Well, I sat the first time for this river bottom nightmare of an exam (anybody remember emit otter's jug band christmas?) on Monday and walked out of the place feeling utterly bludgeoned. I truly felt clueless on the majority of the questions both in terms of content and format. It was one of the hardest nursing tests I've ever taken. But, apparently, there was no reason for my premature swan song, as I passed at 75 questions. I never visited this board until I was sure I failed the test and then began searching desperately for a clue. Having now read many of the threads, I realize I should have found this site along time ago. Today, I signed up (hi, nice to be here!) Having passed the exam, I can only advise incipient test-takers what others on this board have advised ad nauseum. I know the test is different for everyone, but I'd nevertheless make sure you are over-prepared for the following kinds of questions:
1) Infection control. Yes! To say there is a lot of infection control probably is an understatement. I was BOMBARDED with these. I am lucky I passed because I was not prepared to answer these questions! I never had ANY questions like this in school, which is ridiculous, and they were not in any of my study materials either! Yet, it is no wonder they have these questions on the exam because this is such BASIC nursing! How can you be safe if you don't know this stuff? In addition, if you've ever been in a hospital, you've probably been on floors in which almost every person has Special Organism Precautions - presumably because caregivers breech the precautions all too frequently. This is causing lots of people to get sick and is costing hospitals patients and the healthcare system a LOT of money. If you've followed the political healthcare debate at all, you know how topical expenditure is. Again, it shouldn't be a surprise that the Boards are chock full of these questions. Anyway, I don't want to preach, the point is this: Know all stuff IC. Knowing now what the exam is like, I would advise everyone about to take the test to read the Standard Precaution (and Contact, Airborne, Droplet) section in the Appendix of your Medical Dictionary. I know Tabers has one. From there, start figuring out which diseases fall into which categories.Which of the following patients with diseases x, y, and z can be roomed together? Do doors need to be closed? Do they need monitored negative air pressure? Do they have to use disposable dishes? Can they share dishes with family members? Bathrooms? How long can vistors stay in rooms? What PPE do both you and they need to wear for disease x, y or z? Surgical mask? Particulate filter? What happens if they need to be transported? etc. etc.
2) Priority questions. It has been said there are lots of these on the test. Guess what? It cannot be said enough: There is! Which patient will you see first? Which intervention do you need to do first? etc.
3) Teaching questions. Holy Smokes! LOTS of these. e.g. Nurse understands teaching has been effective, if patient makes which of these statements? Nurse understands further teaching is needed, if patient says, which of the following? Which of the following should nurse teach patient being discharged to report to the provider? Nurse understands assistant needs further teaching or performed actions correctly when assistant says a, b, c, or d. Familiarize yourself with these formats. Take out your med surg book and look every single care plan given, at the very least. I've found that care plans make a lot of the teaching stuff easily accessible.
4) Client Confidentiality Questions. I had several of these. Nurse knows that which of the following constitutes a breech in confidentiality? You may think a question like this should be easy, that is, until you see the answers listed.
5) Patients condition is X, y or z. Nurse should question which of the following orders? Nurse should clarify which of the following med? I had a handful of these.
6) Cultural Questions! Not prepared for these at all and that's probably why they smacked me with several. One after another in a row. What religious practices need to be incorporated into care for Islamic people? What about for Orthodox Jewish people? Hindu? What are their rituals across the life span? What about their special diets? What about use alcohol? Were I to have to retake, I would learn as much as I possibly can about the beliefs and behaviors of major Orthodox religions AND "ethnic" groups such Hispanic, Chinese. etc. Do you know what "evil eye" is? It wasn't on my test, but it could be on yours.
Anyway, priority, teaching, infection control - you can't waste enough bandwidth reiterating this stuff! It was, for me, as for many others who posted here, the majority of the content. Don't make the same mistake I did, and enter unprepared for these questions. Sure, maybe I am a just a good test taker, maybe I won a dice roll. One thing is certain: I would not chance it and be so unprepared again. The only book I used was a Mosby's. I can tell you this: It was GARBARGE! I seriously think this book left me little more better off than I would have been had I sat for the exam without studying a lick. The content and format of the questions in this book, as I read someone accurately state in another thread, could not have been anymore different than the content and format of the Nclex. I was prepared to throw it away and sign up for Kaplan or NCBSN. Fortunately, I can start looking for a job instead.
Anyway, do what you will and best of luck to everyone!
Dude, I am an RN! I hope as we continue into the future, I can be of help to those of you who are looking.
Of course the more you know the better. But knowing only is not enough you must be good and with that I mean you must have some talent when answering these questions. One thing I discovered: When I read a questions I write down all the details and basically re-write the entire question on my own terms, make graphics with lab values or whatever it needs. Than I finally write what the question is "really" asking me. I then try to come up with some kind of answer on my own. If the Kaplan tree apply I'll use it. Than I look for the correct answer by eliminating the wrong ones first. But the key to this whole process is to think about the problem for a while and ask: why would this work? and most importantly think of the case scenario in real terms as if you were there on the floor...imagine a little movie going into your head. After doing that I begin to hit right answers more often. Is just me. It might not work for everybody. Not all questions take a long time but some do but it doesn't matter if you get them right, right? It might sound silly or too much work for just a question...but when you think about what stakes are cocked in "this" little questions wouldn't you do anything to save you from doom?
I think the best benefit of trying to apply all these test taking strategies during the test is that this forces you to slow down, think things through and you'll wind up using your time more productively than you would have just operating on autopilot. Anything that can help you do that, can't be bad. At the end of the day, though, I believe that a lot of the strategies are very imperfect or only apply to the perfect questions, which somehow the example questions used to demonstrate the strategies always are. :chuckle So, I say, learn all the strategies you can and use them to the extent that you can on the test, but don't be shocked into a state of paralysis or anxiety when during the test your strategies don't apply perfectly. You are right. One can't just blindly apply these strategies. Ultimately, you have to judge if the answer the strategy leads you to makes any sense. And I agree that visualizing yourself in the clinical experience is helpful.
great information
KAYBDT6, BSN, RN
1,602 Posts
:wshgrt::ancong!: