Lippincott Review for NCLEX-PN

Review by eFreeware

Lippincott Review for NCLEX-PN is a test-prep app from Skyscape Medpresso, built for students in practical and vocational nursing programs who are working toward the NCLEX-PN licensing exam. It carries the Lippincott name, and its content is drawn from the 11th edition of the review book, organized into a question bank of more than 2,000 items. The download is free and the app has no ads.

The main reason to consider it is the shape of that bank. The questions are split into five units, four of them mapping to specialty areas of nursing practice and a fifth forming a two-part comprehensive examination of 263 items. Medical-surgical review tests are the most numerous of the 17 spread across the four specialty units, which the developer says suits nurses starting out in that area. If you are preparing for the licensing exam and want a large set of questions with explanations rather than a general nursing reference, this is the kind of app that fits that job.

Who tends to get the most from it

The content is also useful earlier than that: a student partway through a medical-surgical term can use the same question sets to check whether a topic has actually stuck, rather than waiting until the final weeks of review.

It also suits people who learn by answering rather than by reading. Every question comes with a rationale, and the explanations cover why the other choices are wrong as well as why the correct one is right. That format rewards a reader who wants to understand the reasoning behind an answer, not just memorize a key.

What it is not is a general-purpose nursing library or a clinical reference you would keep at hand on a unit. It is exam preparation, and the content is arranged around the test plan rather than around day-to-day practice.

Study Mode and the daily question

Study Mode is the simplest way in. You attempt a question, then see the answer and the rationale behind it. Because the explanation arrives immediately, this mode works well for learning a topic for the first time or for working through a unit methodically rather than under pressure.

The Question of the Day feature serves a random question each day. It is a small thing, but for a student who is months out from the exam it gives a reason to open the app regularly without committing to a full session. Used alongside Study Mode, it keeps a little material in front of you on days when there is no time for anything longer.

Both modes lean on the same underlying content, so the quality of your practice depends on the bank itself. The questions follow the style used on the licensing examination and align with the NCSBN 2017 PN test plan, and the edition includes alternate-format items such as select-all-that-apply, reorder and fill-in-the-blank alongside standard multiple choice.

Quizzes, timing and tracking progress

Create Quiz lets you pick a topic and how many questions you want, and a quiz can be paused and picked up again. That combination is what makes the app practical for short sittings: a twenty-question set on childbearing family care can be started between classes and finished later without losing your place.

Time Mode takes the opposite approach. You answer as many questions as you can within a set period, which is aimed at building speed. Speed matters on a licensing exam, and practicing under a clock is a different skill from working through rationales at leisure; having both modes in one app means you can move between them as the exam gets closer.

Stats show which topics you have mastered and where you are weaker, so the app can point you back toward the areas that need work. Bookmarked and skipped questions do something similar at the level of individual items: you can flag a question to revisit or set it aside, which is useful for the ones you get wrong twice or guess at.

After each review test and after the comprehensive examination, you get sections with the correct answers and rationales, test-taking strategies, the question's cognitive level, and its test plan category and subcategory. That last detail matters if you want to see which category of client need keeps tripping you up, rather than just counting a score.

The comprehensive exam and the review tests

The four specialty units cover medical-surgical nursing for adults, care of the childbearing family, care of children, and care of clients with mental health needs. Between them they hold 17 review tests, with the largest share in medical-surgical nursing. That weighting matches where many new practical nurses are employed, so the practice leans toward the material you are most likely to meet first.

Added up, the practice items outnumber the 205 questions the NCLEX-PN can ask, so a full run-through takes longer than the real exam. For a candidate who wants to simulate the endurance side of the exam, that is a point in its favor.

The book content also covers common questions about the testing process, how the exam is built, and how to prepare. This edition adds more alternate-format items and more photos and illustrations than earlier ones, which helps if you take in material visually.

What it costs and how the purchase works

The app is free to download and shows no advertising. It does offer in-app purchases, and full purchased content is the term used for the complete set of 2,000 updated practice questions. In other words, the free download is the way in, and there is more content available beyond it.

I would treat that as the main budgeting question before you commit. The sensible move is to check the purchase options inside the app and decide whether the full bank is worth it to you before you build a study routine around it. For a student who is going to sit the exam in the next few months, a large question bank with rationales is usually the kind of purchase that earns its cost; for someone only curious about the format, the free download is enough to judge whether the style suits you.

How it compares with other ways to prepare

The obvious alternatives are a printed review book and a broader nursing reference app. A physical book gives you the same questions in print, which some people prefer for marking up and flipping back through, but it cannot time you, track which topics you have mastered, or serve a random question each day. The app takes the book's content and adds the mechanics of practice.

A general nursing reference app is a different tool. It is built for looking things up in clinical or classroom work, while this one is built around answering exam-style questions and reading the reasoning afterward. If your goal is to pass the licensing exam, the question-and-rationale loop is closer to the task in front of you than a reference text is.

There is also the option of a formal review course, which typically brings instruction and a schedule. This app is self-directed: the quizzes, the timer and the stats are there, but the plan is yours to make. That suits a student who already knows which areas are weak and wants material to work through, and it asks more of someone who needs to be told what to study next.

A question bank built for the PN exam

For a practical nursing student preparing for licensure, this app does one job and does it in a way that lines up with the exam: more than 2,000 questions, rationales for right and wrong answers, test-taking strategies, and practice modes for both learning and speed. The 4.7 average from 121 ratings and the 10,000-plus installs suggest a modest but settled audience rather than a passing experiment, and the September 2026 update addressed the About page, the offline message and general performance.

The caveats are worth stating plainly. There is an in-app purchase, and the content is organized around the NCLEX-PN test plan rather than around clinical practice, so it is exam preparation and not a reference. It also asks you to direct your own study, using the stats and bookmarks to decide where to spend time.

If you are in a PN program and within reach of the licensing exam, this is a straightforward fit: install it, work through Study Mode and quizzes on your weak areas, and use Time Mode as the date approaches. This app suits nursing students who want NCLEX-PN practice questions and quizzes on their phone, and the free download shows what it concentrates on within a few questions.

What's new in version 4.17.0

* Improved the About page to ensure it displays correctly across different content configurations. * Updated the No Internet message for clearer guidance when an internet connection is unavailable. * General performance improvements and bug fixes for a smoother study experience.