SOJ Pediatrics and Clinical Neonatology

Nursing students will take hundreds of tests throughout their academic career to evaluate their ability to practice safely and effectively as a bedside nurse. However, if such students are to take such tests effectively, they must sufficiently practice and prepare.

How should nursing students prepare for their nursing exams? They should prepare for an exam as they would for a driving test to receive licensure. How would the driving student do on their driving test if they only read the driver’s manual or the rules of the road and never sat in the driver’s seat? The driving student would have to get in the driver’s seat of the car and practice truly driving to best prepare. It’s more than reading about the experience of driving. It is about doing it! Likewise, nursing students should implement practice exams before taking actual exams.

Practice exams should be taken immediately after the student has received lecture and has read the applicable chapters of the textbook. The purpose of a practice exam is to simulate taking an exam and to evaluate and correct knowledge of content and test taking strategies. It goes beyond simply taking a practice exam and looking at the score of such an exam to gauge how well he student will perform on the real exam. The student should review all questions-both correct and incorrect to improve their understanding of the content.

For items answered correctly, the student should evaluate if they know why they chose the correct answer and why the other options are wrong. This should be written out in notes format. It also should be noted if they guessed the answer correctly.

For items answered incorrectly, the student should try to figure out why they got it wrong by going through the following line of questions and making notes on their answers to each:

1. Did I know the content? (Did I learn it correctly? Write down the page numbers for the questions answered incorrectly from your textbook so it can be re-read/make notes and or flashcard to clarify/correct knowledge)
2. Did I change my answer? (from right to wrong? From wrong to wrong? Remember to not second guess yourself. Most “gut” answers are the correct answer.)
3. Did I add a “what if” or other content to the question?
4. Did I misunderstand the question? (Did I memorize a definition incorrectly for a word in the sentence? Miss key words like early/late/during, contraindicated, except, or always etc.?)
5. Did I misread the question altogether?

The notes on correctly and incorrectly answered items should be collected in a binder or gathered electronically in word documents so that students can record and review their outcomes of taking practice tests. They should be organized by date, topic and/or textbook chapter so students can refer back easily to prepare for future examinations. Flashcards should be written on topics that students find themselves repeatedly answering questions incorrectly after re-reading those parts of the textbook. The flashcards or notes should be made to write the correct content down so it can be reviewed at least once every 24 to 48 hours before an exam.

Many students come to professors, advisors, and student success personnel asking for a more organized way to perform better on exams. By utilizing a strategic learning procedure such as practice test question remediation, students will be able to practice test taking strategies but more importantly correct their knowledge of content they learned during class or through reading the textbook. Proper remediation also encourages students to read more effectively by helping them to fix understanding of previous incorrect comprehension of content. Nursing education faculty, advisors, retention specialist, and administrators should encourage this learning/evaluation strategy in nursing students and train nursing students on how to complete proper practice question remediation during the first week of class and continuously reinforce throughout the semester and their academic career.^1,2

1. A. Take the practice test question.
2. B. See if you got it right or wrong.
3. C. Write out the topics to all questions and then if you answered them correctly or incorrectly. Then make the following notes as directed below based on if they were answered correctly or incorrectly.

1. a. If you got it WRONG, try to figure out why you got it wrong:

(Choose from one or more of the below why you got the question wrong)

1. i). Did you know the content? (Did you learn it correctly? Write down the page numbers for the questions you got wrong from your textbook so you can re-read them/make notes and or flashcard to clarify your knowledge)
2. ii). Did you change your answer? (from right to wrong? From wrong to wrong?)
3. iii). Did you add a “what if” or other content to the question?
4. iv). Did you misunderstand the question? (Did you memorize a definition wrong for a word in the sentence? Miss key words like early/late/during, contraindicated, except, or always?)
5. v). Did you misread the question altogether?
6. b. If you got it RIGHT, ensure you did not guess by going to step 4.
7. D. Now go back to the textbook and read the section or chapter on the topic of the question to see if you misread or incorrectly learned a part of the content.

1. a. Look at all the answers and find out in your textbook to clarify each wrong item is wrong and why the correct item is indeed correct.

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The author declared no conflicts of interest.