Monday, July 25, 2011

Kaplan vs Hurst NCLEX review course

Two most popular review course for NCLEX here in United States are Kaplan Review course and Hurst Review course. Most of the nursing graduates are confused to decide which course to take. I passed my NCLEX in the second attempt. I took my first course from Hurst and second from Kaplan (Both online). I found both of the courses different in their own way. Here are the differences that I found between Kaplan and Hurst.

1) The video lectures of the Hurst review are very detailed and the instructor is very energetic. It is very easy to follow the lecture. However, if you are confident enough that you know the materials, K will be the great source for revision since their course teach you how to read the questions and how to answer.

2) Decision tree provided by Kaplan is most important part of
Kaplan review, I loved it and used decision tree for answering each and every questions while practicing questions and also while taking examination for board.

3)
Kaplan has detailed and too much information while Hurst has specific and concise information sometimes feels limited.

4)
Kaplan teaches about critical thinking while I did not find in Hurst review, keep in mind that although critical thinking is necessary for test it is more important in real world.

5) Price: I can understand most of you are thinking about cost.
Kaplan is little expensive than Hurst, my suggestion is choose the one that fits for you, price is worth it in both cases.

Since I passed my NCLEX after taking
Kaplan review course I will give 100% for Kaplan and 95% for Hurst. I felt Hurst review needs to include more information about critical thinking. To decide the right one it's your own call but be confident and give your test you will do great. Make the plans before hand, I would say at least 2 months. And ya NCLEX is very very very, did I emphasize enough, different than exit exam.

Most important tip I can give is don't be over-confident, trust in yourself and get enough rest before test day. Here are the links for the both courses site.

Hurst Review
Kaplan Review

Free NCLEX RN Practice Questions

Hello,
Friends here are some great websites for NCLEX questions Practice.

Kaplan's original video about the exam
Before going through the list below you might want to go through the video in the following link. This site is not the question bank site but it is a great video that I found yesterday.  This Kaplan video by Barbara Irwin, MSN, RN will be really helpful for you all. First video is overall about the NCLEX test and will help to decline your stress and fear, and will answers lots of questions that are arising in your mind about NCLEX exam itself.
Kaplan's Video about NCLEX test itself

Free NCLEX questions, total of 3 test 75 questions each cover all the topics.
Free NCLEX questions

Kaplan Style 45 question, enjoy short but very helpful question
4Tests

NCLEX 3500 (You can try 3500 NCLEX questions at once... or can make your own exam from 3500 questions bank)
NCLEX 3500 

PRACTICE QUIZ 
Practice Quiz (165 total questions) 
It is available in study mode and quiz mode learn how you want to learn.

NCLEX Trainer Questions 
 
Trainer 1
Trainer 2
Trainer 3
Trainer 4
Trainer 5
Trainer 6
Trainer 7 


(Above resources referred from nclex-reviewer.blogspot.com)

Decision Tree (Similar to Kaplan)
one of the most important resource that I had during my NCLEX preparation is decision tree, this is really helpful for those who knows the content but does not know how to answer the questions. Hope it will help you. 
 Decision tree


150 Free NCLEX questions with some rationale from ProProfs Web school. 
 ProProfs 150 free NCLEX questions with Rationales

 Test ( Kaplan's more test questions)
 4 test
 

Some more Questions 
This site have total of 18 practice exam  
 RN- Pedia 

Most Popular Courses for NCLEX preparation with Guaranteed positive results are
 Hurst Review
 Kaplan Review



NCLEX Masters
I found a new link for more practice questions, just follow the link and download the PDF file it has 150 free NCLEX questions with answers and strategy. I tried it before I posted and it works.
NCLEX- Masters

NCLEX RN notes:
Great book with detailed information total of 281 pages, but it has great information, no questions though
NCLEX RN notes

NCLEX practice questions from nurselab.com
Please follow the below link for multiple practice questions, you will find great questions with various practice tests. Enjoy
Nurse-lab, free NCLEX practice questions

Kaplan's Free RN Prep Seminars and Classes.
NCLEX RN Prep

Good luck