I know the Material but struggling with the tests.

[AriesMS]

i'm in my next to last semester of nursing at a university in alabama. i never imagined nursing school would be easy but i certainly didn't think i would struggle as hard as i am! i entered the program with a 3.75 gpa scoring great than 100 on all of my prerequisite classes. i've never struggled in school. i have good study habits and i know the facts as they are presented to me. however, on these evidence based nursing tests i'm sinking. i've met with my teachers and they all agree that i know the facts of what's being presented but that there is a breakdown on the actual test.

i've had many suggestions to use nclex practice tests to study with but my problem is that i generally ace those the first time through. i'm consistently scoring in the 90th percentile on hessi assessment test and do very well in clinical with the practical application of what we've learned.

i just can't seem to rationalize the correct answer on the test. i've met with each teacher and we've talked about test taking skills, study skills, tutoring ect... however the only result i've seen thus far is that the amount of time i'm studying has increased exponentially while my grades have been consistently low 80's or high 70's (at my school 80 is passing anything less is a failing grade.

i need some good advice from other students out there about what i need to do to change my mind set. i can give you an example of a test question that i answered incorrectly and what my rational was for answering it.

question: following the birth of the placenta the nurse follows the order to increase the pit. demonstrating one of the rights of medicine administration she knows that this is to....

a. assist breast production for the mother.

b. to increase the strength of contractions

c. to assist the uterus with involution

d. to use the last of the medicine up

obviously a and d are incorrect, leaving only b and c. pit does cause b to happen but the point of all of this is to start the uterus moving back to its pre-pregnancy state. so since the action of b is to facilitate what happens in c, i chose c but was incorrect.

any suggestions from those of you out there like me having the same issues would be greatly appreciated. again i do fantastic on the nclex review tests and the hessi practice tests.

gregg

[snow_bear]

I'm not in nursing school yet, but I'll take a stab at this.

My first thought was also D, but since you said that was wrong, let's go from there...

"D" (uterine involution) is really a gradual process that takes several weeks, and "C" (increase contractions) is an immediate need so I'm thinking that would be the correct choice.

[srobb11]

Pitocin is also given to reduce postpartum hemorrhage, so assistance with involution of the uterus is only a part of it. The action of Pitocin and the "reason" for giving it is to increase contractions, which help to control postpartum hemorrhage and aid in uterine involution.

If you look at the question, it's asking you to use "one of the rights of medication administration", which depending on what your school teaches, can be anywhere from 6-10 rights. We use 7 rights: patient, medication, dose, time, route, reason and documentation. The key here is the right reason, why is it being administered? It's being given to increase uterine contractions.

I don't know that I have any other suggestions for helping with testing taking that you haven't already tried. You may be reading too much into the question or not really picking up on exactly what the question is asking. If this is the case, try to focus on specific key words in the question that can direct you to what it is asking.

[Vershonda]

I suggest review Hurst test taking strategies. In the question I know the action of pitocin so I would pick b based off the knowledge of what pitocin is for..