To those passing excelsior with consistent A's

[FiremedicMike, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Im not sure if I'm a gunner or just a perfectionist, but either way with my long term goal of CRNA school, grades are extremely important to me. I have always been a solid student, and generally put forth little effort to get A's.. With that said, the stakes seem high at excelsior, with no assignments and only 1 opportunity to get your grade for the class, so I want to plan for success.

I plan on getting the sg101 packs, and I have been trying to muddle through PDFs from excelsior. I have also heard to buy the Saunders book and I will. But I would like to hear from those of you who are consistently getting A's on your excelsior exams and tell me your secrets to success. Keep in mind I'm coming from EMS and not LPN, so I have absolutely 0 nursing background.

Thanks!!!

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

I've used sg101 review guide (not so much the other stuff included with it) and the practice tests. I've done transition and health safety so far. 2 A's, Praise the Lord :)

[QuenymamiRN]

If you have ample time to study you can do it. I got As and Bs. However, I got some Cs. I definitely did better in traditional school. I have to say though that sometimes you may be embarrassed or upset over a C but at the end of the day at least you passed.

I would do lots of practice tests. EC has them, and SG101 has them also. I did not do the Saunder's book but I wish I had because it would have helped.

The transitions to RN was a very difficult class for me. History has never been one of my strengths. It is a lot of memorization of who was who and when what happened. For me, that was one class I was happy just to pass.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I ended up with a 3.78 or something ... two B's, the rest A's. Got B's on the A&P and Nursing Concepts 1 (now known as Health Safety), A's on all the rest of the nursing exams as well as Micro. I am also a wee bit "detail oriented" when it comes to my grades.

I used SG101 for the first few exams, but they were still in development when I was testing and were unavailable for the last couple of nursing exams. I also purchased Lisa Arends' notes from eBay. I had some of the recommended texts (Fundamentals and Med-Surg) and used those where I felt I needed more depth. My favorite thing was the Chancellor's guides -- they're a publishing company like the College Network, but they include audio with their guides, and I am an auditory learner who had a long commute (2 hours daily), plenty of time for studying. I even listened to the audio for NC7 (now known as Transitions) on my way home from a vacation to New England, put my poor husband right to sleep. Haha. Anyway, I bought my Chancellor's guides used on eBay, then sold them again when I was done. Loved the audio component, it made me feel like I was productive during my stupid commute!

Also did the EC practice exams for every single exam. Good stuff.

[Luv5Cats]

I use the books and so far, so good. :)

[Melody007_FNP-C, APRN]

it can be done, but don't get to fixated on it. especially when you get a "b" you shouldn't feel horrible like you did! i got all "a"'s and one "b"! gpa from asn was 3.92. my gpa from doing excelsior's bsn program was 3.65. the bsn program is obviously i bit harder than the asn program! good luck. so far in my msn studies i have a 4.0, but i know that won't last!:redpinkhe

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

In addition to many of the above suggestions, I also used a NCLEX review book and studied the pertinent chapters prior to each exam. Having the NCLEX style questions as well as the rationale was very helpful for me.

My background is also EMS. The biggest challenge for me was to comprehend some of the nursing theories/ thought processes. Once I got my head wrapped around those, studying for the exams got a little easier.

Not to mention, I'm a very handy person to have around when there is an actual emergency at work (I work LTC) - some of my co-workers have had little exposure to emergency situations.