Nclex study time frame

Hi Everyone!

I am very excited to have just received my ATT after waiting almost two years! I moved here from the UK in November 2014 and the board of nursing made me retake psych and OB before I was eligible to take the test. Long story and I won't bore you with the details but by some miracle I got in to the classes and managed to finally get to this point!

I was wondering if anyone had some advice on the timeline that I should give myself to study for the nclex. I have been doing practice questions here and there along with reading some of the kaplan book, but in all honesty I didn't actually believe this day would come so my heart was never in it until now!

I have had five years of RN experience in England and my degree is a BSN, which I think will help me, but I have been out of practice as an RN for two years since moving here. I do think the two classes have probably helped a little too as they did most of the class tests in the format of nclex type questions.

I was thinking maybe six weeks might be enough study time if i fit in a few hours after work every evening and do about 6-8 hours on weekend days. Or is this too ambitious?

I also looked in to a Kaplan review course but the next one near me is in a month. It is costing $499. Would it be worth it? Is it better to allow more time after doing the course to study or would I be ok to take the test about two weeks later? There is also a self paced online option for $399. Has anyone found this good or is the classroom based course better?