So, you’ve finally graduated from nursing school and the nursing degree is yours, but you have to pass another test before you can go on to become a nurse. You have to go through the NCSBN NCLEX study for registered nurse licensure and pass the test to become a licensed nurse.
What do you need to do first of all?………..Your first step is always crucial for paving your way to success! You will be a winner only if you analyse yourself well and become acquainted with your strengths and weaknesses. This will open doors to managing yourself well.
So, its time to make an honest assessment of where you stand. Are you prepared for the NCLEX exam? Do you need help? And which type of help? Do you need organised content? Pre set strategy? Constant guiding and mentoring is what you need? Or, you can manage everything except that you’re indisciplined. Do not be ashamed to admit your weakness and then choose the best NCLEX Review course for yourself, which will exactly fit in your needs and help you through.
It’s perfectly normal to have anxieties and worries when facing something that will shape your career and your life. A little anxiety can do good to you by making you develop the urge to learn and do the required hard work.
But having enrolled yourself with the wrong program can shoot up your frustration and anxiety levels leading to wastage of your precious time and money! So, it is best to gather the right information, take time to think, analyse and choose the best for yourself. For making the right choice, also remember that passing teh NCLEX needs you to read te right content, develop a good understanding of it leading to critical thinking nad right decison making. And more importantly you need to do a lot of practice tests and time yourself so that you get the hang of answering the questions in the time frame of the real exam.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re looking for an NCLEX review program that not only provides you with updated and sound content, but helps you build the ability to think confidently, train you to analyse questions by making you acquainted with case studies, practical scenarios and simulation tests; we recommend Brilliant Nurse, which offer a variety of courses for RN as well as PN aspirants. Check out the links below:
Extended (3 month access) NCLEX-PNÆ Test Prep Track
Extended (3 month access) NCLEX-RNÆ Test Prep Track
You must have heard about ATI NCLEX Review! Have a real insight of what they have to offer…
ATI is a company that has been focuses to enhance the quality of nursing education. They claim to assist not only NCLEX aspirants, but the nursing faculty, students who have not yet taken up a nursing course but have made up their mind for it, as well as passed out students making information readily available and understandable to all.
They have a variety of programs which include: Pre program, During Nursing School, Post graduation and Faculty Nursing solutions. So some of you might not be surprised to know about ATI, since you might have been acquainted with it as a part of your nursing school curriculum.
But what we need to assess here, is the efficiency of this program with respect to cracking the NCLEX!
1.Virtual ATI NCLEX Review:
This is one of the unique and distinguishing feature of the ATI review program. It is something that only ATI offers! What is it actually? It is a personalised online coaching and mentoring program which provides an ATI RN/PN mentor. Lets get into its detail and find out how far can it be of help?
First, of all one should be aware that this is a CUSTOMISED program that claims to cater to your unique needs!
Highlights:
- A personal coach (an experienced nursing instructor) will be assigned to help you through the journey. You will be personally in touch with him/her and get instant answers to your problems, assistance, and strategies that will suit your intellect and style of learning.
- The personal instructor will closely observe your progress, and make an assesment according to your performance in teh course, that will indicate whether you are ready to take up the NCLEX course. This means when you recieve the ‘Green Light’ from your Virtual ATI coach you’re ready to take the exam.
- Weekly assesmenta and detailed performance reports will keep you aware of your weak areas and wheer you need to brush up and put in more effort.
- The coach also designs teh study calendar helping you to manage time.
- The instructor is available for chat, to effectively help you battle the stress and resolve study related issues.
- The coursre material is designed in alignmnet with teh NCLEX exam. Virtual-ATI offers a variety of study materials, including an online bookshelf, audio PowerPoint lessons,over 500 practice questions with solutions. They also provide two learning apps with flashcards and questions making your learning easy. In addition they provide online printable resources too.
- The program spans a time of 3 months. (12 weeks)
The ATI Virtual RN course costs 474$ and the Virtual PN course costs 449$.
2.ATI Live Class Review:
It is just like any other out there… ATI Live Review program offers study sessions intended to cover the nursing syllabus, specifically targeting the NCLEX test requirements. They facilitate teaching through instructors who have a degree and rich experience in the field of nursing.
Highlights:
- Very engaging and lively classroom sessions
- Provide strategies that will help build the right orientation for the exam
- Focus on NCLEX type questions that will help exercise your thinking ability
- Adequate practice of Questions and Answers
- Provide efficient support from students and teachers that aid in solving your queries
- In case you fail in your initial attempt?…… ATI (with the condition of attending all live classes and informing the institute within 3 days of declaration of result) guarantees to provide additional support to the student. And if the student does not meet the conditions, he/she is liable to paying 75$ as reactivation fees for availing further guidance and support.
The ATI NCLEX RN Live review costs 349$ and the Live PN review course costs 299$.
It is all good to read about, but the prime concern of nay student should that how practically successful will the review course be?
- In the first instance when we hear about the Virtual ATI program that provides one on one coaching and personalised support, we get overwhelmed with the unique style of teaching. But it is necessary to first of all know your needs and that do you actually need this kind of a coaching program at all??
- It won’t benefit you if you are not the person who is dependant on personal guidance; instead you have your own style of studying and you know how to analyse your studying progress. If you’re the one who needs only good content, right approach to solving questions and intense practice of NCLEX type questions; this one may prove to be a waste of money for you.
- One more aspect to this program is, that trying to do as the instructor says, strategising according to someone else’s assessment of you may sometime lead you to be overshadowed by confusions and instead waste your time leading to disorientation.
- Some students have reported that after getting the ‘Green Light’ form the Virtual coach they have a good level of confidence which lowers anxiety levels and helps a lot, but at the same time this confidence turns into drastic frustration and depression when they say failure instead!
- With all that being said, the content that ATI provides is averagely good, it os comprehensive, they provide too many resources which are sometimes impossible for the student to through within a limited span of time. This program may help you, if you’ve been in a habit of studying with personal guidance and coaching, and are not like others who are in the practice of self assessment. It may also help you if you are indisciplined and need someone over your head to track your time management and hence progress.
- For the Live course, the final verdict is that it is just another NCLEX course with no out of the box facilities. The content falls at the average level on the grading scale, whereas some students have found the content delivery too dry and boring since they use Powerpoint presentations with audio sessions which is an outdated approach.
- ATI is not only an NCLEX preparation program, but ATI Nursing Education caters to much more than that like pre, during and post nursing education. It is mostly used by students who pay and get registered with ATI during their nursing course to abide by their nursing school’s requirements.
- Lastly, the Virtual as well as Live courses are expensive. So, it is better that you first of all identify your needs and then decide, do you really need it
Before deciding about which review course to take, recall what does an NCLEX test demands? What is it that you actually need to pass it?
You need to remember that knowing your nursing content and learning the clinical skills in a nursing school is not enough to pass the NCLEX exam. And neither will nay coach be able to help you if your mind does not develop the analytical skills and is bent upon cramming only!
What you need more, is to be good at critical thinking! Knowledge at both ends, practical as well as theoretical, and its sound application will lead you to cracking the NCLEX in the fisrt attempt.
Be it NCLEX-RN or NCLEX-PN, you actually need an overall approach for passing the NCLEX that not only focuses on content, but application too. The review course should make you aware of the different types of questions and train you to handle them. Each question is unlocked with a different strategy and that’s what Brilliant Nurse will help you master, along with not neglecting the other aspects of NCLEX exam.
Why do we recommend Brilliant Nurse NCLEX review program?
In a sentence, we can say that Brilliant Nurse Review is a comprehensive, fully fortified and affordable approach, where you have to add in only one thing and that is your hard work !
Prime Features:
1. UPDATED AND SOUND CONTENT:
They provide, content based on the updated syllabus keeping view of the present requirements. The content is organised nad delivered in an innovative way. They also cover a wide array of topics, to keep you adept and updated with the most needed information on various facets of nursing that you have no chance to regret later. ‘No need to keep hunting in journals, magazines and websites to keep yourself updated on latest changes and developments…’ With minimal time wastage you will get all relevant information at one place.
You can study smartly using the most popular and recommended nursing books, but in the most simplified way. This programme is also used by private institutions and centres that want to help their students or colleagues to be well prepared to take up tests of standardisation for nursing.
The content has also been made innovative by converting it into a video lectures format. The videos not only deliver relevant content but also explain how to study and apply the information being provided.
2. DEVELOP BOTH CRITICAL AND CLINICAL THINKING:
NCLEX, comprises of awide array of questions. It test your all round abilities, There is no single appproach to answering such avariety of questions. This program does not privide you any pre set algrithm or set of rule stat you need to follow, to solve qustins and reah teh right conclusion, insteda it prepaer you thniking and deevelops in you teh confidence to handle any new and qustion yourself.’
They focus on providing you questions based on practical situations, various case stidies, situation based discussions, making you learn how a clinical situation unfolds, and collaborative learning that will make you ready to handel qustions yourself. This course does not impose on you a set of rules, rather leavse you free to think being guide by your previously leart knowledeg and practice, not leaving you confused nad boggled in the midst of the test.
3. ACCESS TO CONTENT VIA MOBILE:
To save your time, and help you study as week as take tests while commuting, tehy provide tis facility too.
4. STUDENT SUPPORT:
This class includes round the clock student support in addition to opportunities for regular interaction with teachers. The faculty is supportive and accessible. They help you break down questions that you find tough. They have also allotted weekly 75-minute sessions of student and teacher interaction during which students can request advice and information to help them prepare for the NCLEX exam.
5. PRACTICE:
All programs provide passing guarantee, over 2000 practice questions, and track your progress, and keep you updated about it, ensuring you try to fill in the gaps.
6. AFFORDABLE:
NCLEX is difficult, but that does not mean you need to empty your wallet completely. They have a monthly plan (at $75) per month, the best part being you can cancel anytime! The 3 months program costs 175$ and the 6 months program is for 275$ only.
Brilliant Nurse provides an NCLEX crash course for a price as low as you would like to give, (which means ALMOST FREE) that will address all your queries , as to how to get started and much more than that. It will simplify things for you, boost your confidence and help to build courage to take up the right approach for the exam. So, if you trust them take the complete test prep plan and pass with flying colours!
Brilliant Nurse takes care to sort out and break every question such that you may first understand the type of the question and its demand, then you can answer it correctly.
‘ A glimpse of how, every type of question (in NCLEX) needs to be answered with a different approach.’
- Multiple choice questions: have only one correct answer
- Multiple response questions: Have more than one correct answer (probably more than one)
- Hot spot items: require you to answer such that you select the right location of a specific item! W.r.t a diagram or figure you need to choose the right form of wave, or injection site etc
- Fill in the blanks: mostly those which require calculation
- Chart/exhibit items: showing tabular or graphical data asking you to comprehend it and take decision
- Drag and drop/ Ordered response item: Asks to place given info in the right sequence or order
- Graphic option item: Needed to choose the right graphic item
- Audio items: need to listen to sounds like breathing sounds, heart sounds etc to interpret and take decision
- Video items: need to answer acc to any procedure shown in the video or the information provided
- Analysis Level items: require you to analyse various symptoms/ data to take the right nursing decision
- Application level items: test the soundness of your nursing content, test the application of what you’ve learnt
- Synthesis level: Require to take bits of information to take a decision
- Evaluation level: Can ask you to determine the effectiveness of nursing care
- Creation level: demand you to find a novel approach to address a problem, based on your intellect and perception
- Cognitive level of test items: need clinical reasoning to be used and applied
Before, deciding on which course to take, you need to remember that knowing your nursing content and learning the clinical skills in a nursing school is not enough to pass the NCLEX exam. What you need more, is to be good at critical thinking! Knowledge at both ends, practical as well as theoretical, and its sound application will lead you to cracking the NCLEX in the fisrt attempt.
Briliant Nurse is one such program that will guide you with the right study material, assitance, needed practice and APPROACH to handle questions to crack the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN exams.
Bottomline: Brilliant Nurse Course not only provides the right content but will train you, upgrade your abilities and unlock the potential to be at your best!
Editor’s Note:- We recommend BrilliantNurse’s 6 months All access test prep tracks with daily assignments courses for preparation of NCLEX-PN® and NCLEX-RN®. Click the below links for further information, or for all their courses and options for 30 days and 3 months crash courses, check out this link.
Ultra-extended (6 month access) NCLEX-RN® Test Prep Track + Learning Path – with Daily Assignments and Ultra-extended (6 month access) NCLEX-PN® Test Prep Track + Learning Path – with Daily Assignments
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