Getting use to Nursing Test Questions

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in None.

Hello everyone-

I read on here all the time saying that the you need to learn to way of answering NCLEX questions. I'd like to get a head start so maybe it wont hurt me when I go to take nursing test in NS...do you all have any suggestions? Like on what books to read, etc?

Thanks for everyones help and advice!! :heartbeat

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Specializes in LTC/Rehab.

i'm starting my program in a few weeks but i've been taking pharm this semester and i've really had a hard time with the 'critical thinking' type questions. i'm so used to having 1 right answer and 3 wrong answers.. so i get stumped when ALL the answers are right but one is MORE right than the others.

Anyway.. i just bought Test Success: Test-Taking Techniques for Beginning Nursing Students from amazon.com and i totally love it.

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Specializes in CNA.
Hello everyone-

I read on here all the time saying that the you need to learn to way of answering NCLEX questions. I'd like to get a head start so maybe it wont hurt me when I go to take nursing test in NS...do you all have any suggestions? Like on what books to read, etc?

Thanks for everyones help and advice!! :heartbeat

A Saunders or Kaplan NCLEX review/strategy book is a good start. It won't be too useful until you actually start taking tests, so you should re-read the strategy section before every semester.

It has saved my bacon many times on nursing tests. Applying test taking strategy properly probably made the difference between an A and a B the last two semesters.

The only real way of learning these types of questions is experience.

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i'm starting my program in a few weeks but i've been taking pharm this semester and i've really had a hard time with the 'critical thinking' type questions. i'm so used to having 1 right answer and 3 wrong answers.. so i get stumped when ALL the answers are right but one is MORE right than the others.

Anyway.. i just bought Test Success: Test-Taking Techniques for Beginning Nursing Students from amazon.com and i totally love it.

I am halfway through the Test Success book as well. It is a great book. I've heard

Fundamentals Success: A Course Review Applying Critical Thinking to Test Taking is a must have as well and I've just ordered it from Amazon. I'm trying to get all of these read before my program starts in a few weeks as we will have enough reading to do then!!

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Specializes in None.

Thanks everyone!! I've been hearing about the Test Success book ALOT. So i'll deff. get that.

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Thanks guys. I start my program in August so this is very helpful

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Hello everyone-

I read on here all the time saying that the you need to learn to way of answering NCLEX questions. I'd like to get a head start so maybe it wont hurt me when I go to take nursing test in NS...do you all have any suggestions? Like on what books to read, etc?

Thanks for everyones help and advice!! :heartbeat

There are lots of instructors & students who say that nursing is not black & white, it's shades of gray. Okay, that might be true in the workplace, when you have to do something "now" with less than a complete set of information, but it's false in the testing environment, because your answer is either right or wrong. Black or white.

First, know the concepts. Backward and forward, right and left. If you don't understand them, you'll be sunk trying to apply them. If the teachers give handouts, know all, of that, but also read the book. I put a lot of stock in knowing the concepts, because very often I can see that B/W in the test answers, and the one correct one stands out, because I thoroughly knew that particular material. Conversely, some answers are clear as mud and one answer looks good as another b/c I didn't get time to study that section quite enough, lol.

Second, use common sense. Lots of times, one or more answers will just not be a sensible or practical thing to do. The nursing process is ADPIE: Assess, Diagnose (as in nursing diagnosis, things that a nurse can do for a patient, not what's the MD's diagnosis although that factors in), Plan, Intervene, and Evaluate. Thus, whatever action you take, it almost has to have an output that's measurable, like reduce pain to 2 of 10 when it had been five, or the patient is now able to demonstrate self-care, or whatever.

Third, a lot of it is prioritization. What is the most important or the highest priority action to take and what is lower down the list or banned altogether.

So, you have to be able to read the questions, toss out the irrelevant info, think what a nurse is permitted or not permitted to do, what step of the ADPIE nursing process is this question asking about, and what's the correct thing to do.

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

The only way to get into the habit of being able to answer nursing questions is to practice them! Get a good NCLEX book. I highly recommend either Saunders or Reviews & Rationales by Pearson Prentice Hall.

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Specializes in ER.

There is a companion site for the Fundamentald book we are using.

http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_kozier_fundamentals_8/61/15675/4012970.cw/index.html

Just click on a chapter at the top and then NCLEX review questions in the side bar. These test are totally different than just remembering things. Good luck. Hope this helps.

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