Christina Rafano shares four test-taking strategies for nursing students taking the NCLEX and school exams: get enough sleep, read questions fully and catch key words like negatives, don't over-interpret or add your own experience, and write an uplifting quote on your scratch paper to stay calm.
Chapters
Hello. Hello, Christina here again with nursingschoolofsuccess.com another YouTube live video. So today in this video we are talking about test taking tips. Now we've talked a lot about nursing school exams and how to take them, test strategies, things like that, specifically for nursing school. So today in this video, we're going to talk about more general test taking tips for nursing students. So we're going to talk about four of them and these four are ones that really helped me keep my cool through nursing school exams. So I want to share them with you and help you. I know we're coming up on final season and kind of last minute exams that our instructors can kind of slide in there for the end of the quarter, end of the semester, end of the term. So I know you guys got a lot on your plate. And so let's talk about test taking tips for nursing students. So the first one, obviously I got to throw this out here, is sleep. Now sleep, of course, is very, very important for a whole lot of reasons, but specifically for nursing students, I think for the most part you can, in college in general, just college in general, you can get by with less sleep for other disciplines, other exams that you would take, but not nursing school exams, not nursing school exams. You need to sleep. And here's why. Because nursing school exams are written to trick you. They're literally written. So you have to think very, very hard. So you've got to sleep. You really, really have to sleep. Make sure that you're getting as much sleep as possible the night before and preferably the nights leading up to your exam, multiple nights, so that you're not, you know, just crashing the night before your exam and then are still super tired. So you need to make sure that your mind is in the right place so you can critically think through your test. So critical thinking, we know in nursing school is huge. It's a huge deal. You have to do it for everything. Clinical lecture, your exams in particular, because your exams, your nursing school exams are meant to trick you. You've got to pick the best answer of all the possible answers. So really make sure that you get enough sleep the night before. I'm not just saying that because sleep is very, very good for you. Obviously you should sleep. I'm specifically saying it for nursing school exams because you need to be able to think critically. And this takes brain power. You have to make sure that your brain is in the right place, in the right spot space to allow you to critically think through these answers. So make sure that when you are, when You've got a test coming up, kind of set aside time, make sure that you are getting your things done that you need to get done so that you can get a full eight hours, at least seven hours. I don't know what, what do they say? But know, know yourself. You know, whatever amount of sleep that you need, make sure that you are getting that. For me, personally, I need, I need so much sleep. Sleep I have. My husband can operate on such little sleep. It's crazy. I don't know how he does it. I don't know. But for me, I need, I need so much sleep just to function or I'm like downing coffee all day long. So I really like. I. For what, for me, I definitely needed like at least a solid eight hours of sleep, not interrupted. So make sure that you're getting as much sleep as you, you need for you so that you don't need to drink 64 ounces of coffee the next day. Because that, that is not good for your nursing school exams. That will not help you critically think. So make sure that you, you get enough sleep for sure. Now the next tip I want to talk about is to read the full question. Read the full question. So a couple tips here. Make sure that you are looking for those key words, figuring out exactly what the question is asking you. Like I said, nursing school questions are meant to trick you up. So make sure that you are reading the full entire question and that you know what it's asking. So make sure that you're looking for those keywords. What is the question actually asking you? Keywords, things like, what's the priority? What's the first action that you're going to do? What's the initial action you're going to do? Make sure you're looking for words that tell you what you need to answer. What answer do you need to select? So here's what I mean. So sometimes a question will ask you, what is the nursing intervention that you would not do? What is something you would not say to the patient? You see what I'm saying? So oftentimes we're so quick to select an answer that's like, oh, that's a great answer, of course I would say that. But the question is asking you what you would not say. See what I'm saying? So of course you want to make sure that you're reading the question fully so that you know exactly what it's asking you so that you can select the most appropriate answer, the most appropriate, the best answer. Because of course, most of the answers are going to be correct, but you need to select the best one in your nursing school exams. So make sure that you know exactly what the question is asking. Make sure that you're reading it fully, read the full question before answering it. And so that will, that will definitely help you make sure that you're actually answering it like they want you to when you're not getting stuck on the kind of negatives, you know, what's it, what's the intervention that you won't do? Or what's the, what wouldn't you say to the patient? So make sure that you're actually answering what the question wants you to answer. Does that make sense? And then also another tip for this that I see oftentimes with nursing students is they, they don't think there's enough information in the question. There is. So do not add anything to the question. The question, now this is my tip number three for you, is to not read into the question. If you come to a question and you don't think they give you enough information in the question to answer it, girlfriend, read it again. Because, because they, they've written it. They've used that question before, most likely, and they know that it's written properly. So if you don't feel like there is enough information in that question, reread it again because there really is enough information to answer the question. I was totally like this. Like, this was totally me in nursing school. I thought I was a little smarty McSmart Y pants and I thought I knew better than everybody else or instructors. And I would be like, that is like they don't give you enough information to answer the question. And. No, yeah, they did. I just didn't know what I was talking about. So make sure that you understand that, that everything, all the information that you need is in that question. Do not read into it. Do not add any information to it. Do not think about your past experience and bring in your past experience into that question. No, no, no. Make sure that when you are answering the question that you, you answer it. In a perfect nursing school world. Nursing school world, nclex world is a perfect world. So make sure that you're not bringing your past experience. You're not thinking about the one time your neighbor's grandma had something cardiac going on and they did some weird crazy procedure and they're like, no, no, no, no, no. Don't bring anything, any of your past experience as a cna, as an emt, as a medic, as, as anything. No, like as, as a sister, mom, moms, especially do not bring in your experience as a mom into your nursing school exam. Just look at the question and figure out what exactly is this question asking, what information are they giving me and answer it based on that information. You see what I'm saying? If this is making sense to you, please write love in the live chat or the comments. So I know that I'm making that all this is clicking for you. So I hope that this is all helping. So make sure that you do not bring in your past experience into your nursing school exam question and don't read into the question. Don't add any information that's not there. Just focus on what the question is asking and make sure that you're answering exactly what they're asking. Now tip number four that I've got for you, that really, really helped me just keep calm, keep calm and just be in a really nice clear headed space was to actually write out a scripture verse on my whiteboard or the scratch piece of paper. So for the NCLEX exam, you will get a whiteboard in the U.S. in the U.S. i can't speak for other countries, but in the U.S. from what I know, they still give you a whiteboard when you take your exam and a whiteboard marker. So most nursing schools actually do that too to kind of prep you for it. So most nursing schools will give you a whiteboard or at least I would imagine a scratch piece of paper. So when you walk in, you know, when you walk in to take the test, you'll get a whiteboard or a scratch piece of paper. Do not brain dump because that's actually not allowed on the nclex and especially probably not in nursing school either. Don't brain dump. Don't write everything down that you know you studied list. So like when you get your whiteboard, don't brain dump all the stuff on your whiteboard. But when I would go into my exam, I would grab my whiteboard or my scratch piece of paper and then I would write just on the top of the whiteboard. I would actually write J 29:11 for Jeremiah 29:11. If you're familiar with that verse, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So that was just a really uplifting verse for me. And as I went through my exam, I would, you know, I would just glance at that, you know, J 2911. It would just kind of remind me that, you know what? God's got this. I can do this. It's no big deal. Take a deep breath, Christina. Because life is not ending right here in this moment as it feels when you're taking nursing school exams. Right. You feel like your whole world is coming to an end right there in that second. And that is not true. And God's got it. Don't worry. It'll be fine. It's gonna be okay. So I. That really helped me was to have a uplifting verse in my mind, write out that, you know, just a little reminder on my whiteboard or if you have a quote, a favorite quote that you like, something that's just brings more energy to you, brings peace to your mind, you know, just write it on your whiteboard or your scratch piece of paper to kind of bring that calm energy in to your nursing school exam. So I hope that helps. Those tips really helped me go through. I'm going to take a look at the chat because I've seen a couple come through. Aliyah, thank you. I'm so glad that these tips are helping you guys. I'm sorry, I can't figure out how to keep these comments up here on the live chat. I know that reading too deep in the question, Aliyah. Yeah, that is definitely, definitely a big problem. Reading too deep into the question, that was something that I really did. Like I said in my little story there, reading, I really like I said I was a smarty pants in nursing school. I thought I knew everything, and I did not. So maybe you're in the same boat I was you. Yeah, smack down, Christina. Smackdown. So make sure that you're not bringing your past experience into your nursing school exam. Make sure that you're not reading too deep into things, that you're actually confident. And be confident because it's true that the information that you need is there right there in the exam question. So don't read too much into it. Don't add any information into it. Just use the information that they give you in order to answer that question. So I don't know. It's probably one of the best tips I got today. So let's walk through the four tips I've got for you. Sleep. Read the full. So sleep the night before and all the nights leading up to it. Make sure that you are staying healthy, you know, staying hydrated, eating a good meal. I really focused on sleep because sleep will help you really critically think which you have to do for nursing school exams. Make sure that you are critically thinking through every single question that they give you. Make sure that. That you. You really are in the right mental space in order to do that and in order to be in that right mental space and have that you know, mental clarity. You've got to make sure that you sleep that night, but then also the nights before so that you that you are well rested and can actually critically think through your exam. So then tip number two is to read the full question. So keywords, make sure that you are focusing on what the question is asking you. Is it. Are you? Is the question asking you what you will do first? What's your initial action? What's your priority action? Are they asking you, would you say this or would you not say this? Like, what would you not say say? So make sure that if it's a negative, that you're actually selecting the answer that's appropriate for like a negative response. You see what I'm saying? So like, if it's what action would you not do that you are actually selecting the action that you would not do and not the action that you would do. You see what I'm saying? Does that make sense? If that. Right. If that's making sense, write love in the comments. I hope I'm explaining that right. I think I said that last time, too. I hope I'm explaining that right now. Make sure that like SATA questions, select all that apply. Answer those questions as true or false. You know, make sure you're reading the full question and are actually answering what what they're what that question is asking. So for SATA questions, this is a really great strategy for these is to make sure that you're actually going through each answer and answering it as a true false question. Go through each one, look at each answer, say, okay, is this one true or false? Based on what the question is asking. So make sure that you're actually reading the full question, making sure that you understand what the question is asking. Go through each answer in your SATA questions or select all that apply questions and make sure that you're answering them as a true or false. If they're true, select them. If they're false, then don't. But if the answer is if the question is asking you a negative, then if they're false, select those. Or if they're true, don't select those. See what I'm saying? So answer STATA questions as true or false. Now, the third tip that I've got for you is do not read too much into the questions. So don't bring your past experience don't bring your past experience as a cna, as an emt, as a medic, as a mom into the nursing exam. So make sure that when you're taking your nursing exam, that you read the question as it is written, as it's a perfect world. Everything, all the information that's there is what you have to work with. That's what you need. And make sure that you're not bringing any of your past experience into that exam question. I hope that makes sense. And then tip number four is to write a scripture or a quote at the top of your whiteboard to make sure that you kind of have just something to kind of lean on as you're going through your exam. If you get nervous, if you get tripped up on a question, then you, you can just quickly glance at that, at that quote or that scripture there to make sure that, you know, you can kind of, I don't know, bring yourself back in that mental space and, and make sure that you, you have a calm heart as you continue in onto your, onto your nursing school exam. So I hope these tips helped. Hey, I saw, I saw a couple comments here pop up again, so I'm gonna take this. Hey DeAndre, good to see you again. Glad you're here. Robo Terminator. Hello to you as well. So thank you guys so much for hanging out in the chat. I really love these live videos. And again, I think I said this last time. Oh, Claudia, sorry, I missed you too. Deep into the question and overthinking. Yeah, for sure. That's, I've noticed that that's sort of a mom problem. Nursing exams, for real. So if you are a mom out there in the world, don't bring your experience with your kids or with other people's kids or your nieces or your nephews or anybody else into the question. Make sure that you are actually answering the question, how they're asking you to answer it, and that you're, you're really not thinking about some crazy nursing intervention or nursing assessment or whatever they did for your neighbor's grandma, you know, that one time she had something happen. So make sure you're not bringing in your past experience into your exam. So I hope these tips helped you guys out today. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and, and I will see you next time. I hope you have a great week. I did pop a couple links down below in the description. I'll talk about that really quick. The NCLEX RN Mastery app. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love. So make sure that you snag that if you haven't already. That will definitely help you run through test taking questions. So if you're preparing for your nursing school, make sure that you actually are practicing your NCLEX course questions like nclex style questions because that's how nursing school exams are written. So make sure as you practice nursing exam questions you'll definitely want to practice those nclex style questions. And the nclex RN Mastery app is my preferred way to do that. There is a link down below to that 20% off for that app. Woohoo. Which is amazing. That is an affiliate link, so little disclaimer here. I will receive a small commission if you do decide to purchase that app through through my link down below in the description. Of course I'm not sketchy or anything. So you know that I love it. I did use it through nursing school so I thought it was super, super helpful. It's actually really great because it's broken down in categories. So whatever I was studying, you just like open the app and click the category that you are going through. Say it's like cardiac or respiratory or whatever. Fundamentals, Pharmacology. If you're studying whatever category you're studying, pull up the app and then take a look at those. Just answer a few of those questions and it's a great way to not only learn the information more, but also to just kind of rewire your brain and get into that nclex style question, you know, nursing school exam question space in your mind. So you. So the more practice that you get answering those questions, the more the better you're going to get at answering them because you'll be able to identify the things that we're talking about here, like reading the full question, making sure you're not reading too much into it, things like that. So you'll really get the strategies down the more you answer nursing school questions. I hope that makes sense. So definitely snag that up if you think that would be helpful for you. So there is that link down below. DeAndre, I'm so glad you got an 85 on your nursing exam. Thanks for our tips. Yay. I'm so glad for you. Thank you. We've had a ton of success. So I've not only with our members but also students on our email list. And people email me all the time saying that they've had a lot of success with their exams with these YouTube videos and with our, our blog and our, our all of our all all of the things. So I'm glad that you guys find this so helpful. I'm so glad to be here with you today so and always. So I hope those things help. I did just actually create a brand new YouTube playlist about test taking tips so that link is down below as well. So if you want more nursing school test taking tips, that playlist is available for you. Brand new. So I popped that link down below in the description so definitely check that out. I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend and rest of your week and we will chat soon. Take care you guys. Bye.
