nursing exams, can you prepare like it's A&P and do well?

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nursing exam this week, it has 65 multiple choice questions, 5 lab/clinical questions, 5 math calculation questions.

[color=#483d8b]i have spent the last week reviewing the core concepts very thoroughly on 4 of the 6 topics.

[color=#483d8b]do i spend the next 1/2 week continuing as i have, really thoroughly learning the topics?(htn, diabetes, integument, fluids&electrolytes, sex, elimination) or

[color=#483d8b]do i move on to practice exams (nclex-style) and thinking like a nurse, applying my knowledge?

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[color=#483d8b]i know everone is different and has to do what is right for them. with that said, this is my first semester in nursing school and i certainly am not an expert, i had no problems with any of my pre-req's, 4.0 gpa, always tried to learn the concepts not memorize, never had any problems. i am getting alot of people telling me though that if i want to be successful in ns, i need to change and conform to the new style. i am willing if that is what it takes but not sure that is what it takes??

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[color=#483d8b]if i know the topics, hypothetically, i should be able to apply my knowledge and answer those lovely nclex style multiple choice questions right?? nursing exams are a horse of a different color. as everyone keeps saying. i feel like understanding what hypertention is, the meds used and how they work, what effect they have on the body, their side effects, important lab tests, nursing implications - for example, then i should be all set. i have been doing the 10-20 questions at the end of each chapter but when i move on to the nclex books i find myself contemplating scenarios or medication information that our instructors have not made us responsible for on our exam. so i feel like i am wasting my time and confusing myself. my dear friends are telling me though that this is nursing and not a&p and i need to focus on how to pick apart those multiple choice questions because mastering this type of exam will help me pass the nclex and ns because apparently you don't need all the facts???? i have no idea but i do know that my husband is taking the kids out tomorrow and i want to study something!

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[color=#483d8b] what i will study is the question?:uhoh21:

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Hi there! What I usually do is study everything thoroughly and then practice the NCLEX questions. It is true that studying for A&P is very different from nursing. I know for my nursing exams, they usually have about 3 different correct answers BUT you have to choose the BEST answer so that is when your critical thinking skills come into play. Anyways, the NCLEX questions basically helped me get a better idea of how I should think and attack the question. I hope that helps! :)

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I read the textbook and follow it up with some review questions drom Mosby or Saunders to see if i understood the material. i fine that A&P was more memorizing while nursing questions are more application questions.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

it's hard to answer your question because i don't know what style of questions your instructors are going to ask you on your test. if they ask you straight out questions to spit back information about the subjects you were responsible for and that's what you studied, then i would say that you shouldn't have a problem. if the questions on the test are formulated in the style of the nclex exam (application type questions) and you have never had these kinds of questions before then you will need to do some education of yourself about them and how critical thinking fits into the answering of them. the only subjects where i can see the issue of critical thinking questions coming up might be with htn, diabetes and fluid and electrolytes. with these, you would always need to keep in mind their signs and symptoms (especially of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, all the hypo- and hyper- situations for the 6 major electrolytes), the underlying pathophysiology of each (what causes them) and the priority of treatment for them. then, when answering questions, read the stem of the question very carefully and don't get distracted by what some of the answer choices are telling you. some instructors deliberately try to distract students into choosing a wrong answer by putting enticing information into one or more of the answer choices making the students think that is information provided as part of the question when it is not. it fools you into picking them and they are the wrong answers. students post test questions for discussion on allnurses all the time. i keep a list of the better ones and you can read some of them:

you should also review the suggestions and information on this sticky thread:

there is a discussion about the pathophysiology of hypertension on the website

i also addressed it on this thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/help-pathophys-hypertension-295077.html.

for diabetes, you will find weblinks on this thread:

and, for the fluids and the electrolytes, see posts #23, #24 and perhaps #45 on the sticky https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/pathophysiology-p-microbiology-fluid-electrolyte-resources-145201.html - pathophysiology/ a & p/ microbiology/ fluid & electrolyte resources.

if you need iv information see the posts on the sticky https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/any-good-iv-127657.html - any good iv therapy or nursing procedure web sites

best of luck with your test!

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Hello, this was my problem too. In our school, 1st year was kind of a review on the systems with nursing added to it. This year it was all nursing. My advice to you is do the NCLEX questions because you need to know your priority interventions. Usually that is what the questions ask (in my school anyway) and they have lots of teaching in our tests too. So basically you have to know the stuff AND what you are going to do about it.I study more on nursing interventions than the actual patho of a disease. Our teacher told us that we are not the doctors, so that made me stress less about the patho part and more on the nursing. And so far I have been successful. Hope this helps.

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Thanks Daytonite! I have read many of your posts and you always offer such useful advice. The exam questions are NCLEX style, this is my third exam of my first semester. The first exam I studied like I always have and got an easy A, the second exam I didn't focus on the facts as much and tried to "think like a nurse" (bad idea, I'm not one yet!)and focused a good chunk of my time doing the practice nclex questions that came on a Cd with my text. I thought that the ABC's, maslow, priority of tasks, etc would bring me to the correct answer. I feel that I am very good at determining what the stem of the question is. I underline key points, go over all the possible answers and cross out what I know is wrong, etc. On this second exam however, my grade went down 12 points! Not that a B is the worst thing but I left that exam review thinking that if I had just focused on the facts, known the meds, signs and symptoms, etc I could have done so much better. Maybe I was studying correctly (for nursing school) already? When I go over say HTN, I don't memorize. I try to think it out, if SV increases what would logically happen to the BP and why? What else would happen in the body? So even though I am not applying it to real life scenarios with people maybe I don't have to? I don't know!!! I am just disapointed in my exam 2 grade so I want to do really well on this one to make up for it AND get a program for exam prep for the next 3 semesters. I have a friend who is a year ahead of me and she said that the topics get more difficult (obviously) and more in depth. I was a good student before nursing school and I would like to continue to be. I am just hearing from so many people that I should be doing a ton of nclex style practice questions (one friend does 200 on each topic, I am doing the 10 at the end of the chapters) Anyway, thank you for the links, I am going to check them out now

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I read the text and use the study guides. Then I do NCLEX-styled questions for practice. I also use the books Fundamentals Success and Test Success for the practice tests.

Most of the test I've encountered in nursing school have been critical thinking oriented. While some facts can be memorized for regurgitation, it all boils down to the nursing process and which answer has the greatest priority relating to the question.

I feel like it is hit or miss. Some days I am right on target and other days I am way off!

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Hi there! What I usually do is study everything thoroughly and then practice the NCLEX questions. It is true that studying for A&P is very different from nursing. I know for my nursing exams, they usually have about 3 different correct answers BUT you have to choose the BEST answer so that is when your critical thinking skills come into play. Anyways, the NCLEX questions basically helped me get a better idea of how I should think and attack the question. I hope that helps! :)

Thanks for your comments! :coollook: My my thing is, if you studied the material, which includes understanding the priority of needs (maslow, ABC) and nurses responsibility, wouldn't you know the best answer or more correct answer? How does spending a bunch of time taking practice tests help vs. spending that time really learning the material?

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