D on my first exam

[truckinusa, BSN, LPN, RN]

Any suggestions what I can do? I didn't realize a test could have some many ambiguous questions and multiple choice where you choose the the 3 or 4 out of five that apply. Reminded me of intro to psychology. There were a lot of these type of questions, but I didn't do very well in that class either. I ended up with a B because of it. My grade suffered and I got perfect scores with extra credit to get the grade to a B on the writing assignments. I can write!

[Horsebytes]

I know how you feel. I have a BA degree but nothing prepared me for the way questions are in nursing school. It's a whole different way of thinking. You'll get the hang of it! No one gets into nursing school without a few brain cells so don't start the negative self talk. Review the test answers and you'll begin to learn how they want you to think and how they want the questions answered. Don't tell yourself that you aren't good at this kind of questioning - you just haven't figured it out yet. Be positive and hang in there!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

the key to these questions is finding the distractors and throwing them out first. Then look for the REAL question. When I was in graduate school I had a course in test item writing. WOW!! I kept wishing it had been there in my first semester of nursing school, but I might not have appreciated it then. There is a science behind test writing. Perhaps you can search for information at the school library or on the web regarding test-taking strategies. Good luck!

[rubato, ASN, RN]

Just took my first big unit exam today. I got a middle B, which is not what I'm used to (usually get As). We had a professor spend an hour teaching us how to answer these questions. Bring a highlighter. Mark the important words, like "only", "first", "most important". Then, take all 4 answers that are possible and label them yes, maybe or no. If you only have one yes answer, that's your answer. If you have 2, you need to look at the question again and figure out what specifically it's asking.

[truckinusa, BSN, LPN, RN]

Mark the important words, like "only", "first", "most important".

Are there any other words to look for. It is just crappy questions like "When is a nurse promoting health and wellness in the community?" The key word is wellness which elminates disease prevention, but it kind of sounds like promoting health. That is the kind of thing I have trouble with.

[seriouslyserious, LPN]

Just took my first big unit exam today. I got a middle B, which is not what I'm used to (usually get As). We had a professor spend an hour teaching us how to answer these questions. Bring a highlighter. Mark the important words, like "only", "first", "most important". Then, take all 4 answers that are possible and label them yes, maybe or no. If you only have one yes answer, that's your answer. If you have 2, you need to look at the question again and figure out what specifically it's asking.

i like this... lol so far, i read to treat multiple answer (check all that apply) questions as TRUE/FALSE. and now this. i am going to use this on my next test.

[knittygrittyRN, MSN, RN]

My advice is to take it slow and reread the question a few times while eliminating answers to make sure you have it right.I literally write all over my exam, cross things out, underline to make sure I haven't missed a keyword somewhere. If I can't narrow it down I skip the question and come back to it later and redo everything. Eventually you'll get used to taking exams like this and what they're looking for.

Everyone in nursing claims they're used to A's, that's something a lot of people struggle to move past. Just because your getting A's doesn't make you a better nurse. Focus on what you know and how to keep patients safe, not comparing test scores.

[future2012nurse]

Totally agree with russodem