Would an NCLEX RN study guide be useful for nursing school?

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Mar 20, 2012

I start nursing school in the fall and I heard that having an NCLEX RN study guide helps. My school is especially known for having all their tests in NCLEX format and many students fail the first several tests because the questions are so difficult. I have heard many good reviews about the Kaplan book. Would you recommend getting the book right away? Or would it not really be worth it as long as I study hard during school?

The Saunders book helped me immensely. Read, and reread the strategy section at the beginning of every semester. It makes more and more sense as you go along.

ApplegateC · Mar 20, 2012

I did buy Saunders NCLEX-RN Examination book with CD. I am in my first semester of the Nursing Program, and I have found it very useful. I can go into an individual content area to do a study run through, or I can also have the CD pull out random questions to ask me. As I said, I have found the study guide very useful and consider it a good investment. I would check with your instructors once you start to get their opinions on which one to use.

carterlee · Apr 6, 2012

I second the use of Saunders as it is broken down into the areas you will cover area by area give u a review practice questions on that subject matter and tell you what is the correct answer and why. Better lay out then other books and if you have trouble understanding a area in your nursing book u may better understand the explanation in the Saunder's book. Not all of us learn the same way and having different sources may help u.

i<3u · Apr 6, 2012

I start nursing school in the fall and I heard that having an NCLEX RN study guide helps. My school is especially known for having all their tests in NCLEX format and many students fail the first several tests because the questions are so difficult. I have heard many good reviews about the Kaplan book. Would you recommend getting the book right away? Or would it not really be worth it as long as I study hard during school?

I wouldn't start reading it right now if I were you (it's up to you though). It will help when you actually start taking your exams, especially if you get a book or cards that are broken down into different subjects. I have NCLEX cards (found them on sale at a closing bookstore) that are separated into different subjects within each course (example: Maternal--Postpartum or Med-Surg--Musculoskeletal). If we're going over a particular subject like Musculoskeletal, I will study that section before a test to review. It helps to get an idea of what questions/subjects may be included on an exam and different ways the questions may be asked. Usually there are questions similar to those NCLEX card questions on the exam, just worded differently. We were given a study guide for Med-Surg and an online resource with the package. The instructors usually take questions from those. Again, it'll be worded differently.

Another useful resource is the questions at the end of each chapter. Instructors may pull questions from those tables, random figures, and charts within the chapter, too. And, you'll be like, "Huh, where did that question come from?". Focus on the resources that you have available to you/purchased with required texts, before you start buying other materials. You may never open a NCLEX study guide. I didn't when I was taking Fundamentals (I may have read the NCLEX cards for the final and that's it!). First, observe how well you do in the beginning and adjust your study habits/materials accordingly (and throughout the program). I started with a study group, but that was too much of a distraction listening to so many concepts from several different people at once. When people stand around and bounce subjects off each other in between class, it confuses the heck out of me and I tune them out. I have my own way of studying and I can't have different variations of a subject bouncing around in my head at once. Sorry, I'm rambling lol. Like I said before, I wouldn't worry abour studying it right now. However, if you find a set of NCLEX cards or study guide on sale, then buy it. Enjoy your break because you'll be crying for one when you start the program :-)! Good luck to you

i<3u · Apr 6, 2012

I agree that Maternal and Newborn Success is pretty awesome! I borrowed this book from a classmate and it was the BOMB-DIGGITY. I went from a 'D' on my first exam to a 'B' on the second. OB isn't my thing, but I have to pass it. Many of my OB exam questions were from this study guide, just worded differently…same thing FloridaBoundLPN said.

I haven't tried any of the other Success series, but I pretty sure they're just as good.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Apr 6, 2012

i agree with the concept you'll find way back in ashley,picu rn's first post, which seems to have gone unnoticed in the subsequent ones. the reason students find the nclex-type questions they'll encounter in school so difficult is because they are unlike any you have ever studied before. they test a different kind of knowledge and a different way of thinking about it. welcome to college.

you used to learn new material (like, say, microbiology, anatomy, physiology) as an aggregate of facts. the thigh bone's connected to the knee bone; gram-positive and gram-negative stains; the difference between ventilation and respiration; and all that. well and good, but as a nurse you will have to do so much more than remember a lot of facts. you will be called upon to make judgments about them, to assess situations and decide which facts are important and which are not so important (even if they are true), and then to decide what action to take. you have probably never been educated or tested like this before.

therefore you can study facts all you want (and do study them all you need to), but unless you make that leap to integrated, quality, critical thinking, you will struggle in nursing school, you will struggle with nclex, and you will struggle with being a nurse.

read books with case studies that explain the rationales for what just happened here. read a lot of case studies. if you want to choose a study guide, flip to the answers and look for not just the answers but detailed rationales for them. fit them into scenarios, see what happens if you change some of them. ask yourself, "why?" all the time. why is this important? why did this happen? why is that the better choice when both are true? i disagree with that; why am i wrong? (because believe me, you probably are)

this is the work that we do.

SC APRN, DNP, APRN, NP · Apr 9, 2012

I couldn't live without my Saunders book, it was a gift through a grant to everyone in our program at the beginning of our nursing 101 course. I go through the topics we are learning, if I reach a question were haven't learned I skip it. It's helped more than anything else for me anyway.