overwhelmed need help please

[NvRGvUp]

Hello Everyone!I am a little overwhelmed and I am need of some assistance. I have 2 tests to take Transitions and LS3. I transferred from another program and Excelsior accepted most of my Nursing courses from a previous college. I ordered Lisa Arends notes and SG101 AND I have been studying from them amongst other study things....where do you begin?! I would really like a study partner! If anyone lives in Central NY and would like to meet and study somewhere or if anyone can give me some direction.....I would be so grateful.....Please.....:)

[reebokHCFR, MSN, EMT-P, APRN, NP]

the place to begin is the content guide. if you have sg101, it follows the content guide. the lisa arends notes might also, I'm not sure. you just study the main study file with sg101. learn it, know it, look up stuff that you don't understand, pass the test. :)

perhaps buying the excelsior practice exams would help you, because you can see how they word questions and what they are looking for. I bought the practice exams for all the tests. there are also questions at the bottom of the content guides so you can see what they're like.

also, excelsior has a message board under communities where there are rooms for each nursing test, and a place to find study buddies if you haven't checked that out already.

[NvRGvUp]

Thank you so much reebok! There are so many files and folders in SG101...I don't have the disc in front of me but is there a folder that says main study file? Also I went to Excelsiors website and I could not see where in community I could partner up with someone....maybe I will call my advisor tomorrow....this is so overwhelming....but I am determined to make it...with the help of God....thank you so much for your help and I look forward to some more guidance...:)

[reebokHCFR, MSN, EMT-P, APRN, NP]

I know sg101 can be hard to navigate at first. it looks like the main study file is called "Transition to the RN Role Study Guide" for transitions, and "HD Life Span 3 Study Guide" for LS3. So look around for those files. It will be pretty obvious when you open them, because they have a lot of pages and you can tell it's the primary study file by how it's set up. I may have mentioned this before, but the sg101 files for LS2 and LS3 are lacking in content.

as far as excelsior's stuff, it is the worst, most un-intuitive website I know of. even worse than their regular site, which was the worst I've ever seen before I tried getting into the discussion board part. I was writing a whole thing on how to do it, but it's so ridiculously difficult I think it would be better if you called and bothered them about how horrible it is. maybe they will get a clue and fix it.

good luck with your studying!

[NvRGvUp]

Thank you so much.....you have always been such a great help....:)

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

Have you considered the practice exams for these courses? You get 2 practice exams for each course - I used one at the beginning of my studying to get an idea of how much studying I needed to do. Then I took the 2nd practice exam a week or two before my exam to see if there were areas I needed to look over again.

Another thing that helped me was a NCLEX study guide as Excelsior's exams use the same style questions. I would study the corresponding chapters.