Party over here!!!!!!

ManyRN2B · Aug 10, 2005

Mrs Minor~ I feel ya. I checked a few times yesterday. I still can't believe that day has come and gone.

Thanks for your support!

merlie · Aug 10, 2005

Merlie,
Yup! Sure I will tell ya.
I used
Saunders~ Really good at rationales and building your knowledge base. Which is important for the NCLEX and nursing.
NCLEX3000~ same as Saunders with pretest that will tell you your weakneses. It gave a nice breakdown of your strengths and weaknesses
Lippincott NCLEX RN Review ( this book is only questions)~ Great for testing you on every other thing the other Cd's don't. These tests are hard because they will give you a good amount of questions on every topic. I learned a lot! Gives really good rationales. What I would do is copy the tests on my printer and write right on them. Then when I got them wrong, I would write notes on it. It would help when I reviewed later on. I had a folder full of exams.
Online Hurst Review ~ Excellent review course. I heard the live review was excellent too. This helped strengthen my physiology.
NCLEX101-how to pass the NCLEX the first time~This book was A++. It broke down each section like the NCLEX. I did every question in this book.
Kaplan trainer CD (I did this the last week to gage how I would do for the NCLEX). This was a CD that was good to judge if I was ready for the NCLEX or not. This CD gave me confidence that I at least did all I could to prepare. I borrowed it from a friend. I didn't use their technique, just their questions.
NCSBN-www.learningext.com~ I only used this for questions. I took the pretest and then about 12 of the random exams. The rationales weren't that great but it gave me an idea of what to expect on the NCLEX.
Review books I used for content. One really good one is "Medical Surgical Recall" by Tamara Bickens. Awesome book! I highly recommend this when you don't know a disease and want to know everything about it including how to take care of the patient. It's like a small dictionary.
Also princeton reviews and rationales medical surgical and pediatrics. This book drove me nuts in the beginning of my studying. I started looking at it again last week and found that it explained things well and had great pictures. I found out after the exam that when looking up answers from the NCLEX, I found the right answers in these books. Funny huh?
I would also keep a notebook full of quick facts or things I just couldn't grasp. I would read it from time to time. I really read it over and over my last few days leading up to the exam.
Sounds like a lot of $$$. I did spend lots and still have about 10 other books I didn't look at or mention. (A Friend works for LWW) I have him to thank!!
But if I had to choose here is the order I would study/purchase.
Hurst review
Saunders
Lippincott
Nursing101:How to pass the NCLEX the first time by Sylvia Rayfield
NCLEX3000 or 3500
Kaplan
NCSBN
I sound like a nut and as I read what I wrote, I'm like huh? One more thing...there wasn't anything on the NCLEX that I had never seen. I may have not been familiar with it but I knew enough to narrow it down and pick the best answer. I may have gotten lucky. I didn't get any select all that apply. Most get 5-6 of them. I got really lucky on this. Maybe a new trend is starting. Wouldnt' that be nice.

Thank you!!!i think i have to start getting that books and start reading. :chuckle LOL