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Nurse Plus Academy Reviews
Our team’s comprehensive review of the NCLEX prep course and study materials from Nurse Plus Academy
Over the last couple of years, Nurse Plus Academy has become extremely popular among nursing school grads for their choice of NCLEX review. And it’s understandable – with a cheap price point and practice-focused prep program built around efficient studying, there’s a lot to like. But the question is always the same: how good is Nurse Plus Academy? We explore just that question and evaluate the effectiveness of this NCLEX prep course in this detailed review.
Given that this is a lengthy, comprehensive review, we’ve added jump-to links above for your convenience.
Video Review: Is Nurse Plus Academy Good?
In the video above, Test Prep Insight team member John breaks down the Nurse Plus NCLEX course in detail, covering our team’s thoughts on all the major features. Or if you prefer, continue reading our full written review below.
Nurse Plus NCLEX Prep: Our Thoughts
With Nurse Plus, it all starts and ends with practice work. There is a wide range of NCLEX review courses and products on the market – everything from standalone study books, to full courses with live classes that meet in-person and online, to packages built around on demand video lessons.
But Nurse Plus Academy is all about the practice side of NCLEX review – and we like this. One of the most efficient and effective means of studying for any exam is to hammer practice problem set after practice problem set. And this is particularly true with the NCLEX.
Most of the hard content should already be bouncing around somewhere in your brain from nursing school, and it’s just a matter of refreshing, organizing your knowledge, and learning HOW to pass the test. In other words, practice work is super important for the NCLEX.
Nurse Plus offers some high-quality NCLEX problems
So with that in mind, Nurse Plus Academy has focused their efforts on practice work, which I don’t hate. With their premium subscription (I’ll get into more detail on pricing and options below), you get access to over 2,700 practice problems, their NCLEX simulator program, and some content review tools like flashcards and cheat sheets.
From your dashboard, Nurse Plus Academy breaks up all their practice work into “tests” based on topic. These obviously aren’t full-length tests, but are rather sets with 20-60 questions that focus on just a narrow subject, like “Safety & Infection Control Part 3” or “Pharmacological & Parenteral Therapies Part 1.”
You work the practice problems in each of these modules until you’ve achieved a 100% score. Or in other words, you can’t move on until you get them all right. Now, this is super annoying, especially when you miss the same question 2 or 3 times. But I get why they do this.
Obviously if you’re missing the same question multiple times, it’s because it’s a weak spot for you, and you need to keep working at it to improve in that area. So while crazy frustrating at times, it is super effective.
Nurse Plus Academy’s question bank is the backbone of their course
This method of learning is then reinforced through a topic “marathon” at the end. Basically, after you work all the modules on a topic (such as “Management of Care” modules 1 through 3), they hit you with this “marathon” module that recaps everything and you work every practice problem in that section one last time.
So you probably get the picture by now – with Nurse Plus, it’s all about repetition, repetition, repetition. I guess they’re big believers in the old adage “practice makes perfect.”
But it’s not all just answering practice questions over and over until you get them all right. Along with every practice question there is a detailed answer solution. These text explanations break down why the answer choices are each correct or incorrect, highlighting the underlying concept being tested.
I personally found these explanations to be really useful. They’re well written, use plain English, and aren’t overly long, while still delivering enough detail to learn where you went wrong. They’re just a nice balance of being concise and detailed at the same time.
Beyond the 2,700 or so practice questions, there is Nurse Plus Academy’s NCLEX simulator. They’ve designed their software program to look and feel like the real thing, and after having used it, I do have to give them props.
The NCLEX simulated exams closely resemble the real thing
Their program does a great job matching the funky old interface of the NCLEX and looks JUST like it. But more importantly, I think they did a really nice job getting their algorithm to match how the NCLEX gets harder or easier based on how you’re performing.
If you’re missing questions, the difficulty level drops. And if you’re answering a bunch of problems correctly, tracking to finish in 60 questions, it gets much harder. So in that respect I thought they did a really nice job.
And one of the other cool things about Nurse Plus’s NCLEX simulator is that you can take as many tests as you want. You can generate a new one with random questions at any time. This is an underrated feature in my opinion, as it gives you the ability to practice under exam-like conditions as much as you want in the days leading up to the exam.
Then wrapped around all of the practice work – both in the modules and the NLCEX practice tests – is their performance metrics. Nurse Plus Academy shows you exactly what your chances of passing are at any exact moment in time with a cool passing probability calculator, as well as how you are faring against other students.
Essentially, you can see exactly how you stack up and when you’re ready to sit for the test. These were small features, but I really liked them.
The Nurse Plus terminology reference manual is a nice feature
Beyond all the practice work and performance metrics, there isn’t much in the way of traditional content review with Nurse Plus Academy. There are no live classes, hardcopy prep books or even video lessons.
This is one of my knocks on this NCLEX review package. If you’re the type of student who needs the accountability and commitment that comes with live classes, you won’t get that here. Nor will you get robust review of substantive material through printed textbooks or dynamic video lessons.
Instead, most all of your content review comes through three primary methods: reviewing problem solutions, their flashcards and cheat sheets (similar to Nursing.com and UWorld). As I mentioned above, I love Nurse Plus Academy’s problem explanations and think they are a huge value add. This is where most of your content refresh is going to come from.
But if you’re looking for more direct review of hard content without the practice work, that’s going to be the flashcards and cheat sheets. In short, you get over 300 digital flashcards, and they’re more or less what you’d expect. A term or concept on the front, and a definition on the back.
The digital program allows you to cycle through them very quickly and you can categorize them based on what you already know vs what you need to come back to later.
The flashcards are a great opportunity for content review
I was a fan of these flashcards and like them for a quick study session when you just need a break from practice work. I also liked the cheat sheets in that respect. These PDFs are great for recapping key content and getting a nice little summary of essential material before going into the exam.
These two components together aren’t super robust, but they are a very nice add-on. If you’re like me and used a bunch of flashcards in school, then you’ll likely make good use of these. But if you’re more of textbook-type learner, you may need to go out and get one separately.
And that’s about it for the Nurse Plus Academy NCLEX course. This is a simple and straightforward prep program built around practice tests and a couple minor content review tools. It’s not fancy, but may very well be all you need, especially at this price point, as discussed directly below.
Nurse Plus Premium: Pricing & Options
So to be clear, Nurse Plus does offer a totally free version of their materials, but I see it more as a sample or trial period than an actual usable study tool. And that’s because the free version is littered with annoying popup ads and has VERY limited content. For 99% of people, you’re going to need to upgrade to one of their premium plans.
It’s not that bad though, as all of Nurse Plus Academy’s packages are super affordable. They offer just three simple plans to choose from: (1) 30-Day, (2) 60-Day, and (3) 365-Day. It’s pretty simple.
The 30-Day, as its name implies, is just a pay-as-you-go subscription plan that runs for around $49/month. The 60-Day is their flagship package that offers access to everything for 60 days, and costs just $99.
Then there’s 365-Day package that gets you access for a year instead of just 60 days. Whether you need more than two months totally depends on your personal situation and study plan. But it costs $139.
My thoughts on this are simple: Nurse Plus is crazy affordable. We’ve reviewed everything from $10 study books off Amazon up to $500+ courses from Kaplan, and Nurse Plus is one of the best values for what you get. It’s just hard to beat a course with practice work this robust for under $100. This is a GREAT deal.
Nurse Academy Plus Content Access
How long you have access to Nurse Plus Academy’s online materials is directly tied to which premium package you buy. The 30-Day package gets you monthly access (shocker), The 60-Day buys you 60 days of access, and The 365-Day earns you one year of access.
I’m not sure more needs to be said here, other than the fact that the 60-day plan should be enough for a good portion of people.
The Pass Guarantee
One of the major highlights of the Nurse Plus course is their pass guarantee. All of their premium packages carry this money back guarantee, which is pretty easy to understand. Pass the NCLEX after using the Nurse Plus course, or get your money back in full. That simple.
Not all NCLEX review packages promise a pass, so this is pretty cool (though I would note Nursing.com’s NCLEX course does have a 200% pass guarantee, oddly enough).
Verdict: Nurse Plus Academy NCLEX Review
The bottom line with Nurse Plus Academy is that this is an excellent practice-focused study tool with a bargain price point.
Between their quality practice problems, highly realistic NCLEX simulator, flashcards and cheat sheets, there’s just a lot to like. For those looking to pass the NCLEX quickly and easily, Nurse Plus has it all, except one thing – comprehensive content review.
But honestly, I have a solution for that. Snag a solid NCLEX review book off Amazon for $20-$40, read that for content review, and combine it with the killer practice program and flashcards from Nurse Plus Academy.
In my opinion, that’s a recipe for success. In short, we’re big fans of Nurse Plus Academy and rate it out very highly.
Yes, Nurse Plus Academy is absolutely worth it when it comes to NCLEX prep. At their budget price point, they offer a ton of value with their practice-centric program.
Is Nurse Plus Academy good for NCLEX review?
Our team found Nurse Plus Academy’s NCLEX review system to be highly effective. They offer realistic practice questions and an NCLEX simulator, as well as helpful flashcards and cheat sheets.
How much does Nurse Plus Academy premium cost?
The Nurse Plus Academy premium packages range in price from around $50 per month for their subscription plan up to $140 all-in for their full year package.
