What is the best study guide for NLN?

roxxy3773, RN, APRN · Feb 6, 2007

I used the one by Mary McDonald, I am pretty sure that is her name. I think in some ways it is a hard test to study for because the subjects range so much, especially the science. The math section was good in that book, do those practice tests, I found it to be very similar on the test, just keep track of your time. I thought the verbal was good in the sense that it gets you prepared for the format and type of questions. The only problem is that there can be sooo many different words on the exam that it is hard to do a vocab refresher and feel completely confident. There were only a few from the book that were on my test. I would suggest studying root words and lists like that so that you can try to break the vocab down if you don't know it (there are some of these lists in this book). Some of the vocab is really easy and some I just wasn't quite sure about it but I was able to make a reasonable educated guess.

The science portion was the only portion I felt like the book was really lacking. I could tell that quickly when I studied the reviews and then took the practice tests and realized that half of it isn't in the review! So I would supplement this book with either some review on web sites or books (I spent money on additional books and then found that the internet had lots of resources that I got more out of overall). Concentrate on physics, my test, and a lot of others I have seen on this forum, seemed to have a lot of that on there. I thought I did really well on the math, pretty well on the verbal, and kind of bad in the science, but I turned out a whole lot better than I thought. I left a little discouraged and got my scores back and I am really happy. Just stay positive and calm and don't panic. Keep track of your time and skip what you don't know and go back, like others have said before, don't get stuck on any one question, come back to it. If at the end you don't know, guess, you don't get penalized any more for an incorrect answer than you do for not having any answer at all.

Hope this helps and good luck! :)

DesertRain · Feb 6, 2007

I agree with Roxxy. I probably wouldn't even buy the book but probably just borrow it from the library and like Roxxy said supplement it. The math section does help you practice but there was nothing in the science portion that was in my book. Get a book on electronics and learn about transistors, ohms, currents, series parallel etc...and learn how to calculate weight in Newtons and temperatures in Kelvin--from either Farenheit or Celsius. Practice Timing --I anticipated the time restraints but still ran out of time. Good Luck!

bousue · Feb 7, 2007

OK, so vocabulary is covered. As far as math goes, is it mostly physics or some algebra or calculus. And for science is it chemistry, physical science or biology? Thanks again.