Nursing Review Center, To enroll or not to enroll?

I had these dilemmas exactly one year ago.

 Will I enroll in a Nursing Review Center?

 If I will, what Review Center will I choose?

 What is the Best Review Center? 

Which has the highest number of passers? 

Having free review opportunities from two Nursing Review Centers would have been  an offer I can't refuse (may i borrow Don Vito Corleone's line) or maybe it would at least make my 
decision easier to make, anyway I only had two NRCs (Nursing Review Centers) to choose from. That could have been an easy feat but I wasn't just taking into consideration the free review that I can get, I was also thinking of the quality of review. After all, this review might make or break my Nursing Licensure Exam.


Eventually, It was time to decide. I thought...
If I chose to not enroll - and I failed the freaking NLE, I would drown in an ocean of regret.
But If I chose not to enroll - and I passed, that would be a great achievement 
(not really, just something to brag about ^_^).


What was my decision?
I enrolled, because I didn't want to risk my chances. There might be information in the RC (Review Center) that would contribute to my self-review. 
Anyway, It was for free, so why not?


After the review analysis


I think that somehow enrolling in a review center isn't all good as students expect it to be. Like everything else, there are advantages and disadvantages. I know students think that NRC's would be their passports into achieving their licenses (as some review centers claim), but for me? not really.


Read Further to know about my review center experience, my opinion on why should you or shouldn't you enroll in a RC and some great advantages and disadvantages of enrolling in a RC.




Should I enroll in a Review Center?


You should.


You should enroll in a Review Center if you happen to be aware of your own laziness. I am not saying that review centers are for lazy persons, what I'm saying is that review centers may help lazy persons to study more. This is puzzling you may think, but of course I'll tell you why..

• IF YOU NEED TO BE PUSHED AND SQUEEZED TO STUDY, GO ENROLL. SOME review centers are capable of pushing people to their fullest capabilities. They make/squeeze you study more by monitoring your progress. These review centers use different strategies to encourage students.

• Some NRCs post review test results online or on bulletin boards at the review venue, some even project the results every after test for everyone to see.  Clearly, you don't want people to see and talk about a very low review test result beside your name (that represents your whole brood) online or on a bulletin board. 
• These Review centers also give recognition certificates or even trophies to the top scorers of review tests which boost the self-esteem of students. This is actually good for ambitious students (Of course you wanna bring home to your mom all the certificates and trophies, that is if you are competitive).
• Some Review Centers give rewards to top scorers. Rewards, such as cash or gadgets, are very motivating bribes to students. Positive Reinforcement!

• If you are the type of person who loves wandering around, gallivanting and going out, go ahead enroll!!! Not everyone can bear staying at jail/home for 2-3 months while staring and sleeping with books. If you deprive yourself of your usual routine you may not be able to concentrate on your self-review because you will always be anxious about your chances of escaping/wandering and gallivanting.

• If you dislike reading massive books (1000 pages or more) you may like the review setting in the NRC. The NRCs usually give shortcuts and gists of particular topics (but honestly I'd rather know the whole pathophysiology/[how it got there] rather than just the gist).

• An NRC can give you information you have never heard of during your entire College life.
  I've never heard of entreprenurse, RN Heals and NARS until I enrolled in a NRC.
  They can also give you a trend of what topics are popular in the NLE these past few years, they either researched about the trend extensively or they're just guessing.

You shouldn't.

Some, especially big review centers with countless branches here and there are not regulated very well.
Often, the quality of the review is compromised. I've experienced this first hand. 

• Forgotten Promises - Most review centers are named after it's own popular founder. I know that these are the people who you expect to teach you throughout the review or in a certain topic.
  Take it from me, in three months I only saw this acclaimed lecturer once or twice. He also didn't teach us a particular topic CONTRARY to what the NRC told us that he would.
  Now I realized that their names are for marketing purposes only. They make believe that this certain acclaimed lecturer will teach you, to convince you to enroll, but in my own experience and to our dismay he didn't. I am not only pertaining to one RC, this also happens to other RCs, just so you know.

• Very Late lecturers - I had a cousin (who took the test the same time I did) who enrolled in another review center. Since their venue was much smaller than ours, the chairs were fewer. She had to go to the RC as early as 6AM to get the best seats. Their classes start at 7am or 8am but the lecturers arrive at 10am or even later, a great waste of time for a student, (when you are reviewing for a mind-blowing and life-changing test like this every minute counts).

• Questionable quality of the review - Another concern I have is the total quality of the review. I had a lecturer who interchanged classifications of psychiatric drugs, SHE IS A DOCTOR. She wasn't even aware of the mistake she did, this was towards the end of the review. I was very frustrated and disappointed because she has been known to be a "not so good" lecturer and she proved her reputation as such once again. Our class had almost 250 students, there was a sudden facial expression of confusion in the venue. Students were looking at each other knowing that the doctor made a big mistake. What made me very sad was when I saw some students copying this classification mistake into their notes. I wanted to tell them to check first because there was something very wrong but at that time I didn't want them to say that I'm nagmamarunong.

• What's the real score? - Lecturers have personalized answers. Some review test questions were repeated in tests but were handled by different lecturers. Some have their own answers that they have chosen to defend, the problem is THEY HAVE DIFFERENT ANSWERS!
  Whenever that awkward situation happened there was a gentle uproar in the room.
  When students asked them why do they have a different answer from other lecturers with the same exact questions, they always say " I'll look into that" but never answers or never at least give a reassuring answer.
  Maybe that is forgivable sometimes, no one is perfect anyway as they say. But what if it happens all the time?  It tends to be more of a confusion.
  More importantly the student loses confidence in the lecturer and the NRC.

• Inconsistent Correct Answers - but what really bothered me was when I found out that some of the review test questions they gave us were from several books, (that's not the bothering part) that's not really surprising - copy paste of questions is a norm but what's surprising are the wrong answers (they forget to copy the correct answers from sources). Lucky for me I have three books from which they copied some of their review test questions but lo and behold I was surprised that they didn't know the answer, oh they were providing their own answers, but their answers were definitely wrong (according to the book).
  I had these books open in my table while they were discussing the questions in it, they copied the questions and choices word per word but when it comes to the correct answer it was a FAIL.
  I had proof, I have the original book which contains the correct  answer. This did not happen only once or twice but several times. I thought at that time that the NRC was just sending anyone to lecture for us without even taking into consideration the quality of review.

Only you can weigh the PROs and CONs of enrolling or not enrolling in a NRC. 

If you decide to enroll in a NRC, make it as your ally, but do not depend on it 100%. 

If you decide not to, then monitor, reward and motivate yourself. 

Act as if you have your own NRC, the only difference is you are your own student.

ONLY GOD CAN GIVE US OUR LICENSE, NO ONE ELSE. NEVER FORGET TO STUDY, ASK AND PRAY. ^_^

Feel free to comment and share your own NRC experience. ^_^