near passing and also knew I failed so it didn't hurt that much. How did you feel about your exam?

Hi :) you made the right choice, am doing Kaplan just now and am falling asleep during there content review videos! The only thing i can say is good is the practice tests and strategy but i don't think thats worth the high price tag of this course.

Like you i was debating what to get as well and i chose hurst over kaplan and doing the NSCBN first actually helped, its like schoolwork, you work through a module and are tested on your knowledge afterwards , there is a lot of practice tests questions which are good as hurst only have 6 practice test content! So maybe get the NSCBN and work alongside it , goodluck :)

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Hurst review was great, I really enjoyed the lectures and I learned soo much. I understood content that I never understood while I was in nursing school. Hurst has a way of breaking down content in a very easy to understand fashion. Good luck!

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