Nursing.com is a popular resource to use for Nursing school. I did one SIMCLEX, watched 4 content review videos, did 100 questions from their q-bank and did two 10-question quizzes. I spend $49 for one month. I had several students using it for NCLEX prep and I wanted to find out if was good specifically for their NCLEX prep.
In this blog post, I go over the pros, cons, show you my scores and offer tips when using nursing.com. Nursing.com started off as nsrng.com and was started by Jon Haws, RN. I bought a couple of his books, but our students were only using the website.
The cost is anywhere from $29/month (1 SIMCLEX per month) to $162/month (unlimited SIMCLEX). They offer videos for content review, cheat sheets for studying, study plans, question bank, and simclex (tests that simulate the real nclex).
The Pros
1. The content review videos are excellent. I watched 4 of them: multiple sclerosis, pediatric asthma, heart failure, and beta blockers. They had several instructors that explained content over slides. I had a different instructor for each and they all explained the content very well! They have over 2500 videos. Each video I watched was about 10 minutes long with a 10 question quiz at the end.
2. They offer SIMCLEX. This is a test that simulates taking the real NCLEX test, which is a minimum of 85 questions and up to 150 questions. The one test I did had the new types of 6-question case study questions and stand alone case studies. You can get 1 simplex per month, but if you pay $162, you get unlimited SIMCLEX.
3. It’s affordable. $29/month to review content and practice questions is affordable as you make your way through nursing school.
The Cons
1. There weren’t any NGNs in their regular qbank. Their qbank has around 6500 questions, which is a lot of questions! This was such a bummer because we need our students to practice these types of questions consistently. They did have some NGN question in their simclex test and a video collection with about 12 videos with 10 question quizzes at the end of the video. The only way to practice more NGNs is to buy a simclex which is an extra $99 for every simclex. Apparently they are adding the new types of questions to their qbank.
2. They haven’t updated software to show partial credit. It looks like I did horrible but apparently I passed the simclex. They told me they are working on this update.
3. There were some poorly written nclex-style questions. This is a typical problem I find with many nclex/nursing prep companies. I find typos, incorrect formatting, and extremely bizarre topics getting asked about. For example, “the patient Mrs. Jones” – there shouldn’t be any proper names in an nclex question. There were also just some mistakes in the question formatting such as information being out of order or times being wrong in the case study. Nursing.com also said they are fixing those problems too.
My Scores
SIMCLEX 1 – passed! I passed it in 85 questions. But my scores look horrible (see above). They just need to update their software which they told me they are fixing.
I did 100 questions from the big qbank and got 73% overall. However, this does not include the partial credit so it should be higher.
I wasn’t going to do more practice questions because they had NO NGN questions in the regular qbank, and I wasn’t going to pay $99 to do another simclex just to get more NGN practice in.
Tips
1. Use nursing.com if you need better content review because your teachers are boring. You will understand the most important content so much better. Their instructors are very good!
2. Teachers can use nursing.com in order to replace the in-person content review lectures. As an instructor you can spend more time doing case studies or being in the simlab instead. This could be more of an active learning experience for the students and less stress on the teacher to cover everything.
3. If you need a basic NCLEX content review course, use something different. Nursing.com is too much information and they have no NGNs in the regular qbank. I believe nursing.com is more geared to nursing students currently in school.
4. If you do need a SIMCLEX to practice, then you can use nursing.com and pay about $99 per test. This might be a good option if you have run out of practice exams.
At thenclextutor.com, I have to use what is best for my students and their situation. See The Big Project, which is a table with the NCLEX nursing resources out there that I have reviewed.
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