The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) is the final rite of passage for nursing graduates to officially become registered nurses. Although your nursing education has prepared you to complete and pass the exam, it is always a good idea to explore what resources are available to assist you.
Herzing University offers numerous resources and support groups to help you prepare for the exam, but there are many external sites that you can also explore as you prepare for the NCLEX-RN. Here are a few you can take advantage of:
Kaplan
Kaplan sells books for review and online access to practice questions and to prepare for the NCLEX. You have to pay for Kaplan’s online resources, but the amount you’ll pay for the online access will depend on how many days you’ll want to use it. There are also options to take things at your own pace or in an interactive class experience.
Kaplan also offers free options to practice NCLEX questions. A good way to practice every day is to check out the NCLEX question of the day!
Nursing.com
Nursing.com is a great resource for future and new graduate nurses. They offer online lessons and modules for classes or topics that you might be struggling with. Fortunately, they also offer NCLEX review prep too!
They have online lessons and modules for pre-nursing students, nursing students, NCLEX review and new grads. You will have to create an account to have access to those online lessons and modules. These modules include:
- Lesson videos
- Review study tools
- Taking practice questions
- NCLEX simulation
ATI
Most nursing schools in the United States use a third-party, nationally normed standardized testing product for each nursing class and the NCLEX preparation. Assessment Technologies Institute (ATI) is one well-known vendor. Their assessments have rationales that explain why the answers you chose were right or wrong, and reading those rationales will offer you a better learning experience.
ATI has a self-paced online review course for NCLEX preparation called Virtual AIT. You will be provided with an online coach that guides you through it and the very last exam predicts the test taker’s probability of passing NCLEX. So if you pass your ATI RN comprehensive predictor exam, you’ll most likely pass the NCLEX.
It is recommended by the ATI virtual coaches that you take the NCLEX within three weeks of passing the ATI predictor exam.
NursesLabs
NursesLabs is a good resource for nursing students. It’s good for practicing questions before taking your unit exams or finals and doing care plans in nursing school. They host a variety of different resources including exam practice questions, study tips, career information and even nursing memes.
It is a site to bookmark since, after your NCLEX, you can brush up on other nursing topics which range from diabetes to mental health to maternity and more!
RegisteredNurseRN
Are you more of a visual learner? Nurse Sarah shares videos and posts with concepts and topics in nursing that make it easy for the viewers, readers and nursing students to understand. She shares her videos on YouTube and her website at RegisteredNurseRN.
Her teachings on her website and all of her videos are legit as she is a registered nurse. She talks about all things “nursing” and access to her videos is free. If you would rather read up on nursing topics, she also has a blog that you can read on her website!
U-World
U-World for NCLEX-RN is an app that you can use to practice questions. The cost of it depends on how many days of access you buy. Because it’s an app, you can use it on the go at home, during work breaks, or stuck in traffic (in the passenger seat!) U-World is a great way to sneak in a little practice every day especially when you are tempted to seek a distraction from studying on your phone.
U-World also provides rationales for their practice questions but its rationales have a more detailed explanation. It also has pictures and other images on its rationales.
There are many other resources available to help you prepare, but most importantly, don’t forget to believe in yourself!
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* Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics 2023 / Occupational Outlook Handbook 2022. BLS estimates do not represent entry-level wages and/or salaries. Multiple factors, including prior experience, age, geography market in which you want to work and degree field, will affect career outcomes and earnings. Herzing neither represents that its graduates will earn the average salaries calculated by BLS for a particular job nor guarantees that graduation from its program will result in a job, promotion, salary increase or other career growth.
