Med-Surg Study Help?

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Sep 6, 2006

To be honest, when I hear "last year's group all failed the first exam", I don't think the problem was the students not being prepared. Sounds like the instructor had a problem making herself/himself clear! ALL students never fail any exam, unless it's a lousy instructor who isn't doing the job properly.

Study your notes. Study the reading assignments thoroughly (I had an instructor who used to look for obscure passages to place directly in her tests, no kidding). That's about all you can do. That, and get a CLEAR sense of what this instructor expects from you!

Best of luck :)

AllieRat · Sep 6, 2006

(I had an instructor who used to look for obscure passages to place directly in her tests, no kidding).QUOTE]
LOL wonder if she came from your school I had her for assessment last year and she'd pick like the third sentence in a passage and test on it.

JR816, BSN, RN · Sep 7, 2006

This is very interesting. I am know through your course but our situation sounds very similar. Our class failed the first exam so horribly that our instructor thought the Scantron was broken. The think the problem was that our Foundations book was not NCleX based. It was written for LPN's. And our Med-Surg was a lot more diffecult.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 7, 2006

try to figure out what might be asked on the test. ask yourself "why" questions. why does someone get hypokalemic? or, hyperkalemic? that kind of thing. especially, be on the alert for things that can be listed out. review your pathophysiology of some of these med/surg conditions. if you have a nclex book review how application questions are set up and expected to be answered. read your test questions over very carefully and double check your answers to make sure you have chosen the answer that was asked for. don't be quick to turn your test paper in. if there is time left and you have finished the exam, go back over every single question and make sure you've read it correctly and answered it to your satisfaction.

http://go.dbcc.edu/hhps/nursing/study_skills.html - study skills for the nursing student from daytona beach community college nursing department with some good advice.

http://go.dbcc.edu/hhps/nursing/test_taking_skills.html - test taking skills also from daytona beach community college nursing department. a couple of sample questions and how to chose the correct answer for these application type questions.

fleur-de-lis, BSN, RN · Sep 7, 2006

I am in Med-Surg now, and got an 87 on exam 1 - yeah!!!! I was given advice by a grad of this program to use NCLEX review questions to study. But, before you buy one, make sure they have the questions organized by topic so you can study the ones you need for the exam. Davis's NCLEX-RN Review has topics by course (Med-Surg, Maternity, Psych, etc) then also breaks them down further. It also has a CD with bonus questions. Good luck!

sister--* · Sep 8, 2006

I am in Med-Surg now, and got an 87 on exam 1 - yeah!!!! I was given advice by a grad of this program to use NCLEX review questions to study. But, before you buy one, make sure they have the questions organized by topic so you can study the ones you need for the exam. Davis's NCLEX-RN Review has topics by course (Med-Surg, Maternity, Psych, etc) then also breaks them down further. It also has a CD with bonus questions. Good luck!

Yep, this was one of the best study guides I had to organize my thinking after studying from the course materials. It seemed to bring everything together. I even get into it once in awhile yet when I come across something I haven't seen in a long while...... or ever....:wink2:

Best wishes for a successful year!

shellsgogreen · Sep 9, 2006

i just completed med surg one and i used a reviews and rationales book (prenctice hall) which of course gives you the reasons why you wouldn't pick certain answers....plus i taped up cards around the house of all the s/s of f&e imbalances - plus normal values....writing out the normal values a bunch of times was another thing that worked..

best of luck on your first exam-