Welcome to Week #4!
Our online study group is moving ahead to Chapter 6 in the Selekman/Wolfe School Nursing Certification Review book. This chapter focuses on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and comprises approximately 20% of the possible NCSN exam questions. I want to extend appreciation to all of the school nurses who have posted on our listserv about their study experiences and thoughtful reflections. Let's continue the discussion this week as we continue to work through the texts and the questions.___________________________________________________________________Here are a few more multiple choice test taking strategies taken from: 11 Test Taking Tips & Strategies For Nurses * Nurseslabs :
5. Identify Similar Options
When an item contains two or more options that are similar in meaning, the successful test taker knows that all are correct, in which case it is a poor question, or that none is correct, which is more likely to be the case. The correct option usually will either include all the similar options or exclude them entirely. For example:
When teaching newly diagnosed diabetic clients about their condition, it is important for the nurse to focus on:
- Dietary modifications
- Use of sugar substitutes
- Their present understanding of diabetes
- Use of diabetic nutritional exchange lists
Options 1, 2, and 4 deal only with the diabetic diet, involving no other aspect of diabetic teaching; it is impossible to select the most correct option because each represents equally plausible, though limited, answers to the question. Option 3 is the best choice because it is most complete and allows the other three options to be excluded. As another example:
A child's intelligence is influenced by:
- A variety of factors
- Socioeconomic factors
- Heredity and environment
- Environment and experience
The most correct answer is option 1. It includes the material covered by the other options, eliminating the need for an impossible choice, since each of the other options is only partially correct.
6. Identify Answer (Option) Components
When an answer contains two or more parts, you can reduce the number of potentially correct answers by identifying one part as incorrect. For example:
After a cholecystectomy the postoperative diet is usually:
- High fat, low calorie
- High fat, low protein
- Low fat, high calorie
- Low fat, high <g class="gr_ gr_305 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="305" data-gr-id="305">protein</g>
<g class="gr_ gr_305 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="305" data-gr-id="305">If</g> you know, for instance, that the diet after a cholecystectomy is usually low or moderate in fat, you can eliminate options 1 and 2 from consideration. If you know that the cholecystectomy client usually is overweight, you can eliminate option 3 from consideration. Therefore option 4 is correct.
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Have a great week, and as always, enjoy the process. Learning or re-learning material serves as a great refresher to elevate our school nursing practice.
I look forward to hearing about your progress!
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Robin Cogan MEd, RN, NCSN
School Nurse
Rutgers University - Camden
Cherry Hill, NJ
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