What the heck is up with nursing school tests??!!

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OK, I just had my first test of my second semester of nursing school. I was thinking that maybe things will be new and the faculty will learn how to write a decent, straight forward test this time, but no......I studied 12 hours last night for the test (they did include a test matrix to guide study) and thought I had everything down pat. Wrong! I missed 21 out of 62 questions! Other people in the class many questions also, ranging from 15-27. One girl did only miss 7. And as you guys may already know, a 75 is passing...and I made a 66. This was a common occurrence last year where the questions were badly written (as in not leading to a clear answer) and the rationales in the key made no sense. Thankfully, I made it through last semester with all As and 1 B, which made me think that maybe I had it down. Wrong! I'm going to need a minimum 6 questions nullified just to pass. And I was thinking I was going to get a least a mid B. :crying2:

Long story short: does anyone else have his problem in their nursing program where the questions to your exams make you go "huh?" And on top of that, included typos and rationales that don't even match up with the supposed correct answer? And then include stuff that you hardly went over in class or in reading? Please don't tell me school has messed up testing skills. Even if they aren't the only, that's still pretty bad.

Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

Does your instructor take the questions from an NCLEX test bank or the test bank the author provides? All of my test questions come from a test bank, so we typically don’t argue the question. These types of test are not memory recall. So, simply memorizing the information will do you no good. You have to understand the rationale behind the information being presented. Also, it is important to decipher what exactly the question is asking. There are several websites that help students with that. For example, if a question is asking for the best intervention, would you choose an answer pertaining to conducting an assessment?

I hope it all works out for you.

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Does your instructor take the questions from an NCLEX test bank or the test bank the author provides? All of my test questions come from a test bank, so we typically don't argue the question. These types of test are not memory recall. So, simply memorizing the information will do you no good. You have to understand the rationale behind the information being presented. Also, it is important to decipher what exactly the question is asking. There are several websites that help students with that. For example, if a question is asking for the best intervention, would you choose an answer pertaining to conducting an assessment?

I hope it all works out for you.

Ours are from an NCLEX bank as well. I find that they are pretty much always clear and well-written.

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Not only do we have not-so-clear questions, every test has a few questions that are wrong: either two very right answers (and they're forced to re-grade and take either answer), mistakes on wording, etc. Last semester we had 4 exams and one of them was so bad the class average was a big fat F!

They don't take the Q's from a test bank here. They make them up. And with 4-6 different instructors lecturing on topics for one exam, they throw the whole thing together.... sometimes it works and sometimes it's a frog in a blender.

I don't know what to tell you. Seems like some schools are just like this. Look at the bright side... if you can survive their messed-up exams the NCLEX should be easy. :nurse:

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So I'm not the only one! It's crazy. I'm still waiting on my official grade from the test. I hope the delay is a good thing. :/

As for the poster who's whole class average was a F, I sympathize with you. In our Health Assessment class, everyone failed, initially, but one person, which was only a 75. They must have thrown out alot of questions afterward because I finished with a B overall after the deal. I worked for that B (no thrown out questions needed)

throughout the semester and I'd be damned to fail it all on one stinking test.

They made up their questions, instead of getting them from a test bank. I feel like Alice in Wonderland and they're the Mad Hatters.

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You must go to my old school. ;) It was fine until the last semester. I swear they were trying to weed 90% of us out. The average was a C on each test. Most of us hovered around that area all semester. I wasn't sure I was going to pass until the final exam. It was frustrating, emotional and horrible.

Most were studying from the NCLEX review and doing really well. Then they were flunk the test or barely pass. Some of the questions just were off the wall and the answer did not make sense. We were able to get questions thrown out if we could prove our answer - either from text or the internet.

Hope it gets better for you. Maybe at some point you will figure out what the game is. Too bad you have to do that and not actually learn the material.

Let us know how you did on the test when it finally gets posted.

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Well, the final grades have just been posted. I ended making a 75, right at passing. It's a relief and a bit of a bummer. At least I passed, but it's not what I am used to making. At least I know how to study next for the test, if that is even possible. I'm going to check out a good NCLEX book from the library until I have enough money to buy my own and pay more attention to the reading than she lists in the test review. The things I got from the test so far is:

1. READ more than the matrix, which I usually do, but not this time....bad

2. Review with the NCLEX questions at end of chapter. They sort of guide you.

3. Pick any answers that cater to the patient first before anything else

4. Pray

At least I got a 94 on a presentation in one of my BSN level courses. The class this debacle is referring to is Art & Science. If I can bring my grade up to a B, then I am happy.

Poster above: My program is known for being notoriously hard. Its ridiculous! Yesterday, before we got the grades back, we were still talking about the test and how many questions we missed. A couple of my classmates asked me "You passed, right?" and I told them no and that I had missed 21 questions, to their amazement. Yea, I have a 3.9 (they thought I had a 4.0...used to) and passed with all As and 1 B last semester, but the test was hard. We said we hope it isn't like this where 2/3 of the class fails the test each time. Does it have to be that hard where 30-40 people enter the school but only about a dozen make it to graduation? I'm nervous. 1st semester down, 6 more to go! The program is 3 years....:banghead:

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Specializes in Clinicals in Med-Surg., OB, CCU, ICU.

Do we go to the same school? LOL.. I have quickly made the sane decision not to get uptight with my test score. As long as I am making the same grade as the top people in the class, I simply am not going to strive for an A. It is simply not possible in a nursing school to always receive an A. Typos, missing letters and words in sentences, incomplete thoughts, wrong word choice or use of word in a sentence, they are all present in my nursing tests. Even with frequent complaints, the same mistakes keep showing up...:uhoh3::clown:

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IDK. I go to Houston Baptist University. It's supposed to be really good, but.......:confused:

As for the NCLEX book: I can't find a good one anywhere. The one medical book store where I knew for sure they had some turned to gone gone out of business since I last visited some months ago. I liked that store. :( :sigh: Back to the online retailers.

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Specializes in Family Practice, ICU.

I don't think you're alone in your frustrations. Grammatical and spelling errors aside, the questions are always challenging and often don't point to a clear answer. The questions are definitely in a different realm than the "simpler" test questions in the pre-requisites.

I was frustrated earlier this week because I got a 75% on my second OB exam, the one dealing with labor and delivery. However, I am also concurrently taking a math class, and had to study for an exam in that class as well as the OB test. I was frustrated because usually I score in the high 80's, low 90's. However, this time I didn't do the book reading, which I think wound up hurting me a lot.

Here are 10 things that I've found to help me do consistently well:

  1. Don't cram if possible. Study a little at a time, broken up over 3-5 days. Studying well means studying in a favorable psycholgical status. If you're in panic mode, half your energy is spent thinking about how little time you have and worrying about failing.
  2. Don't compare yourself to your fellow students. Everyone has different life situations.
  3. Do the book reading. Don't just go off of matrices/notes/syllabi. The teachers know that the students don't want to read the book. They prepare their tests accordingly.
  4. Get some sleep.
  5. Have some fun once in awhile.
  6. Keep a long-term perspective.
  7. Don't dwell on mistakes. Positive energy = productive. Negative energy = stagnating.
  8. Remind yourself why you're in nursing school, and how badly you want to get your RN.
  9. Find ways to quiz yourself on the material.
  10. Probably the best advice I can give: trust yourself on tests. It's very easy to second guess yourself on nursing tests, because usually 3 out of the 4 answers are correct. The question is which is the MOST correct. Honestly, the first answer that pops in your head is usually the correct one. So many times have I hemmed and hawed over a question, waffled between 2 answers, and then found out my first choice was right all along. Happens ALL the time!

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Oh, I like your outlook. I see myself in your comment. We have the second test coming up in the same class. I'm hoping to do way better, but if that is going to happen then I better get started now. Unfortunately, we got bogged down with so much work this spring break. I just did finish my care plan and all the other things that went along with it...hoping I did it right. this is my first one being turned in for this class. Then papers and everything from other classes. Finally, I'm pretty much through with all that, so its study time. I think I will be studying from now until Monday morning! I pray and hope that I do well with what I put into it. All of it! All of this work! That includes clinicals since I felt so dumb being on my own with my first patient. I want to cry. :( It would suck if I got a C. It'll only get harder..but maybe the other teachers won't have as much miscommuniation. that seems to be a a problem most of my peers notice.

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I'm entering the last term of my second year (so 6th term). Nursing school exams are tough...no doubt.

As far as typos and such that impede your ability to understand the question....are you not allowed to ask that stuff in the exam?

I will say though, our exams are hard....I'm doubtful someone could consistently pass by studying for 12 hours before the exam, there's just to much information, that's not enough time to actually retain it all. Additionally, our exams are cumulative for the program.....which is the other reason studying for 12 hours before likely wouldn't work. Oh and anything that is mentioned in class or in our assigned reading is completely up for grabs as test material...no matter how brief the mention.

I agree with one of the above posters...for me the key is to get back to basics....so, study/read every day. Go over your notes after class, etc. I also study from NCLEX books to practice those style questions.

Additionally, I've found NCLEX questions are often about prioritization. So, applying the information in the context of first doing the A, B, C's (airway, breathing, circulation) and then addressing Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

It makes sense that our exam questions are more about priorities than straight knowledge based questions. It seems that RN's aren't paid because of their ability to perform clinical skills....cause lets face it, anybody can be taught those physical skills....RN's are paid for their clinical judgement......which is all about prioritization.

Best of luck in your studies!!

Peace,

CuriousMe

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Specializes in ED.

We ALL have to cram from time to time and there will always be one or two tests that we just don't have adequate time to study for.

I have found that the best way to take a test is to interact with the test. I use a highlighter when i take a test and highlight what the important things are and what exactly is it asking. I also circle and underline key words/terms but I also draw a line through what isn't necessary to answer the question. I do the same with the possible answers.

I have had poor test writers every semester so far but I find that being interactive with the test really helps. I also learned that by going to ask the teacher to clarify a question can also be helpful.

There will always be some students that complain that "we never learned that in class" but I will argue that we are adult learners and we often have to guide our own learning. However, I do feel that if 50% or more of the students get the same question wrong but answer it the same way, that is a teaching issue. We had that problem on a Fundamentals HESI test last semester. We got a pharmacology question but we had not taken pharm at that point. The teacher said that out of 140 students 125 got it wrong. She threw the question out.

I guess my point is, maybe you aren't reading the questions correctly and may be reading too much into the question. There is a really great NCLEX/HESI prep book that tells you how to read the test questions and then sift through the wrong answers then chose the correct answer from what's left. The book is called Comprehensive Review fo NCLEX-RN examination and is published by evolve/mosby. The ISBN is 9781416047759. I have so much highlighted and tabbed in this book and use it regularly. Even though I've read through it several times I still find something new in it.

meredith

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