NCLEX preparation

I graduate next spring and this is also a fear of mine. But, you gotta just do your research and if one doesnt work out, try another. Everyone has an individual experience so for anyone to say one is better than the other, may be personal opinion. Unless there is a website out there showing the pass rates with testers, etc, you have to just study hard and not listen to the hype.

There's a whole AN forum devoted to NCLEX. However, I will save you the trouble of whipping up your anxiety by reading it all, since many of the posts are from people who did not pass their first try and are therefore not representative of all nursing students by a long shot. The short answers are:

1) NCLEX is designed to confirm that people who graduate from accredited nursing programs are prepared to take entry-level basic nursing jobs.

2) The national overall pass rate for first-time NCLEX takers is more than 90% ...because accredited programs prepare their grads to be nurses. Most people do NOT take expensive "review courses."

3) When in doubt, re-read 1 & 2

I also had the fear of not passing NCLEX when I graduated and I passed at 75 questions. If you went to an accredited school, then it shouldn't be too much of a factor. Preparing for the NCLEX should be about reviewing the subject material and being able to answer NCLEX style not trying to learn the subject material that you should have been taught in nursing school. You need to trust that your school did their job by preparing you to be a competent new grad nurse.

I too was very nervous about taking the NCLEX when I graduated, especially because my school has very low passing scores compared to many other schools. I took approximately one month to read a NCLEX content review book (i recommend NCLEX illustrated guide)- you can actually finish reading the whole book in two weeks if you focus and read ~75 pages per day (the book is ~625 pages total). After that, I took kaplan, and did the whole qbank/qtrainers and practice quizzes available through kaplan. I reviewed all the questions, regardless of whether I got them right or wrong and took notes once in a while of things that I felt were important and that were difficult for me to memorize/remember.

I passed with 75 questions, and felt like the actual test was very similar to Kaplan. However, I've heard of others swearing by Hurst. It just depends on the person, sometimes Kaplan works for some people and sometimes Hurst works better for others. Hurst is mostly content review, although it does have 3-6 practice questions at the end. Kaplan is all practice questions, but it does provide a content review book which I think was not very good and that's why i ended up reading the NCLEX illustrated guide instead.

I HAVEN'T TAKEN MY TEST YET! But I am using Hurst and Kaplan right now. Honestly, my school did NOT get their accreditation in time unfortunately. I say take a prep course if you need some encouragement in areas of content and/or how to answer questions. My school provided Kaplan and I have to say the Qbank and Qtrainers help a lot! I ALSO love Hurst for the content for the ability to even get an idea of what answers to pick (and get them right, woo!). Also, Kaplan itself helps with choosing SATA answers and prioritization and I love watching their Review of ? videos because again, they tackle each question on how to answer them. I am glad I am doing the two because without the other, I don't think I would be feeling more confident. I hope to come on AllNurses saying I passed. I pray that I do. But good luck to you and rock it out for the rest of your nursing program!

I most definitely took what I'd call a NCLEX prep course, as it wasn't so much "review" as it was preparing for what kinds of questions the NCLEX would ask, in what formats, getting used to doing online testing, and so on. I used Kaplan, both the online Q-Bank and classroom components (I think we met once a week, for 6 weeks).

I don't know that I wouldn't have passed anyway without taking the course, but I DO know it eased my anxiety overall because by the time I got to the actual exam, it just seemed like one more Question Trainer from Kaplan. Even had the same font, screen formatting, you name it.

Some people do need to review content, and there are programs that are best for that (Hurst seems to be a favorite here). To best figure out strategies, prioritizing the way the TEST wants it done, that seems to be Kaplan.

All-in-all, I think if you're a good student and test well, you'll test well with NCLEX too. If you tend to become anxious and just want additional reassurance you're on the right track, it can't hurt to pick up a prep book and see how you fare on NCLEX-style questions. Most schools today seem to use these kinds of test formats throughout school, so not a big shock.

Good luck!