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A Review of Hurst Review- Is it worth it?
Once you graduate nursing school you are filled with excitement and joy. School is over and it is time to start working as a nurse! But before you get those beautiful R.N. initials behind your name, you have to pass the NCLEX.
There are many study strategies for passing the NCLEX, but most people would recommend the use of an NCLEX review program.
There are many different programs out there, but I am going to be reviewing the HURST review as it is the review course that I used to prepare for the NCLEX.
I’ll start off by saying that I 100% recommend the Hurst Review. I used the Hurst Review as my primary source of NCLEX study and I was able to pass the NCLEX on my first attempt in 75 questions.
To be clear, I have no affiliation with Hurst or any of its employees. All views are my own and I paid for the review with my own money.
Currently, the Hurst Review has a few different options to choose from.
The only service for which I can speak is the Hurst Live Review. Although, I would bargain that the HURST-N-Stream is probably pretty comparable.
You can see the pricing for each service. If you were to choose Hurst Live RN Review then the price would be $399.
I will agree that is a pretty steep price.
However, it may be worth asking the facility that you plan to work at if they have a reimbursement program. I started working as a graduate nurse right out of nursing school and the hospital reimbursed me the money that I had spent on the Hurst Review.
Not all facilities will have a reimbursement program, however, so I would bank on paying the full amount just to err on the side of caution.
Hurst does offer a payment plan that is worth looking into if you would like to split up the payments over a period of time.
So, how does the Hurst Review work?
Live Review
Whenever I was enrolled in the program, the review included a 3 day in-class review plus supplemental online lectures to watch on your own time once the review was over.
Each student is issued a workbook for the review that has fill-in-the-blank areas to fill out during the lectures.
Whenever I took the review, we were allowed two live review sessions, so me and my classmates attended the first session right before our last semester of school and the second session after we graduated. (I am unsure if Hurst still offers two review sessions with the current package.)
The second session, of course, was the session that we actually used as our preparation for the NCLEX examination.
I will not lie, the live review is pretty grueling.
The review was from 8-4:30 ish for 3 days in a row. They do allow for short, frequent breaks but it is still quite overwhelming and tiring. I remember actually falling asleep in class towards the end of the third day. I was exhausted!
If you want a self-paced program, then this probably won’t be the best fit for you.
However, the instructors are really good at what they do. The lectures are scripted so they rarely get off track. You can rest assured that they will teach you the information that they have planned to teach you.
One of the other things that I really appreciated is that they don’t over do class participation. They only occasionaly ask for comments from the class. They will answer questions as they arise but they always circled back to the lecture material quickly.
Online Lecture
There are also supplemental online letures that you have access to for 14 days once you activate the courses. The lectures include the “core content” that is covered during the live review.
Since these lectures can ony be accessed for 14 days it is recommended to wait to access them until a few weeks before your NCLEX examination so the material is fresh in your brain.
In fact, did you know that is is recommended for students to take their NCLEX within 3 months of graduating and completing their NCLEX review?
The online lectures can be viewed as self-paced but there is also the time constraint of only having access to them for 14 days. But whenever you are viewing the lectures you can pause the videos when needed and take your time with the material.
Practice Exams and Questions
You also get access to a question bank of 1500 questions and 4 practice examinations that contain 125 questions each.
We all know how important it is to practice NCLEX style questions, so it was great to have such a large bank of questions to have access to.
No complaints here!
Final thoughts
The Hurst Review does a good job teaching you how to actually take the NCLEX, as well. They re-frame the way you view the questions so that you can get more questions right.
The testing strategies are great and I wish someone would have taught them to me earlier in nursing school!
Overall, I believe that the Hurst Review is a high-quality review and is worth the money.
They advertise on their website that they have a 98% first-attempt pass rate and I can say that the majority of my classmates that used Hurst passed on their first attempt.
If you have any more questions about the Hurst Review, check out their FAQ page.
Also, since you are on your way to becoming a rockstar nurse, be sure to check out these nursing essentials that will help you survive those long 12 hour shifts!
That’s all for now.
Until next time,
Happy Nursing!