need help with studying???

URO-RN · Feb 4, 2005

Its my 3rd week of my junior year in Nursing school.I'm struggling to build a study pattern for myself. My 1st exam grades for Pharm & Health Assessment is a "D" I know I have time to improve on it but I needed to know how to study for NCLEX style exams because that is the exam pattern that my profs. are using for my class exams and I'm struggling with it. I'm a poor test taker on the NCLEX style questions. I want to really work towards improving my grade for these two classes so that I can continue with rest of my semesters more confidently and be successful in all of my upcoming class exams. All through my core classes I've never had a "D" or a "C" so I'm lacking on motivation too after seeing these grades of mine. Pls help. Maria.

NCLEX style questions are usually priority type questions. You assume when answering these type of questions you , as a nurse, have everything you need. You need to forget what you would do in a situation. Once you do that, you will see an improvement in your scores.

You may want to check out some of the NCLEX study guides out there for more study tips for these types of questions.

Also, does your college offer a free tutoring service?. or maybe forming a study group with your classmates?.

Just some suggestions.

Keep plugging away.

Best wishes,

Jo Anne.

checkers · Feb 4, 2005

Don't rush through. Those questions are very tricky. Read the question carefully, every word! Then underline the key parts, start eliminating answers, mark all over that test! and choose the best answer. That's all I've got.

Maria22 · Feb 4, 2005

Hi Jo Anne,

Thank you for your reply. Pls could you elaborate, "You need to forget what you would do in a situation." I'm trying to get all the assistance I can get to improve on my test taking ways. Thanks alot. Maria.

NCLEX style questions are usually priority type questions. You assume when answering these type of questions you , as a nurse, have everything you need. You need to forget what you would do in a situation. Once you do that, you will see an improvement in your scores.
You may want to check out some of the NCLEX study guides out there for more study tips for these types of questions.
Also, does your college offer a free tutoring service?. or maybe forming a study group with your classmates?.
Just some suggestions.
Keep plugging away.
Best wishes,
Jo Anne.

URO-RN · Feb 4, 2005

Hi Jo Anne,
Thank you for your reply. Pls could you elaborate, "You need to forget what you would do in a situation." I'm trying to get all the assistance I can get to improve on my test taking ways. Thanks alot. Maria.

Sure. When you read the NCLEX type questions, one tends to over analyze the situation in the question. I sure did. I used to say to myself,"well, what about if this patient didn't have xyz.." or "what if that med is not on hand"... or " that's not the way we do it at my clinic, hospital etc..".

Some of the answers in a NCLEX question are all correct. You just have to pick "the best answer".

peaceful · Feb 4, 2005

Its my 3rd week of my junior year in Nursing school.I'm struggling to build a study pattern for myself. My 1st exam grades for Pharm & Health Assessment is a "D" I know I have time to improve on it but I needed to know how to study for NCLEX style exams because that is the exam pattern that my profs. are using for my class exams and I'm struggling with it. I'm a poor test taker on the NCLEX style questions. I want to really work towards improving my grade for these two classes so that I can continue with rest of my semesters more confidently and be successful in all of my upcoming class exams. All through my core classes I've never had a "D" or a "C" so I'm lacking on motivation too after seeing these grades of mine. Pls help. Maria.

Nursing school is difficult, you are not alone with your struggle to keep grades up. Here is my study tips that helped me:

1. Tape lectures & relisten while driving, relisten and type out lecutre, organizing notes into a study guide. Remember the teacher will emphasize certain points, these points will be on the test believe me.

2. Practice questions out of an NCLEx book, only the questions you are currently working on ie, respriatory, peds, OB, psych, what ever you are studying in class & will be tested on, look up all questions & answers on that particular subject out of an NCLEX practice test question book.

3. Skim your chapters out of textbook, look at all bold, all titles. Look at chap. summary and questions at the end of the chapters. There are big hints on what is important to know.

4. Don't be afraid to go to your professor and say you need help, ask for guidance, you will be suprised.

5. Form a study group with serious students only, not ones to get tothegher and chat.

6. Make flash cards, read through them all the time, when stopped at a light, whenever possible.

7. Read the "Made Easy" books. I would use those, read through, then look at my textbook. These "Made Easy" books highlight the basic information on a particular subject any nurse should know. The information is not a mystery, you just have to figure out what your suppose to know.

Good luck, I know you can do it. Keep us posted on how all goes.

3.

RNSuzq1, RN · Feb 4, 2005

Hi Jo Anne,
Thank you for your reply. Pls could you elaborate, "You need to forget what you would do in a situation." I'm trying to get all the assistance I can get to improve on my test taking ways. Thanks alot. Maria.

Hi Maria,

I think Jo Anne meant to say - you need to "remember" what you would do in a situation. :chuckle

As far as studying tips - I think all Nursing tests are like the ones on the NCLEX - because they want us to be very prepared for that. We were required to buy the entire set of "Prentice Hall Nursing NCLEX - Reviews and Rationals. The books include - Fundamentals, Psych. Nutrition, Med-Surg, Pharmacology, Fluids & Electrolytes, etc... There are 9 books in all (cost $24.95 each at our college bookstore) - pricey when you have to buy all of them - but trust me, they are well worth it.

If possible, please check these out - the books and the CD's they come with have all sorts of NCLEX questions - answers are included to see how you did. Those of us who actually read over these books last semester were glad we did because quite a few questions on our tests came right out of the books "almost word for word"...

The way I study is to first read over "everything" and try to get familiar with the material - then I go over my notes as many times as I have to - until I feel like I know it pretty well. Last thing I do is use the CD's that deals with the material we will be tested on - to get a feel for how the questions might be worded... In lecture you have tons of facts and info. thrown at you and have no idea how they might turn that into a lengthy test question (with you being the Nurse) - these books help you put all the info. together to make sense of it all.

This is an example question from the Fundamentals book - which is the easiest of the books and we had this same question on a test last semester.

The Nurse would use which of the following methods of examination to assess for the presence of a bruit in the abdomen? 1 - auscultation, 2 - percussion, 3 - palpation, 4 - inspection.

If you know that you "hear" a bruit - you'll know the answer is "ausculation. There are tons of questions like this to get you thinking. Let me know if this helps you out a bit. Good Luck - Susan

mwbeah · Feb 4, 2005

I agree with peaceful, grab a NCLEX review book and peruse it, those are the kind of questions your classes should be geared toward.

Mike

URO-RN · Feb 4, 2005

sorry maria, i was too tired to make any sense. i went to the basement and found my old study guide. here is an example of what i meant:

question type: establishing priority

strategy used: answer elimination

consider this example:

a home care nurse is planning her visits for the day. which of the following patients should the nurse visit first?.

1. a 62 y.o. man 2 days after an inguinal hernia repair.

2. a 40 y.o. woman with type ! diabetes mellitus with a foot ulcer.

3. a 76 y.o. man with copd .

4. a 50 y.o. woman 3 days after a right mastectomy.

the difficulty with priority type questions is that all of the answers seem correct. first, reword the question in your own words. which patient takes highest priority? next, eliminate answers using the rules of management.

choice one: there is nothing that leads you to believe that the patient is unstable. usually, recovery form hernia repairs are uneventful. eliminate this one.

choice two: impaired circulation is a complication of diabetes, and this clients situation is potentially unstable. leave this one for consideration.

choice three: while this client has a chronic condition that reqs close monitoring by the nurse, there is no indication of an acute situation. eliminate this one.

choice four: this is relatively a new post-op client that has the potential for major complications. this pt should be assessed by the nurse. leave this one for consideration.

you now have answers 2 and 4. which client do you consider least stable? . the correct answer is 4 .

the only way to answer priority questions correctly is to eliminate answer choices. it's too difficult to pick the correct answer from 4 answer choices.

Maria22 · Feb 5, 2005

Thanks alot Jo Anne, mwbeah, Susan NC, peaceful & checkers all of your thoughts and tips on how to tackle my studying style is helping me stay motivated to study. Maria.

Arkhunter · Feb 5, 2005

Thanks alot Jo Anne, mwbeah, Susan NC, peaceful & checkers all of your thoughts and tips on how to tackle my studying style is helping me stay motivated to study. Maria.

I agree! I thought this thread was helpful also. All the tips are very appreciated! ~~ Annette