This book was the first I purchased during my last semester of nursing school to begin my studies for the NCLEX-RN exam. However I was quite overwhelmed and disappointed at the way the book was set up. The chapters were too tedious and the question section that followed were too much. If you like questions and you like details this book is for you. But I would suggest the Saunder's Comprehensive Review book which I used as the basis for my NCLEX-RN studies and passed on my first try.

I bought this book, along with four others shortly before graduating nursing school and began my NCLEX study intensively with this book specifically. I wish I had started another one instead-since I am inclined to finish what I started and getting through this one is killing me. I would not recommend this book to my worst enemy. The situations are very well defined but the answer choices are vague. I found many, many contradictions in the rationale portion of the tests and plenty of typographical errors in which the correct/incorrect answer numbers were transposed in the rationale section (3 times within 200 questions at one point). One question gives the situation that a young patient awakes after being unconsious due to a car accident and has had an above the knee amputation while he was out cold. He asks what happened- what do you tell him: 1) what do you think happened? 2) you were in an accident 3) you lost your leg in an accident 4)You sound concerned; you'll remember more as you wake up. Okay--I chose number one (first step in the nursing process is to assess, right?) The book says that the correct answer is number three because it addresses the man's question honestly; the book also says that number two isn't the right answer because it is too blunt. Gee, and number three isn't blunt? I'd call it a slap in the face if anything. This type of thing is found throughout the book from beginning to end. Don't buy this book, it won't do anything for you but get your temper fired up.

I bought this book because it's recommended by my SON to review for the NCLEX. What I don't like about it is the answer section where it tells you why an answer is incorrect. The editors are inconsistent with their rationales and many times their reasoning is pretty vague. For example, one answer tells you Play-Doh is an appropriate toy for a toddler and then 10 questions later it is dangerous because a toddler might eat it. There is a great deal of review questions and the CD is helpful as are the review sections.

While it certainly got my mind working, this book was of little help with the nursing exam. The exam I took focused much less on disease states and medications and much more on vague diagnostic questions. On the whole, it's not a bad book but be sure to speak with someone who has recently taken the test prior to using this or any other book for preparation. It'll give you a dose of reality and allow you to focus on questions that will actually be asked.

This book starts you off with a brief overview of the individual areas of nursing such as Med/Surg, Pediatrics, Psychology... for each section it has questions followed by a section of answers with rationales for the correct/incorrect answer. Once you have covered the material from the individual units the book has two comprehensive tests where you can put your knowledge to the test. This book includes a CD-Rom. The CD-Rom offers you the choice of a practice test and a tutorial. Both give you rationales for the correct/incorrect answers. All in all a good book. The only thing I would add would be questions about delegation.