Some feelings on Kaplan online classroom (or Kaplan questions in general)

[kintuh]

In the beginning of the online sessions I was pretty excited about Kaplan and ready to take advantage of all the resources they offer. Let me just say this - I DO like and appreciate the strategy that they teach and I utilize it on questions that I have a hard time working through on my own. Other than that, I am desperately trying to appreciate their question trainers and Q bank questions but I keep becoming frustrated. Mainly my problem is with their rationales (or lack of). Saunders/Lippincott/etc books always give a great rationale to why an answer is right/wrong. And I feel that if I'm dropping hundreds of dollars on Kaplan, their rationales should be better than "not correct". Right - I know its not correct - but why? I feel that I am Googling things and emailing the Kaplan expert frequently (which is not much help). Quite disappointing :/.

If you're a strong test taker I'd recommend sticking to your books and not spending the money. If not, this class may help you out a lot with strategy but prepare to see contradictions in the content as well as a lack of rationale for answers. The question that really set me off was one regarding the Heimlich. It said that if a client goes unconscious you straddle them and push upwards on the abdomen. Just....no! I hope that they would know that you do compressions when a choking victim goes unconscious. I understand that people used to use the former technique....but like I said...if youre paying 400-500 for a class, I would like for it to be updated and current. That's the end of my rant....I'm interested to hear thoughts from other experiences with Kaplan.

[777RN, BSN, RN]

Hi!

I passed the NCLEX-RN last week. Although I did not pay for the Kaplan live or online review class, I did purchase the Kaplan 2013-2014 book, which came with a CD and access to Kaplan's online question bank. I thought the book strategies were helpful. However, I agree, in many cases the question rationales left much to be desired. My main study resource was NCSBN's learningext.com, which had very helpful rationales in most cases.

Just my $0.02.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

I too, did not like many of the rationales for the incorrect answers but I was able to understand why the correct one was the correct one by that rational.

I have to say, taking the NCLEX was almost exactly like taking the Kaplan Qtrainer tests (4-7) ...right down to the 'look' of the questions, the questions themselves right down to the color and look of the screen. And in all honesty, I could swear that some of my NCLEX questions were almost word for word questions from Kaplans.

I passed my NCLEX-PN without using or even knowing about Kaplan. And I probably wouldn't have purchased anything from Kaplan for my NCLEX-RN. Thankfully, my school requires we take the Kaplan test prep class in order to graduate. After doing the Kaplan's I'm so glad it was required. For me, it made taking the NCLEX-RN much less stressful once I saw the NCLEX test nearly mirrored the Kaplan Qtrainers. Just my $0.02.

[possibility3]

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