Critical Thinking Strategies

[vane225]

This is my first semester as a nursing student, I am feeling alot of pressure and confusion with how best to study for my nursing exams. They require alot of critical thinking regarding general nursing process, when answering questions I feel confused because more than one answer always sounds right. Are there any tips you can give me as far as judging what is the best answer.

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

Two answers will always be way off. Two answers will both be right, but only one will be the best answer. Similarly to SAT/GRE testing, you need to cross off the first two. For the last two, I definitely recommend you looking at the end of each chapter of your books for the chapter reviews. They will all have tests and are NCLEX styled.

Read the entire question *carefully*. NCLEX questions, as well as HESI questions, are not meant to trick you. Look for key words.

[krisiepoo]

Nearly every question we get will have at least 2 "right" answers and you need to figure out which one is "more right". For this I mean, assessment before implementation... safety before psychological... ABC's before much of anything else... get an NCLEX review book and start hammering out questions and you'll see how to start looking for the most right answers.

A couple of strategies:

1) If any part of an answer is incorrect then the answer itself is incorrect.

2) Formulate an answer BEFORE you look at the choices... know what you're looking for and then go find it.

3) In general, extremes are incorrect (always, never...)

4) Force yourself to master the terminology -- if you cannot define a word accurately and concisely, you don't really know it.