Best Nclex book for new nursing student??

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 13, 2014

Every person I talk to that is starting nursing school I mention, Saunders Strategies for Test Success: Passing Nursing School and the NCLEX Exam, 2e. This is a fairly basic representation of NCLEX style questions and would be good for people just starting out. It is mostly a book about test taking not necessarily content oriented. Yes you need a little content to answer the questions but it teaches you how to look at the questions and eliminate wrong answer choices. It is pretty cheap on amazon, just make sure if you buy it used it has the included CD ROM. The CD ROM comes with 500 questions to practice with. Good Luck!

RunBabyRN · Jun 13, 2014

Everyone says good things about Saunders. I haven't used it myself (I heard about it way later), but classmates used it to understand concepts while in school and to learn how to answer NCLEX-style questions.

guest798886 · Jun 13, 2014

I too have heard of Saunders as the best one. I haven't purchased it, but I do plan on it when I get into the program.

I've also heard that the 5th edition and newest one, 6th are both similar with little differences. The 5th is 20 something dollars on Amazon and the 6th is $52.

The only problem is tho they both have their 500 practice questions, but the 5th edition has a CD rom that wont be able to be used on Macbooks ( even tho they say it is Macbook compatible.) I know 3 people who weren't able to use their macs with the 5th editions cd.... whereas for the 6th edition, you have to create an account on a site to reach the questions.

rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 13, 2014

I also agree that the Saunders Comprehensive NCLEX review is a very good book. I have used it front to back as well to pass the NCLEX and in class. I would plan on getting it as well, but to begin with I would look at the Strategies for Test Success book first. Answering nursing and/or NCLEX style questions are different from answering questions in your other classes. It takes a little bit of critical thinking and problem solving as opposed to pure fact memorization. You would be surprised how many people need help in test taking skills. I tutored many people in my class and saw a dramatic change in their scores.

The Saunders book should be on your list but maybe not the first. The reason is that it would be better if you had a fundamentals, Med/Surg, and or pharmacology class before you start tackling those questions. In other words you may need a little background information to formulate a correct response. I would consider this book more middle of the road questions (as far as NCLEX is concerned).

Hope this helps, the previous posters were totally correct. Oh, the 5th edition has nearly 4500 questions not just the 500 mentioned above. Don't know about the 6th edition. Not being Mac compatible is really not good. It works for PCs though, from experience.