Strategies to answering NCLEX style questions

Hello all! Some background on myself: I graduated nursing school this past May 2014 and took my boards July 2014. I passed the first time around in 75 questions and used Kaplan, LaCharity, and the Don Anderson Review course. I like to come back to this forum and offer my advice when applicable to those still studying for the NCLEX. It seems many posters are generally just nervous and anxious about taking the NCLEX, but I've also seen many posts on how to answer NCLEX style questions. I'm sure there's a ton of posts already on the subject, but another one can't hurt! I also recommend studying content alone first before studying how to answer NCLEX questions. Anyways, here are some strategies that really helped me throughout my studying/exam:

1. Always remember ABCS. Airway, breathing, circulation, safety.

2. Physical before psychosocial. Pain in psychosocial (exception: chest pain). Even if someone has a small nosebleed or whatever and the other patient is screaming in pain, NCLEX wants you to prioritize the bleeding or "circulation" issue.

3. Avoid picking answers with trap words: always, never, all, none. *Almost* nothing is absolute in nursing. Also, pay attention to trap words in questions themselves.

4. Stick with your instinct. This is a huge one. A lot of the time all the answers can be considered right, so if you start guessing yourself, of course another answer could fit and you may change your right answer to the wrong answer. Think about what your choice is, but then move on.

5. Try to turn the answers into true/false items. This is especially helpful for SATA questions.

6. Look for answers that are patient or family-oriented. Nursing care is always about the patient/family, not themselves, the aide, the doctor, etc.

7. On the note of #6, look for patient and family oriented words: assist, support, facilitate, reinforce, nurture, aid, encourage, etc.

8. Pay attention to patient age and any times mentioned in the question. These are typically important if mentioned.

9. Make sure you're answer is within the scope of an RN (unless a delegation question). While nurses are more than qualified to take a temperature, if there is a more RN appropriate answer go with that one.

10. Finally, know what the question is asking. Most of the questions have at least one piece of unnecessary information to try and throw you off. Break down the question before trying to answer it or use the answers to help determine what the actual question is.

Hopefully this information can help some of you! Strategies were a big thing for me because even if I didn't know the answer or some of the content behind a question, I was able to turn to my strategies in order to answer the question correctly. Good luck to all future RN's out there- you can do it!