There is always an app for that. In nursing school, I was always looking for ways to study and optimize my time. When shopping in the Play Store or the Apple App Store, several apps will come up with hopes to study for a school or the NCLEX. I was cautious with what app I would spend time reviewing. I only tried two apps, both were initially downloaded as the lite version, and one I felt confident enough to purchase the whole app. NCLEX Mastery’s lite version proved to be user-friendly, have tons of questions and noticed that all the problems had answers.
Cons
Let’s begin with the downside to this app, the cost. The cost, to buy the full app it cost $39.99, you want to make sure you have downloaded the RN version and not the PN edition. The app does have a lite version, which I would suggest getting first to get the feel of the interface. The full edition has unlocked topics such as medical-surgical questions, and the mental health, lab, and maternity. I suggest if you enjoy the lite version but can’t afford the cost, download the lite version and like their Facebook page. Between the lite version and Facebook as soon as they have a sale, you’ll get a notification or see it in your news feed. They have deals frequently throughout the year of 25 to 75% off. I bought my version at 75% for $9.99. One more note about the Facebook page, they post daily NCLEX questions, nursing-related news articles, and funny nursing memes. It’s worth hitting the like button.
Pros
The app’s questions are sorted by medical-surgical, mental health, pediatrics, maternity, labs, and then again by subtopics. The app gives you the option to go through all the question randomly or only those from subcategory. Which is excellent for either exam, cumulative finals or NCLEX. Each item after answering gives an explanation, and if there is a mnemonic device or graph associated with the question they give or an option to review. One mechanic that I love for this was the color coding of the questions. The color coding can be used to either highlight or categorized individual questions. You can go back to see all problems within the individual brilliance and change the coding color.
This app also contains a section on terminology, a significant part set up to test yourself on terms, prefixes, and suffixes. A Mnemonic area is also helpful, the mnemonic devices pop up with an appropriate question, but if there was a mnemonic device you wanted to look at they are all found in one area. There are also compiled quizzes with the broad topics as well as a few comprehensive quizzes in preparation for NCLEX. There is a resource folder which has NCLEX information and a variety of study plans using the app. A new addition to the app is a link for a $10 NCLEX Simulation. This was added after I had taken my NCLEX, but I was receiving information regarding it, and if you don’t use it there are tons of questions on the app more choices are better.
Conclusion
This app is great. I could use it to study at every level of nursing school and for the NCLEX. It gives you an opportunity to review and practice questions on the go. If you’re waiting for an appointment or inline somewhere, you can quickly go over questions. The app is well worth the money and an essential tool for any nursing student’s study method.
Addendum
I originally purchased and used this application in 2015 through 2016, and then wrote this in 2016. Before publishing this article, I wanted to review the product again. The app can be used on phone or tablet, there is also a full version for free on their website. The website also has a discount for group orders of the app, 10 people or more for 50%. The app whether you get it individually or as a group gives you a 14-day guarantee.