Students Who Use PrepU Achieve a Higher Pass Rate on Nursing Licensing Exam

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 98 percent of nursing students who used PrepU, an online adaptive learning solution offered by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), to prepare for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) passed the exam, exceeding the passing average by more than 10 percentage points. 

Researchers surveyed students who used PrepU while preparing for the NCLEX, which all nursing graduates must pass in order to practice nursing in the U.S.  PrepU offers students customized online quizzes to support their coursework and exam preparation.  Nationwide, 87.9 percent of students passed the NCLEX, while 98.7 percent of PrepU users passed.  Students who used PrepU passed the NCLEX after answering an average of 104 questions, compared to the national average of answering 121 questions to pass.  The NCLEX is a computerized adaptive exam that continues to provide questions until the student achieves a passing standard set by the test creators.

"Our research shows that PrepU students were better prepared for the exam, were able to demonstrate their knowledge more quickly, and were more likely to pass the exam," said Susan Driscoll, President of Wolters Kluwer Health Professional & Education unit, which includes LWW. "We are excited to have evidence that PrepU is helping students prepare for and pass critical examinations, and ultimately, become nurses with greater knowledge and more confidence in their skills."

Working with a researcher from the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA, LWW has evaluated PrepU results in 16 undergraduate nursing courses involving nearly 700 students since 2010.  The research showed that students who used PrepU to support classroom and textbook learning to increase content mastery, frequently outperformed both prior classes that did not have access to the tool, and current classmates who choose not to use the tool. 

"Instructors in a broad range of nursing courses are finding that students who use PrepU have greater mastery of the course content, and tend to get higher results on tests than those who do not," said Julia Phelan, PhD, who directed the research, and works for UCLA's National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.

The complete research report, "An Investigation of Student Use of PrepU and NCLEX Success," is available on thepoint.lww.com/prepu.

About PrepU
PrepU is an online adaptive assessment platform that bridges the gap between what students know and what they don't know. Built by educators, PrepU's personalized, adaptive quizzes move students toward a better grasp of material and better grades. Instructors can compare their class's individual and overall scores to those of classes that are using PrepU for the same course across the country. PrepU is part of Macmillan New Ventures, a division of global education publisher Macmillan that discovers, develops and markets innovative technologies that make learning more engaging. LWW is offering PrepU as a support tool for 27 nursing textbooks and e-books for the fall 2012 semester.  For more information, go to thepoint.lww.com/prepu.

About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher of trusted content delivered in innovative ways to practitioners, professionals and students to learn new skills, stay current on their practice, and make important decisions to improve patient care and clinical outcomes.

LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2011 annual revenues of €3.4 billion ($4.7 billion).

SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Health