Strategies for Success Nursing school and the NCLEX board exam after graduation are not easy, especially when learned at an accelerated pace. Therefore, as a student starting my journey in an accelerated bachelors of nursing program, it is important for me to formulate a plan for success that I can follow throughout school and the board exam. Nursing school and nursing exams are unlike other disciplines as they require more than memorization. They require a student to perform higher level critical thinking and reasoning to apply the information they know to questions asked. For me to succeed as a nursing student, I need to consistently study effectively and apply useful test-taking strategies to my exams. As part of my plan for success, …show more content…
Solely studying the information will only get me so far. It is important to know nurse test taking strategies, so I will know how to apply what my knowledge to get the correct answer. Nursing questions involve more than knowledge because they require critical thinking, as well. One testing strategy I will use is to always pick the “best”, “most correct”, or most inclusive response. Often nursing questions will have several answers that could be correct, but it is important to analyze the options and pick the one that is the best choice or covers the other correct options (Lynn, 2018). Another testing strategy is to avoid answers that include absolute responses, including “always”, “never”, “only”, and “all”. Real life is rarely absolute, so absolute words often make answers incorrect. Similarly, it is important to notice qualifying words in questions, like “best”, “least”, “more”, and words that end in suffixes, because they will point me in the direction that I am supposed to answer the questions (Lynn, 2018). For example, if a question asks for the “least” affective option, I will know I am looking for the false option. Finally, it is always important to consider the nursing process and its order when answering nursing exam questions (Lynn, 2018). This means if I am asked what my initial action would be after hearing a patient complaint, my answer would need to be an assessment. I will implement these test-taking strategies, as well as others listed in the “Test-Taking Strategies for Student Success” by Pam Lynn, MSN,