What's the worst you've done on an exam?

emmjayy, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2017

I'm at the same point in nursing school as you are and the lowest I've gotten on a test is an 86. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad but instead to hope that it gives me some credence with you when I give you test-taking tips.

My one and only tip is this: READ. THE. QUESTIONS. READ THEM. I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in the immediate post-test anguish session and compared answers with other students, had them question my answer that I knew was correct, and would come to find out they just didn't read the question thoroughly. I honestly think that not reading questions is the biggest problem people have with nursing school tests. Underline key words. Cross out information you don't need. Cover up the answers and think through the question to try to arrive at your own conclusion prior to looking at the answers. This strategy has helped me tremendously because even if I don't necessarily know everything about a condition or med, I usually know enough to figure out the basics and eliminate answers that are obviously incorrect instead of getting confused and bogged down by distractors.

It does sound like you had a ton of material covered in this test. How did the rest of the class do? Did everyone have a hard time with it? How did you study? What study methods have worked in the past? What surprised you about the test in terms of content - was it more detailed than you thought?

AliNajaCat · Feb 14, 2017

Second semester IS harder than first, and third and fourth will be harder still. This is because the critical thinking demanded in nursing depends in your having a good working knowledge of everything you learn up to the point of the exam. That means all your prereqs and and math and sciences, too. Nursing education is cumulative in a way that many other majors just aren't.

Now you're starting to see questions that assume you will be recognizing the right NURSING answer to a question (1 out of four choices, usually). There may be two answers that are factually correct, but only one will be the right NURSING answer, usually because there are nursing implications that aren't stated in the question but that you must apply in your decision-making.

I know this is hard; some people get it more easily than others. My perennial suggestion is to get yourself to your faculty office hours once a week without fail, to review what you've been learning and clear up misconceptions. Certainly go to any exam review sessions (before and after exams); if they don't do pos-exam reviews, do it in an office hours appointment.

Your faculty want you to succeed, but this isn't high school and they will not seek you out. It makes faculty crazy to find out at exam time that somebody's barely making it (which means more likely than not that they will not make it next semester or next year) and they didn't come in for help.

JJL618, RN · Feb 15, 2017

I'm at the same point in nursing school as you are and the lowest I've gotten on a test is an 86. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad but instead to hope that it gives me some credence with you when I give you test-taking tips.
My one and only tip is this: READ. THE. QUESTIONS. READ THEM. I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in the immediate post-test anguish session and compared answers with other students, had them question my answer that I knew was correct, and would come to find out they just didn't read the question thoroughly. I honestly think that not reading questions is the biggest problem people have with nursing school tests. Underline key words. Cross out information you don't need. Cover up the answers and think through the question to try to arrive at your own conclusion prior to looking at the answers. This strategy has helped me tremendously because even if I don't necessarily know everything about a condition or med, I usually know enough to figure out the basics and eliminate answers that are obviously incorrect instead of getting confused and bogged down by distractors.
It does sound like you had a ton of material covered in this test. How did the rest of the class do? Did everyone have a hard time with it? How did you study? What study methods have worked in the past? What surprised you about the test in terms of content - was it more detailed than you thought?

Very helpful info. I'm not in nursing school yet, but how do you know which type of information in the questions aren't needed? Can you provide an example, please? If you don't mind.

Ilargia99, LVN, RN · Feb 15, 2017

I'm at the same point in nursing school as you are and the lowest I've gotten on a test is an 86. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad but instead to hope that it gives me some credence with you when I give you test-taking tips.
My one and only tip is this: READ. THE. QUESTIONS. READ THEM. I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in the immediate post-test anguish session and compared answers with other students, had them question my answer that I knew was correct, and would come to find out they just didn't read the question thoroughly. I honestly think that not reading questions is the biggest problem people have with nursing school tests. Underline key words. Cross out information you don't need. Cover up the answers and think through the question to try to arrive at your own conclusion prior to looking at the answers. This strategy has helped me tremendously because even if I don't necessarily know everything about a condition or med, I usually know enough to figure out the basics and eliminate answers that are obviously incorrect instead of getting confused and bogged down by distractors.
It does sound like you had a ton of material covered in this test. How did the rest of the class do? Did everyone have a hard time with it? How did you study? What study methods have worked in the past? What surprised you about the test in terms of content - was it more detailed than you thought?

I also just had my first exam of the second semester yesterday and got an 86, which is also my lowest score. I admit that it was my own fault that I didn't do better. I've been sick with illness after illness since before the semester started and I completely dropped the ball and didn't study as well as I should have (not going to do that again). Interestingly enough, no one in my class got an A on the test.

The hardest questions for me were some of the non-therapeutic communication questions and adolescent mental illness stuff. I can definitely feel the difficulty level of the content going up.