First spread out your studying and know what the instructor expects of you to know on the test and then know a little bit more. (See me previous post for study tips that have worked for me and they keep me sharp.) Although an instructor may say, "You only have to know what I'm telling you in class on the test..." does not mean only know that information. Your pre-reqs are what you build your nursing foundation on, don't skimp on gainable knowledge in your classes.
My A&P instructor was amazing however she would throw curve balls at us. She would tell us you only need to know what's on the power points for the tests, this was false. There were several questions a test pertaining to information provided in the book. I would read every chapter word for word, sometimes skimming information we didn't go over during class but at least I had a handle on the material. I took my pathophysiology class on-line. Since there was not a lecture with it we were accountable to possibly knowing everything from each chapter in the book.
When taking the exam read all the questions through noting which ones you know the answer to. Answer those questions. For the other questions read the question, discover what the root and stem are then you can start getting rid of distractors. Once you can work on those start narrowing down the answer that is most logical or most right. There can be other "right" answers but usually NCLEX style questions are looking for the best answer.
Here is something I found about multiple choice test questions:
A multiple-choice test questions consist of three parts:
- the stem, which asks the question, poses a problem, or presents an incomplete sentence;
- the correct response;
- and three or four alternative responses which are incorrect, these are often called "distracters."
Once you get the hang of discovering the root and stem of the question test taking becomes an art. It is not impossible to be an expert at taking tests. There are good test takers then there are not. Knowing what is going to be on the test and knowing how to read those questions is what makes a great test taker.
Even if you're not in the actual nursing program yet or if you are I recommend a book that has great examples about roots and stems in it. Book is called "Fundamentals Success" by Nugent and Vitale. It's around $30 on Amazon if you can't get it at least borrow it from someone. It has 2 parts in the book, one about test taking the second part is NCLEX style questions.
