Question about Saunders

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting but I have to say I feel everyone's pain who hasn't passed NCLEX yet. I'm still workin on it!

I just bought a Saunders Q&A book the other day and I was wondering if that was the one that was recommended from the posts I've read. The book store did have another Saunders book so I was a little confused as to which one to buy. I think it was more of a review type book, but I can't remember.

I'm worried the review books may not be enough for me since I've been struggling on this exam, so I was wondering if anyone could recommend a review course either in a classroom or online that's been helpful. I took one already in the summer and I feel it didnt prepare me enough. Any advice would be greatly apprecated! Thanks!

I know exactly what you're going through right now. I graduated in May and took the NCLEX-RN in July but failed. I took a review class that was offered in our college but felt like it didn't help and prepare me for it. Now I'm gonna try again and planning on retaking it last week in October ( hopefully I'm ready by then...so much distractions here in California)...I hope we both pass this dreadful exam next time. Goodluck to you!

You want the Comprehensive Review by Saunders. Get that and start with the questions on the CD. I have written much on it already. If you sendme your e-mail address by pm, do not post it here, I will send you several useful articles including my list of study tips and a study guide.:wink2:

You might want to keep the Q&A book as well. That's extremely helpful also. It'd be good if you went through the Comprehensive Review book first, and then get through a regimented series of questions, as offered in the Q&A book.

Another thing that I found helpful was to not rely on one publisher alone, but buy others, like the Lippincott or Mosby Q&A books, to get more variety, as well as more practice. While they will cover the same topics, i.e. body systems, nursing process, etc, they do so with a different bent. The rationale portion of the Lippincott book was extremely good in really helping me understand the content, while the Saunder's answer's rationale was more focused on strategies, but didn't add as much value in knowledge content as did the Lippincott. Mind you, Lippincott, for all the joy I got from it, is pretty verbose in their rationale. You can get a headache, if you don't segment your day with lots of breaks. But gaining all that knowledge was ah-so-sweet. The Mosby's Q&A book wasn't as helpful in the rationale department, but if you just have extra time to spare, it will be helpful to study with it too. Again, while they delve into the same body systems as all other books, they will have a different bent. By that I mean, in speaking of pediatric related tumor, one book might give you more questions on Wilm's tumor, while another might focus more on say, leukemia or such.

The format of Saunder's Q&A, as well as Incredibly Easy series of Q&A (not their Review) are great, as you will find the answers in the column next to the questions.

I think Kaplan is a great coorifice that teaches you good test-taking strategies, but don't always lean on their tips. They do not work 100% of the time, but somehow they teach it to you as tough it was a commandment. Strategies are great when you just don't know the content, and thus you have to arrive at an answer by elimination. So you will need that too. But the best thing is a combination of both - know content, and test-strategy.

Lastly, the folks who write the NCLEX also have an online review of their own - http://www.learningext.com. But the site is AWFUL!!! I was embarrased for them, as I found a plethora of mispellings, grammatical errors, and at least one question that did not apply to the answer choices. This made me realize how human (thus flawed) these NCLEX developers are.

Everybody has a different technique when it comes to studying in general. But I'll tell you mine.

I spent 3 months studying for that stupid exam, and this is what I did:

I took the Kaplan Course (helpful, but much more complicated than the actual exam), got the Saunders Comprehension(wish I returned it), Saunders Q&A (worshiped it like the bible), Mosby's Q&A (eh), Cliffs notes NCLEX (avoid that one like the plague), 250 alternate questions (eh), NCLEX pharm questions (never opened it). And after I took that stupid exam all I thought was "that was it? that was so %$#@!@# easy" (I passed)

If I could do it over: first of all I would've taken it in a month. I didn't feel ready in a month, but you never will. I would not study content. Too time consuming. You already know this stuff and your wasting time studying what you already know. Get a notebook and start answering questions. Everytime you get a question wrong, note why you got it wrong (example: I will eternally know what meniere's disease is) That way you only study content that you don't know. Do not study from Saunders Comprehension, it's too specific anyway, and a waste of time to memorize. REFER to it. Don't study it but refer to it everytime you get a question wrong.

I'm sure there are plenty who do study content straight, and hey, whatever works for you. But as for me... I kept falling asleep.

Best of luck! The fact that you're asking means you care, and means your preparing and means you will be prepared!

Skip the Kaplan course, adn just do what I tell you and you should do just fine.

Everyone else has...............:wink2:

I am only studying from saunders comprehensive review and Kaplan question trainer cd.. do you think that this is sufficient materials to prep for the nclex? I am consistently doing 100-150 questions a day from the saunders CD.. but I feel like I should be using other sources..

Also, I am in the ncsbn course from learningtext.com but I am doing horrible in it.. Is it just me? I feel like their questions are sort of weird...but if they are the makers of the nclex shouldn't I be concentrating on their materials more than anything? My main focus right now is just saunders and kaplan cd... What do you thinK?