Any board examination is not just a simple 15-minute quiz on a piece of paper. This kind of examination is like a summary of your stay in college. It's about showing what you got or what you've stock in the past four years. Well, most of us can't hold a piece of nursing knowledge for a span of four years. The tendency is we usually forget them if we are exposed to certain distractions. Do we really have enough stock knowledge? Or do these knowledge are already stuck!
Most nursing graduates prefer enrolling in a review center; but most review centers are expensive. Yet, enrolling in these review centers will provide you greater chances of passing the board exam because of the nursing resource materials(lectures, practice exams, reviewers) you paid for.
But how about those nursing graduates who prefer to do SELF-STUDY?
Well, self-studying is a great way of challenging and pushing yourself beyond the level of your comfort zone. It's a way of disciplining yourself by living in a much focused world.
It is difficult, energy-draining and exhausting. But once you've passed the exam. It is more rewarding than those people who enrolled in a review center.
A simple food for thought: What you reap is what you sow. If you worked hard for this, then you will bear a fruit with a supple taste of sweet success.
Before reading the following tips you must carry on these three words. CONSISTENCY. PATIENCE and PERSEVERANCE.
These 3 words will be your cornerstone in passing the board exam through self-review. Without these 3 keywords, it'll be hard for you to conquer the challenges that you will face.
Here are the tips on preparing for the Nurse Licensure Exam through Self-Review
The Nurse Licensure Exam is fixed on July or December of the year (before it was June and November). If you have plans of taking the board exam by July and you graduated by March, it means that you have almost 4 months for self-review. That's already enough for most of us.
Review at least 1 or 2 concepts per week.
For example:
Week 1 - Monday to Wednesday: Fundamentals of Nursing
Week 1 - Thursday to Saturday: Cardiovascular Nursing
Week 1 - Sunday: REST
Week 2 - Monday to Friday: Community Health Nursing
Week 2 - Saturday and Sunday: REST
You can review up to 8 hours a day with breaks and you must stick with it. Remember... CONSISTENCY!
Take note of this, most people who are in a review center provides tremendous amount of knowledge in a lengthy way. You will usually start at 8 in the morning and will have a 15-minute break at 10 AM and beyond that most of us are not listening already because our attention span is not that adequate. In some scenarios, there are lecturers who are fond of extending their time just to cover up the required topic for that day which is brain-draining and exhausting. That's a type of feature in which you can't control if you are in a review center.
As a self-reviewer, you can control your own time and pace. You will have time in digesting every detail that you study. But I'm warning you... This kind of freedom can be abused by and it may lead to poor results. This will lead to the next tip.
This must be the most difficult part of being a self-reviewer. Depending on your location, it's in your preference if you want to study in your room, living room, coffee shop or in a mall; it's up to you. But each place has its own distractions.
You want to study in your room, but it is equipped with your laptop, television with your PS3 installed, your iPod, your gadgets and whatsoever. This will distract you from studying and your focus will shift instantly if these things are constantly present to your study place.
The solution, make a pact for yourself and stick with it. Use your laptop and surf the net after you finished reviewing. Play your game console after you've reached your day's review goal. Sounds like a tip for elementary students but it's true! Sometimes, when we grow up, we just make things so complicated, why not go back and make things simple.
Use these gadget as a way of rewarding yourself after finishing a day of review.
Don't use these gadgets in the middle of your review or it will ruined your day's plan. Always remember... PATIENCE!
A better plan? Make your preferred place free from distractions. Try keeping these gadgets to your parents and tell them that you will not be using it for the next 4 months. It's a sacrificial way of going beyond your comfort zone. Always remember... What you reap is what you sow!
Or convert these gadgets to learning tools. Use your tablets for reading Nursing Ebooks and reviewers or sync podcast reviews to your MP3 player, that'll be helpful!
A real best place for review? Of course, your college's library. I have a friend, who is a self-reviewer too, and he always went to campus and locked himself up inside the library. This is a great place because it is quiet and you have everything you need from books, reviewers and test banks. Plus, your professors are there so you can ask for their help in discussing and clarifying concepts you can't understand.
Don't read each nursing book page per page!
This is the worst way of reviewing for a board exam. If you plan to read each book page per page then good luck, that four months is not enough for you. The best way is to do selective reading and I will discuss it to you on the next tip.
All you need is Selective Reading
This is an effective tip that I can give you, it may work for most of us but to tell you the truth, this is the only strategy which I used when I was self-studying for the board exam.
How Selective Reading works?
For example... For today, you will study about Fundamentals of Nursing. All you have to do is to answer at least 100 nursing questions about Fundamentals of Nursing. Just answer it!
After answering 100 nursing questions. Know your score. If your score is 65 over 100. It means you have 35 wrong answers. All you have to do is to focus on your wrong answers. It is just an optional to read the rationale for your correct answers but focus more on your wrong answers.
For example: one wrong item is all about oxygenation. Then you must read the rationale, and study more about oxygenation on Fundamentals of Nursing. That will be one of your focus for the day!
The whole nursing concept is a massive jungle of ideas and knowledge. It'll be difficult for us where to start in preparing for this type of board exam. In this strategy, it will filter out your stronger concepts and will make your weaker concepts more prominent This will give you an opportunity of strengthening these weak concepts.
Answer Lots of Test Questions with added Selective Reading
Answering lots of test questions with added selective reading is a great way of preparing for the board exam.
The Nurse Licensure Examination has a total of 500 nursing questions. In a span of four months, let's say, through your self-built schedule, you review for 5 days a week and you answer a total of 100 questions a day. So that's a total of 500 questions a week. And you do it consistently for four months. That'll be a total of 8,000 nursing questions!
8,000 nursing questions against the 500 nursing questions of a board exam. Not bad right?
The board exam is not a 'know it all strategy'... It is more of answering lots of practice questions and with this type of strategy you will also develop test taking skills. Plus, there are tendencies in which you will face a question in the actual board exam which is quite similar with a certain question that you faced during your self-review. That's why answering lots of questions is an effective way of preparing for the board exam.
Focus on the Basic Stuff and Don't Complicate Yourself
The Philippine Nurse Licensure Exam are made for entry-level nurses so you must learn only and nothing but the basics. Enough said.
Share and Connect
The idea of no man is an island is applied in this tip. Being a nurse is like being involved in a community. We are built as one body and every nurse has its own function for optimal performance. Thus, if everyone's goal and vision is to pass then everyone has its own responsibility in passing the board exam.
Share your knowledge to your friends. Share lectures, reviewers, correct confusions and always keep in touch. Don't be too selfish, share what you know and help each other in developing your knowledge and skills. Your folks and your family will be your great supporters during the arduous four-month review of adventure; and if all of your friends passed the exam then it's a one great success of both teamwork and friendship.
Prayer can move mountains
Above all the tips that we mentioned, this the best. Surrendering everything to the one who is mighty to save. If a prayer can move mountains, then how small your problem is. The board exam is a 500-item exam yet you have a greater God who knows no limits. Preparing for the board exam is about 10% Knowledge and 90% Prayer. Faith without action is dead. Thus, with Consistency, Patience and Perseverance... Your diligence will bear fruit with a taste of sweet success!
Review faithfully and God bless future RNs
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nsgdiscussion
it would really take a lot of effort to pass the board exam...perseverance is a big factor...sacrifice...a lot of sacrifice...and of course don't forget the power of prayer!....Good luck to all those who are having their review...Yahweh bless