Scott Chisholm Lamont, RN.

Listed on:

Search 4 RSS

Yeah, I'm a Technorati member

Weblog Directory Directory of blogs from all around the world.

)O( Green Man

Students find taking tests very stressful, yet this will be an inevitable aspect of the student experience, up to and including the NCLEX (or CNATS, or whatever your national RN board exam might be called). After that, there are certification exams, verification exams for various required programs like Advanced Cardiac Life Support, and for those continuing on to graduate school, the dreaded GRE. In my experience as a lecturer and clinical instructor, I've been asked for advice, and I've seen poor performance that could easily be remedied by a few simple changes in approach. Here is the handout I've created for my students:

Guidelines for Writing Exams & Studying

Study habits:

• Start your reading by scanning to get an idea of the scope of the material
• Don’t read the text like a novel (as in from beginning to end without reviewing, pausing to think, or prioritization)
• Re-read carefully, going over anything unclear several times, or taking time to flip to cross referenced material
• Repetition is the key to memorization – if something needs to be easily recalled, rereading and practicing are the best techniques to achieve this
• Keep a dictionary and similar reference materials handy
• Make sure you understand the concepts behind the details – if you understand how or why something works, you can generally problem solve to reach the correct answer even if you don’t remember all of the details, whereas if all you have is a handful of memorized facts or details, you may not be able to identify the correct answer if the question is testing comprehension
• Use any method that helps you remember key points or guides your studying for exams, for example: highlighting key words or phrases, flagging pages that have important tables, making a list of items or concepts you find most difficult
• Take advantage of all the practice questions in the course syllabus, NCLEX samples, or similar guides
• Study in groups and challenge each other’s knowledge
• When studying, don’t obsess over complete coverage, you can’t remember it all: focus on items you found hard to recall or understand, WITHIN the framework of the learning objectives or content outline provided

Before the test:

• Get a good night’s sleep – cramming the night before is less helpful than having a clear head in the morning
• Eat breakfast (or lunch, if it’s an afternoon test) – your brain cannot function properly if you are hungry
• Caffeine does appear to help mental function, so a coffee before a test may be a good thing – just don’t drink so much that you are buzzed!
• If there are things you know you will have trouble remembering, put them on index cards or a single sheet of paper, and review those things right before the test
• Take deep breaths and try to relax

Test taking:

• Don’t leave blanks! Ever! Guess if you have to
• Eliminate clearly wrong answers right away, then critically examine the remaining possibilities for the best response
• Answer those items you are confident about quickly (this won’t work in forced answer exams like the NCLEX or some specialty boards and the GRE – those exams are dynamic, and give you your next question based on your last response so you must take time to be very sure about the first 10 to 15 answers you give, as if you do poorly on them it limits the final possible score) - Click here to see my blog post on writing the new NCLEX exam
• Next, focus on any answers that are worth more points (that includes grouped questions, like ones around a particular scenario)
• If there is no clear good answer or you are drawing a blank on a written answer, think it through – the answer is generally logical and you can often arrive at the correct response (or at least some points) based on your own problem solving ability
• Double check all calculations by working any formulas backwards, making sure you didn’t miss a step (like dividing a dose by a concentration to obtain a volume), and then look at the answer and ask yourself “Would I really give this to a patient, or would it scare me to draw this up (or set the IV pump this way)?” – if you are worried it seems like an unreasonable answer, leave it for a moment, then go back and re-calculate from scratch
• Keep an eye on the time, don’t waste much time on items only worth one point
• Scan the exam before handing in to make sure there are no blanks

After the test:

• Be kind to yourself. Take a break. Reward yourself with a treat. I strongly recommend chocolate
• Don’t obsess
• Keeping the "Don't obsess" suggestion in mind, try to use the test as a learning experience - ask yourself how well your studying worked for you (change what didn't work), look up what you didn't remember or weren't sure about (it sticks better that way, even if you got it wrong), and if possible, use the opportunity to review the graded exam

Good luck!

Cite as: Lamont, S. (2005). Guidelines for Writing Exams & Studying. Available on-line at: http://www.thuntek.net/~sclamont/nursescott/essays/exams and studying.htm. Retrieved: [date].