prep for excelsior exams

[djbono]

Does anyone know the best way to prep for the excelsior exams.... I was just admitted as a student and I only need seven classes to bridge. when I looked at the syllabus for the ethics class, they listed four required books and six recommended. can anyone help, or share experiences with excelsior.

[beachbum2011]

awesome! It is always nice to hear positive stories and experiences! I am ready!!!

[JMWilson08]

i'm a current excelsior student, about 2 months into the program, 2 exams down, and taking my next one on september 20.

you do not need to spend money with a third party company like rue, college network, or chancellors in order to obtain your asn from excelsior college. these companies will ask you to sign a contract and pay 1000s of dollars in return for providing you with study guides that merely regurgitate information that can be obtained less expensively elsewhere.

excelsior does provide free study guides that outline the information needed to pass each exam. you can then buy the required text books (not that expensive compared to rue / tcn and the others, especially if you can get used copies ) and use the books and the study guide to prepare for each exam. they also have practice exams available that are invaluable in preparing for the test.

take a look at the threads on the distance education board here on allnurses. (it's near the top of the main student forum page). you will find all kinds of good advice from lots of current and former excelsior students. good luck!

i agree excelsior is the best by far with the free study guides and the practice tests. i looked into tcn and it made no sense to pay them all that money to do the excelsior program! i have also been posting if you want to study for your exams, buy a nook/kindle and go to welcome to digitaltextbooks.com for your books. the bookstore for excelsior has some ebooks available, but digitaltextbooks.com had almost all the nursing books both required and optional. they also have study materials that help. you can also google flashcards for a&p or micro and it should be a free program that has the definitons and study tips.

good luck!

[lisaannjamRN]

awesome! It is always nice to hear positive stories and experiences! I am ready!!!

I am sure you are ready and wish you all the best!! You'll do great!!!!

[JMWilson08]

I am currently using TCN study guides. I met with a representative in my home and I signed up with them. I really appreciate all of the info. being condensed into one large binder (no searching endlessly on ebay, etc for used books). I can take the binder with me where ever I go. They also have practice tests on line. And my favorite perk is that I contact TCN before I start a new subject and they verify that I have the most current learning module, if it has expired then they just send me a new one(no additional charge). I pay them a monthly payment on my credit card and that's that, I test when I am ready. I haven't had to use any additional books, etc and have gotten all B's and an A on my tests so far. So the publishing companies can come in very handy, it just depends on what you want. I work full-time, have a family and I am extremely busy so this is what works for me! Hope it helps.

You can get a ereader and thats waaaaaay smaller than a biinder and more discreet! I bought my textbooks from www.digitaltextbooks.com and downloaded them onto my nook. My nook is small enough to fit in my lab coat and I can study anywhere. I had a rep come talk to me about TCN and it's unnecessary to pay them for what you will eventually pay EC for. You still have to pay EC for the exams and you still have to register with EC for the CPNE. Why give them thousands of dollars for binder version of your textbook?