opinion of NCLEX review courses

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Hi All,

I will be graduating from the RN program at County College of Morris in Randolph, NJ this May. I am the one who is organizing the various NCLEX review programs to come on campus and speak to the perspective grads about taking their course. We have heard from Kaplan and Rutger's. We will also be hearing from Drexel, who although endorsed by the NSNA, has not yet done a review in out area. Has anyone used Drexel? How did you like it? How about Kaplan and Rutger's? We're looking for pros and cons. We would especially appreciate any input from other NJ schools. Thanks!

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Truthfully, I think that all of these review courses capitalize on our fear. I did take one, but it was reimbursed by my job. I would have paid for it, anyhow at that time, because I wanted to feel that whether the test went south or not, that I did all that I can do to ensure a success. I did learn a bit about things never taught in school (there is no way to cover everything). However, I think it is how the person applies themselves to studying and that exam is so insane that it was truly the luck of the draw as far as I was concerned. I had questions from Mars, they were quite hard, and I left there bewildered. I did pass the first time with minimum questions in 40 minutes, but, it was a turn off.

Now, I would say that if I were going to take it again, I would study on my own first with many resources (CDs from different books, like I did the first time) and if I failed, then, I would take a review course. Not trying to change your mind about them, but, that is just a personal opinion. One thing you can consider doing though, is getting ONE comprehensive guide, and Kaplans Strategies for Success for NCLEX-RN (or PN...whatever you are going for) to learn skills on answering questions that you really have no clue, and burn copies of as many CD ROMS from friends practicing what Kaplan's will teach you in terms of answering NCLEX questions.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Med Surg, Pediatrics, ER.

I did not take a review course. I used Saunders Comprehensive Review. I thought it was great and would highly recommend it. A few of my friends did take the review course but then went out and bought the same book I used.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Base 16:

I did Kaplan. I really thought it helped. While I didn't use their system on every question I felt it did help at breaking down the NCLEX questions and their online review was all I did before my NCLEX and I passed. They have a certain score they want you to achieve before you go take it and if you get there you are guaranteed to pass. I felt like it was the easiest and quickest way to get prepared for NCLEX.

I do not any any other information on the other programs you mentioned. Good Luck to you!

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I used a modified Suzanne 4 study plan.

Buy the Saunders. I did all the practice quizzes at the end of each chapter BEFORE reviewing the chapters. I scored the questions. Wrote down the reasons for the right answers. Reviewed carefully the Saunders material for any chapter that I did not get at least 75% on the practice quiz.

Whenever you read a question ask yourself "What are they really asking?"

Second, I found that I did better when I answered questions with my "nurse" hat on.

If you are a good test taker I don't think that you need to use a NCLEX prep course. If you struggle with taking tests than the course is a wise investment.

I passed with 75 questions.

Lessons learned from my test:

Review the alternate format questions. I had at least 5.

Review prioritization and delegation.

Review infection control.

S/Sxs of hyperKalemia and hypercalcemia.

Best of luck!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

i took the Kaplan course. i felt the review of questions and breaking them down was helpful. of course, i still had to study my butt off in the meantime, but i did feel that Kaplan helped immensely!:nurse:

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I also took Kaplan and was glad I did. I'm the kind of person that tends to procrastinate and cram for tests unless I have some external force helping me to organize my time and pace myself well. So I feel like I did better with an classroom-based course than if I had tried to study on my own. Kaplan was good because it seemed well organized, and if you took the classroom course you also had access to the videos and practice tests. When it got closer to my test date I went back and watched some of the lectures again on video. I thought they gave good tips and helped me to understand the best strategies for taking the computer adaptive test.

Hope that helps!

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I bought eh saunders review book and the skinny kaplan book. I only had one week to study so I took a 3 day review from a teacher who offered it. It helped my focus my study on things that I had forgotten the details of or needed a quick review. I don't know that it was "necessary" but it made me feel better and I passed in 75 questions 1st time out. The key is do a lot of content questions and read the rationales when you are wrong. Saunders book has thousands of questions on the CD which is nice.

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I took the Kaplan course years ago - I just happened to win it in a drawing so I never had to debate if it was worth it to me or not. The course was useful, but for me personnally, I think I would've done just as well studying on my own with a good review book or two. I found the review course to be monotonous and had to struggle to stay awake during the several hours long sessions. Whereas, I could get through more practice questions on my own in a quiet place with a review book/CD. I think review courses are good for those who aren't as good about sitting down and reviewing on their own. Though it can be more reassuring to have a real person when the given explanation for a test answer doesn't seem to make sense... to reiterate that NCLEX review is about learning to pass the test and not about reviewing for actual practice... which is why I think NCLEX prep should be left up to entities outside of nursing schools and that nursing schools should focus on teaching for actual practice (as opposed to prepping for NCLEX) but that's a seperate issue.

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Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

I took the Hurst review and found it to be really helpful. That was 7 years ago though.

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Specializes in ED.

Like one of our instructors told us, most people could pass without any studying at all if they have gotten through nursing school. I do not think the courses are needed unless a person is really horrible at taking tests and really lacking on nursing skills (but then how would they be passing RN school?) I have not taken the NCLEX (this June) but I will not pay $500 to take a course when chances are on my side that I will pass just studying on my own. If it were offered for free I would possibly take it but I think the cost is just too high. Some of the classes teach a way of analyzing the questions etc, but I do not want to change the way I look at questions since I am a good test taker. I am afraid I would over analyze and pick answers I would not normall pick. I do not see a need to change the way I think for this one test when I have been taking all these other ones and doing fine.

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Like one of our instructors told us, most people could pass without any studying at all if they have gotten through nursing school. I do not think the courses are needed unless a person is really horrible at taking tests and really lacking on nursing skills (but then how would they be passing RN school?) I have not taken the NCLEX (this June) but I will not pay $500 to take a course when chances are on my side that I will pass just studying on my own. If it were offered for free I would possibly take it but I think the cost is just too high. Some of the classes teach a way of analyzing the questions etc, but I do not want to change the way I look at questions since I am a good test taker. I am afraid I would over analyze and pick answers I would not normall pick. I do not see a need to change the way I think for this one test when I have been taking all these other ones and doing fine.

This is a good point. I would not have done an NCLEX review course had it been more than 250 dollars. (mine was only 150). I would have had to just study on my own, and I think it would have been fine.

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