Yes, I agree. Answer questions like you get paid for each one! The more you answer, the better you benefit. The nclex is a test of competency and there is no way for me to describe the best way to study. Some of the strategies for answering the questions I used came from Kaplan.
1. Textbook procedures, not real world nursing. (You always have enough time, staff, supplies and the orders are already there).
2. Care for the patient first and the equipment second. (If a patient in traction complains of pain, assess the pain before the equipment).
3. Be careful with answers like "call the physician, social worker, chaplain, OT/PT". The nclex will usually want to know what YOU, the nurse will do.
4. For priority questions, look for different strategies. Use Maslow, the nursing process, ABCs, Safety;etc. With Maslow, physiological needs (needed for survival) come before psychosocial needs. With the nursing process, ask yourself "Do I need to assess or implement?" If the question gives you the assessment data, the next step would be an implementation. With safety issues, your answer would be the one that causes the least amount of harm to the patient... like "stop the infusion".
5. For management of care questions, do NOT delegate assessment, teaching, evaluation or things that require nursing judgment. Delegate stable clients and tasks that involve predictable/standard/unchanging procedures.
6. For positioning questions, you're either trying to prevent or promote something. What is it? Think A&P here.
7. Communication questions seek therapeutic abilities. Things to eliminate "don't worry", "why", "authoritarian", "closed ended" and "explore" questions (explore means, "let's talk about why you didn't take your meds"). Don't forget that it's not about you, those "that happened to me" or "I know how you fell" are bad answers.
I hope this helps. This is the framework I used and I was able to confidently answer questions I had no idea about.
