Saunders is the best Review for the NCLEX hands down. I can't personally say that I have tried other books, but I'll start off by saying that I passed the NCLEX. On my first try. With 1 month to study. After being out of nursing school for a year without reviewing. For reasons that are too long to detail here, I was having difficulty scheduling my NCLEX due to various factors. Due to some miscommunication mostly on my part, I found that they had scheduled me to take the NCLEX and had given me a test date which was exactly one month away. You can imagine the overwhelming panic that came over me as I realized I had been out of nursing school since December 2012, and it was now mid-January 2014. Anyone reading this that is thinking of "taking a break" from nursing after graduating before preparing for the NCLEX... do not wait a year like I did. This will help prevent a lot of unnecessary stress. The tools I used to review included this book (the Kindle version) which is the 6th edition, and NCSBN's learning extension review for the NCLEX online. Now the reason that I purchased the Kindle version of Saunders was because I had ordered the physical copy of the Saunders 5th Edition book and it was taking much longer than expected to arrive to me. At the time I was living in a small town in Alaska, and Barnes & Noble or was not readily available to me to purchase an NCLEX review book. As I became more and more anxious for the 5th Edition to come in, I could not NOT study and wanted a textbook in addition to the lessons online on NCSBN. I opted to purchase the Kindle edition of this book so that it could be delivered to me right away electronically and I could begin reviewing. I wanted the physical copy of the 5th edition for a reason though. Many reviews online from students expressed that the CD that comes with the 5th edition hard copy was very valuable and the practice questions and lessons on the CD helped other studying students tremendously. That CD was what I was after, to help me review & master the material that I would be going over in the book. I had an issue with the 5th edition not coming with that CD... and other reviewers online had the same concern. But I will clear the air and say to anyone using the CD as a deal breaker between these two editions, the 6th edition may not come with the CD, but it comes with an online membership to a website containing the EXACT SAME MATERIAL found on the physical CD that comes with the 5th Edition! Once I received the 5th Edition in the mail I was able to compare the two, and really, the content on the Saunders review website with the 6th Edition is the same as the content on the CD with the 5th Edition. Even more, the content of the entire book of the 6th Edition is nearly identical to the content within the 5th Edition. The difference between the two texts are unnoticeable besides the fact that the content is reordered in the 6th Edition. The content in these books were incredibly informative. For someone who had not reviewed for a long time, I was able to get back into the swing of things using these texts, and the "Pyramid Points" were absolutely KEY to remember. Every chapter was equipped with important, to the point information, highlighting facts & strategies that were imperative to remember. Each chapter then concluded with review questions that were similar to what I was actually tested on. I would also recommend the audio reviews on the CD or review website. Use the testing strategies that are outlined in these books. When I was stumped on a question because I just didn't know the answer from not knowing the content, I was able to use the strategies they taught to narrow down options to find the right answer. When I took the exam I used up the whole time and I answered questions at my own pace. I tried to not feel rushed, and I didn't really utilize the breaks except for once. At the time I took it, I didn't feel completely confident that I passed, but at the same time I knew that I had been prepared well and a lot of the content I was tested on had been covered in my Saunders texts. A couple days later I found out that I passed! What a gratifying feeling, and I do owe it to Saunders mostly, and in part to NCSBN's review, but if I could weight it I would give Saunders 89% of the credit and 11% of it to NCSBN. Bottom line, I would recommend these books, both the 5th and 6th edition, to any nursing student preparing for the NCLEX. If I could pass the NCLEX studying only for 1 month (technically, 3.25 weeks, as I was delayed in starting from waiting for the 5th edition to come in before I began studying with the 6th edition on Kindle), and I had been out of school for over a year, then you definitely can pass using these tools especially if you have a lot more time to study than I did. Hopefully this helps! Good luck to all studying! Regards, Nicole, RN-BSN ;)

To start, I have not tested yet and have only reviewed the first chapters and the online platform. I will say, however, that I am pleasantly surprised by the scope of the "comprehensive" title. I took a practice test through Kaplan and felt horrible (39%) then realized a colleague did the same. We felt that it was them making us seek their product and services. My sample test with Saunders neared the passing rate, and so I trust their outcome measures more. Secondly, this title is still current as the NCLEX review board has not changed the testing path in the last three years - they simply tweaked one concept. With Saunders it seemed that there were many products and I wanted the best overview of the material to be able to learn what my strengths and weaknesses are. Well, this was met with full stride as I started off on the online platform, which is included in every book inside the front cover (if not you can purchase one following the instructions on the cover, I believe it is $26, so best buying the book.) It does a quick and easy-to-understand exam of your skills and builds a study schedule for you to follow that is based on your results. It is a quick study guide so that I can finish it over the Christmas break, and this is only the online portion. The book is very easy to read and after the introductory chapters you can go as deep or skim as much you want for every subject. I first off started watching the online review videos and then did the "sounds" portion, where you can listen to the heart, lung, and bowel sounds. I then started in on each chapter. They give you strategy and rationale (where to review if needed) on every question (even the examples in the beginning). I am feeling more confident than ever.

I am currently in my second semester of nursing school (I will graduate after 2 more semesters) and have had this book since the beginning. I mainly purchased this book based on previous reviews to help me get through my classes. This book has been THE BEST investment I have made during my nursing school career so far! I have been able to use this to supplement my studying for ALL of my classes. Nursing text books are dense, and Saunders does an excellent job at pulling out the most important material and simplifying the information in a way that you will remember what you have read.There are also tons of NCLEX style questions in the sections, along with a code to access more, plus their rationales. The questions, overall, are not all that challenging; however, reading the rationales is extremely helpful when learning the material and how the information may be applied in a question or situation. Ever since I started REALLY using this book to help me study for my exams, my grades improved and I was actually spending slightly fewer hours trying to learn the information because I was able to understand it better the first time when reading the simplified content. I could not vouch for how helpful this book is in regards to passing the NCLEX exam itself, but it is a great review for the content/information and it was worth purchasing for how much it has helped me in school so far. I highly recommend this to nursing students. The earlier on you get it, the better off you will likely be.

I took my first NCLEX attempt with a great deal of uncertainty. My school much like all Nursing programs fails to stress the amount of preparation required and test taking strategies involved to ultimately fight the beast that is NCLEX! This book was single handily my ultimate weapon, read 3 chapters a day. In one month you've covered the entire book, add the online resources and do the included 75 question assessment to see what your weakness areas are and do 25q in tutor mode every day along with the the chapter readings. Don't expect the questions to be anywhere near NCLEX, they are content driven questions to simply reinforce the information you have just read. You read a chapter, take questions on it and if you do poorly or miss more than 3,4 questions I would recommend re-reading the chapter again before you move on. As your reading the book you'll see things you've seen in questions and get a better understanding why the disease does this and why a lab is tested for this etc, etc..... it's a lot of reading but if broken up daily it can be tackled quite easily. I would say with 100% certainty this book alone aided in me successfully passing the NCLEX exam, it also reinforced my knowledge in areas I was good at and also boosted my overall confidence going into the test. I have highly recommended this book already to very close friends and would suggest all aspiring nurses also buy it. I am a paramedic and have worked for a very prevalent fire department for 11yrs and the NCLEX was extremely difficult for me and failed it my first attempt! This book was the missing ingredient to a poor nursing programs lack of education. Good luck to you all!

This book was very helpful when studying for the NCLEX, espeically the first few chapters on tips/tricks for the test and it gives you a very good picture of what they are looking for. My school used the Kaplan program, but I only used it for practice tests online- never looked at the book(s) they gave us. I would take a kaplan test, review what I was weak on/strong on and then refer back to this book for more reading/brushing up. It explains concepts very well and has charts that are very helpful as well! My friends in school used this book as well, though maybe not exactly in the same way I did; regardless we all passed in 75 questions!!! Some of the questions in the book are a bit easy, others aren't, so you definiely need another resource like Kaplan to practice going through as many questions as possible- seriously, do as mnay practice questions as you can and then review them to see what you got wrong, WHY you got it wrong/right. The best advice I ever got, was that the 'right' answer nay not always be the credited (one you get points for) . Id also recommend the NCLEX mastery app for your phone, bc they have great questions on all topics and it's nice to have if you're wating on your oil to be changed, or friends to show up, etc. you can get a few questions in!

I am really impressed with this book. I love the easy to follow layout. I have been using it as a study tool alongside my medsurg class. It seems to be helping and reinforces the material learned. EDIT: My first review was written when I was still in nursing school. Now I am rewriting my review because I used this book to pass my NCLEX with 77 questions. I graduated from nursing school Jun 19, 2014. I took a little break and then started studying for NCLEX on July 4th, 2014. I took and PASSED NCLEX on July 30, 2014! I first took the comprehensive assessment that is offered with the book through the evolve website. From there, I was given a study calendar and I followed the chapters as listed except I condensed them to fit into a 3 week schedule. The first three weeks I studied the book according to the schedule and took the test at the end of each chapter as I was done. When I completed the entire book, I moved on to the online portion. I would test myself on every chapter choosing only new questions. Once I was done using this book, I moved on the LaCharity's Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment, and then ended with ATI. I stopped studying two days before my exam. I loved the layout of this book and the clarity. It gets straight to the point. The online aspect is fabulous! There are a ton of study questions, a lot of select all that apply, etc. Great comprehensive review book! I definitely recommend it! No need to spend money on expensive online review courses, this is it! Study hard everyday and follow the calendar. It worked for me!

Great book lots of questions. Definitely use with other resources.

This book is fantastic ! I cannot recommend it enough and I wish I found it my first day of Nursing School. Unlike most books this book isn't dry and boring. Its not a million words on a page. Its colorful and breaks up reading with graphs, questions and NCLEX tips. The chapters are long but they are very thorough with IMPORTANT information. I don't recommend it is the only book you study from but it is a great companion when studying (especially for the NCLEX) and for clarifying any areas you are unsure about. My favorite thing about this book is the access code you receive to use online. The online feature gives you thousands of questions to study from and you can focus on body systems, strategies and even types of questions- like the dreaded Select all that apply questions. The best way to feel comfortable s to practice NCLEX style questions until you develop your own strategy to answering the questions correctly. I have even seen very similar questions on exams in nursing school. If you are going to buy just one NCLEX style book throughout your whole time as a nursing student or for studying for the NCLEX this is the book to buy! After I purchased this I had no use for my HESI or NCLEX Practice question books.