Conquering Nursing Exams Part 2: Turning Struggles into Success Stories

I did a top five list of exam taking strategies and because that was so popular and people do ask me About how to do better on exams , I decided to do sort of a sequel to that episode With more test taking strategies and hacks and different mindset games to play with yourself . I talk about brainwashing yourself into thinking certain things .

That's one of the strategies that I use , so I just wanted to share a few more strategies with you today . So I do have an Instagram video on this . It's called the number one do and the number one don't when it comes to exams , but I am going to go through that now in case anybody hasn't heard that .

If you want more details , you can go check out that Instagram video . It can follow me at Nursing Student Coach . The number one do when it comes to nursing exams Is to read each question twice , and that sounds super obvious . It sounds like oh , you know what I do that anyway . Why is that the number one do .

But do you really read each question twice , every single time ? Or do you get a little nervous , or you get a little anxious about the time and you start to rush , maybe especially towards the end . It is so crucial to take that extra minute to read that question twice , because there can be one word in there that changes the entire meaning of the question .

We all know I say this all the time nursing exams are like learning a new language , so first and foremost , you have to know what is that question asking you , and if you haven't read it twice , do you really know what it's asking you ? I have absolutely made that mistake before and I've missed certain things .

I've told this story when I've come to speak live to nursing student classes that I once missed that a question was select all that apply . I just didn't even read it through apparently until the end and I didn't realize that it was the select all that apply question . So I only picked one answer and I got it wrong .

So it just goes to show read every question twice and read each set of answers twice . Know what you're working with before you even start thinking about how to answer it . The number one don't is don't change your answer . I know we've all been tempted to do it and if you're like me , you've even done it a bunch of times .

You pick an answer , you're confident about it , and then you start to think , oh no , is that right ? And you start second guessing yourself . You start playing these mind games where you think is this really the right answer ? Could be this , it could be that . Don't do it . Don't change your answer Unless you are 100% sure .

Maybe you misread the question , maybe you had a light bulb and you said no , no , no . I know 100% that this is the correct answer Because , statistically , your first answer that you chose , your gut instinct , is right . Go with it . Don't start playing the well-may be game , because you will be wrong , you'll get burned later .

I can't tell you how many times I reviewed my exam and the questions that I missed . I kicked myself and I said Lauren , what are you doing ? You had that right . Why didn't you have faith in yourself and just go with that answer ? Because you would have had it . You were right . So don't make that mistake .

Absolutely do not change your answer unless you are 100% sure that you should change your answer . Okay , here is a big one . I am a big advocate of this tip If you don't like everything about the answer , don't pick it . Okay , sounds good enough . That sounds easy enough .

But what I mean by that and I'm gonna for anybody that's watching this on YouTube or anybody who's watching on Spotify , you're going to see this question pop up . What I mean by this . Some questions on nursing exams have answers with two parts , and you'll see what I mean in a minute .

But the two parts might be there to throw you off , or they might throw you off unintentionally . Each answer has two parts to it , so common sense tells you if you don't like everything about the answer , don't pick it . Okay . Do we always have common sense when we're nervous and we're taking an exam ? No , here's the practice question example .

And if you don't understand this material yet , maybe you haven't taken pharmacology yet , because it is a pharmacology question . Don't worry about it . I'm just talking about the fundamentals of answering a question . Okay , a pharmacology professor gives their students high fives when they correctly identify CYP450 inducers as and then we've got our choices here .

We've got grapefruit juice and refampin , st John's wort and fenitone , ketoconazole and erythromycin , or aged cheese and wine . Do you see how each of the answers has two parts grapefruit juice and refampin , st John's wort and fenitone .

Okay , so if you're in pharmacology and you've learned about the CYP450 system , that is an enzyme in your liver that breaks down and metabolizes drugs , and some drugs use it for metabolism and some drugs don't , and there are inducers that speed up the metabolism and there's inhibitors that slow down the metabolism of drugs .

So you learn in pharmacology what are these inducers . So I'm not gonna get into a whole pharmacology lesson here , but what I am going to go through are these answers really quick . You've got grapefruit juice and refampin . Now you might see grapefruit juice and think , oh , that's it , that's it , it's grapefruit juice . They always put grapefruit juice as the answer .

Well , grapefruit juice is actually an inhibitor and refampin is an inducer , so it's half right , but half right does not make a correct answer in this case , right . Then we've got St John's wort and fenitone . Both of those are inducers . So if you knew that , you'd still wanna keep going just to double check , but that would be your answer .

Cuticonisal and erythromycin those are both inhibitors and aged cheese and wine that's what we call your distractor answer . That has nothing to do with CYP450 . That actually contains tyramine . Those are tyramine containing foods which are a problem .

When it comes to a specific antidepressant called an MAOI and you will learn about that it's a very important thing because it can cause a hypertensive crisis . But our answer here is St John's wort and fenitone , and what we learned from this is that you don't wanna jump to pick your first answer .

You wanna really pick it apart and say , okay , grapefruit juice and refampin , which one is an inducer , which one's an inhibitor ? You wanna go through each answer and make a hundred percent sure that you like both parts of the answer . You don't wanna just jump because you're nervous and you say , oh , refampin , that's it , I know that's correct .

Or get distracted by the grapefruit juice that seems to be on every pharmacology exam . And you don't wanna get nervous and just choose something because you wanna guess . You wanna really think it through because this system can be confusing . That's why you gotta take your time and really like every part of the question before answering it .

I've talked about other mindset strategies . You probably heard if you've heard , any of my other episodes or you've heard me speak in person . You've heard me talk about how Nursing school is like running a marathon . Well , I've got another kind of visualization exercise for you and that is called the concert pianist . So I thought of this one day .

I listened to all different kinds of music , but I was listening to concert piano music just on my way home , just trying to chill out one day after a particularly stressful exam , and it kind of came to me .

You know , I could think of an exam like a concert and I am the concert pianist and every day leading up to that exam I am practicing , I am plunking out the notes , I am practicing , practicing , practicing playing through that piece of music . And that's your studying , that's , you know , doing all your practice questions .

And when you get to the exam and the lights come up , you are that concert pianist . But you are fully prepared because you have done all of the work leading up to it . That music , those practice questions , hint , hint , do your daily 10 , those practice questions are already there , that music is already there .

So you can kind of think of the exam as huh , the lights are up and I'm about to go into my performance . I think honestly , 90% , maybe more , of exam taking success is your mindset , it is all mental , maybe even 100% , you could argue . I mean , you have to know the material , you have to know it , but at a certain point your mindset has to take over .

So I suggest 15 minutes minimum before an exam , because I know we all like to look over our notes and we're looking at things until the very last minute , 15 minutes before . If you're not ready now , you're not going to be ready . So you might as well get yourself into that amazing mindset that you know you can get into .

Just psych yourself up , rev yourself up . If you wanna try using this concert pianist analogy , use it . Listen to some piano concert music on your earbuds and just blast it . Go for a run while you listen to it and just get your mind in the game , get yourself excited .

And speaking of that , speaking of getting excited , because in reality , who's really excited to take a nursing exam ? Like nobody . Nobody's excited . But no , you're brainwashing yourself . You're trying to get to the end goal here . You're trying to get to the finish line , right ? So you have to be there anyway . Let's get into it .

Let's get excited about it , even if we're faking it , even if we are just brainwashing ourselves into being excited , into playing that concert piano music , into running that marathon , whatever it is that you are thinking of as your sort of tool , as your strategy is . Whatever , get excited about it . And I heard this once on a podcast and I use it sometimes .

I think it's a good strategy Is , if you're nervous which who isn't nervous before an exam ? Right , especially a big one , especially like a final or if your grade really depends on it , you tell yourself , instead of I am anxious , instead of I'm so nervous . You say to yourself and you can say it out loud .

If you're alone or with people who Won't judge you , you say over and over again I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited . You just keep saying it Does it sound completely nutty ?

Yes , but what this does is it tells your subconscious , it tricks your subconscious into thinking that you're actually excited and your anxiety ? It is actually Excitement and is transferred into it , is transformed rather into Excitement rather than anxiety . His anxiety and excitement are actually very closely related .

You know , sort of like laughter and tears , how they're very closely related . You can laugh and cry interchangeably sometimes , especially in nursing school , but Excitement and anxiety are also very closely related . So if you say , and you can just say it in your mind . If you're in a crowded classroom or something , you're not gonna start muttering to yourself .

It's kind of weird , but you close your eyes and you just think to yourself I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited , I'm excited . Try it , it works . It may just click something in you that you never realized could happen . That's what I've got for today .

If you have an exam coming up , I also have a video that's on Instagram . It's on my YouTube channel and it's called a pre exam pep talk . So I invite you to check that out . It is less than two minutes long and it's sort of just a heart-to-heart pep talk with me right before you go into an exam , just kind of revving you up , boosting you up .

So if you want to use that as a strategy as well , I welcome you to do that .

Whatever it takes , guys , I just want you to do so well on these exams . I want you to be out there passing your NCLEX , becoming working nurses and fulfilling your dream and living your why . So I hope that this was helpful to you .

If it was all , I ask that you share it with a friend , and I would be most grateful if you could pull out your phone and give me a five-star rating on Apple podcast , google podcast , whatever Platform you're listening on . If you're on Spotify , leave a review and if you're on YouTube , leave a comment .

Subscribe to the channel because I want to reach as many future nurses as possible and it is my personal mission to help put more great nurses into the world , and I thank you so much in your help with doing that . You can subscribe to our mailing list at nursing student coach calm and , as always , have an awesome day Until next time .

This is nurse Lauren and I wish you luck on those exams . Go crush it , be excited , bye , bye .