Please help--- I am not sure what to do.

[tgif230]

I am in my second semester of nursing school, and I am having SO much trouble with the tests. I study my material backwards and forwards and I feel like I know it inside and out. And yet I am still not making passing grades on the tests. Apparently it is how to answer the question, not the question content? I asked my instructor for help and she told me to stop "overthinking" it. I am not sure how that helps me, lol. I need HELP! Are there techniques or anything I can use to help me answer these questions better, or understand what they are asking? I have 7 NCLEX books, I underline important parts of the question when I read it, etc. Any help would be appreciated!!!!

[JeckaRose-SN LCK]

I am also in my 2nd semester of nursing school, so we are in the same boat! I am succeeding and I owe it to Saunders Nclex Review. Its a blue nclex review book and I love it! I don't even read the chapters :0 ! That's a horrible thing to do, not recommending that but I am a SAHM to 3 little kiddo's so my reading is limited. I have passed and excelled on most tests due to this book. Seriously, its my favorite. Mosby's nclex review is really good also. I would also do practice questions on evolve.elsevier.com. On this website you can register your books and they quiz you over the material you've learned! It's awesome!

[itsmejuli]

Perhaps your teacher is right and you are over analyzing the questions. My classmate does this, she thinks too much about the questions and tries to justify each answer. You can't do that.

Read the question through once and look at the answers. Then read the question again and underline the key words and what the question is asking. Then eliminate the obviously wrong 2 answers. Read your underlined words/phrase again and look at the 2 remaining answers and select the right one.

Here's a really good example from the Saunders cd:

A nurse monitors the respiratory status of the client being treated for acute exacerbation of chronic COPD. Which of the following assessment findings would indicate a deterioration in ventilation?

a. cyanosis

b. rapid, shallow respirations

c. hyperventilated chest

d. coorifice crackles auscultated bilaterally

Hyperventilated chest and cyanosis are common in people with chronic COPD so eliminate those right away.

If you read through the question quickly you'd be tempted to select D. You need to read the question again, its asking about "deterioration in ventilation" so the answer is B.

Do not sit there and keep looking at the question and answers and telling yourself that all of the symptoms apply to COPD. Concentrate only on what the question is specifically asking, don't try to justify anything.

This is how I do exams and it works well for me.

[grayblueyes]

Something that helped me was to cover the answers, just read the question and write to the side everything you know about the subject (generally you'll end up with the answer or something that will help you get there) After you've written what you know then look at your answer choices and compare.