mastering the nursing school question

[MattyIrie]

Greetings!!

So i am a very new nursing student that is just now getting familiar with the "NCLEX style question" and i am intimidated as many students seem to be. I am a "pro" at attaining the lowest level of understanding (memorization) with material thanks to the pre-reqs but i am feeling very lost about how to effectively study the material in a way that allows me to gain the complete understanding necessary to be successful at this style of question.

SO, any tips on study strategies, question strategies, online resources for tools that help to guide the nursing student in the successful study of the material....etc.

It just seems that material that is not that challenging is being applied in ways that make it pretty challenging.

[blackandyellow]

Saunders NCLEX book has a section on the types of questions that you will encounter in nursing school and how to answer them. I would also ask your instructor mine helped me tremendously. I tend to narrow it down it two right answers and then over analyze them or get caught up in irrelevant parts of the questions.

[MattyIrie]

right now i am feeling as though there is an imbalance in the instruction but i could be totally misguided. I havent even had my first exam yet but we have these "clicker" questions during class and i am not doing as well as i would like to be doing. I am wondering if there is a difference that exists now between NCLEX style questioning and NCLEX style teaching and understanding (as in no NCLEX style teaching). By that i mean that material is taught the way it has always been taught, here are the facts, this is what it is, like the different methods and formats of charting for example. Its awesome that i now can memorize all of these different methods, formats and acronyms, but that is far from adequate if i expect to apply them in the NCLEX fashion. this is where i am stuck, finding strategies to attain that higher level of understanding.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Get a good NCLEX book...I suggest either Saunders or Reviews & Rationales. Do practice questions based on what you are learning in class.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

what you're asking about is, "how do i learn to think like a nurse?" the way we all learned is by learning how things work, and why they work that way, and what happens if they don't. when you get really good at rationales and causes, it will all fall into place.

if you want something to help you, the "...made incredibly easy" books are good. so are the nclex review books that focus on giving you the rationales, not just the answers.

good start!

[BelleNscrubs04]

Grntea pretty much said it. I'm using the "made incredibly easy" books before lectures. I read the material that corresponds to what the lecture is going to be on. It takes less time than our very large, very wordy confusing text and gives me a basis to better understand the lecture. After lecture, I read our text with my notes out highlighting the parts that we touched on in lecture. If I don't fully understand something then I read about it in the "made easy" book again or seek out another resource to get a better understanding (pictures help me since I'm visual). A really good full understanding of the material is the first step. Then I do questions from my text's study guide, the back of the chapter, and in Saunders' Comprehhensive review for the NCLEX-RN examination. Doing questions and reading the rationales from good NCLEX books that go along with what you are studying in class is really helpful. It helps you to better learn the material while also teaching you how to answer those style of application type questions. Good Luck!

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Sadly, the only way to get good at these questions is through practice.

The advice, strategies, and practice questions in Saunders helped me a lot. Especially the rationales. Each semester, re-read the strategy questions.

You'll get better!