denneg

I haven't bought any books or study guides so far. I've relied on my LPN books, free online materials, and my RN-NCLEX books. I've found that using those materials has worked out fine - all the same facts, which is all that matters. When it comes to core classes (Psych and Soc) I'll have to buy those books to make sure I have the right material. I've heard that those tests ask specific questions about scenarios in the text books, but I haven't found that to be the case with the nursing exams.

I am currently enrolled in Excelsior. I have a BA degree (non-nursing) so they accepted all my core classes, with the exception of a few (Psych & Soc). I have two sciences left to take - A&P and Micro - that I plan to try to take through Excelsior, and if I fail, take at my local CC. I've taken three nursing exams so far - Health Safety, Reproductive and Transitions - and passed all three. Two C's, one B, I'm still getting the hang of this! I expect to be done by December, which would mean a total of 18 months, but I really did nothing for the first 6 months, just talked about testing! I have taken the 3 exams over the last 6 weeks, and been fine. Most of what I tested on so far I either already knew from LPN program, or just through work experience. The rest will be much harder, so I'm planning on one test a month. Hopefully I can double up, study for A&P while doing the Life Span, since they seem to cover a lot of the same material. Overall, I think it will cost me less than $6K, but I haven't totalled it up. Much more affordable and better for my schedule than the local CC program.