The first thing to remember when trying to answer a question on the nclex cd is that it isn’t a test of your ability to recall facts. You need to first determine what the question is asking and then be able to think through a problem or situation that the question presents to you. Background information that isn’t related to the question will not be useful to you.

Critical thinking is the key to answering the nclex study test questions. Thinking critically as a nurse involves observation, deciding what’s important, recognizing patterns and relationships, identifying the problem, being able to apply knowledge to a number of different situations, discriminating between different answers, and evaluating based on established criteria.

Let’s begin at the beginning. You have to decide what the question is asking first and then eliminate answers. This usually means that you need to determine what the best answer is, as some of the distracters are also be true. In order to analyze and interpret just what the question is asking, you should put the questions into your own words.

Number One, read each word slowly as you decipher the question. If you skim, thinking about getting to the end of the question, you may skip over important meanings.

Number Two, look for clues in the actual wording of the stem. Words like, most, best, first, and initial are telling you to establish priorities. Phrases like, further teaching is necessary are telling you that the answer will have incorrect information. The phrase “client understands the teaching” tells you that the answer will have correct information.

Number Three, you need to reword the stem so that it reads with words that are familiar to your own vernacular and can be answered with a yes or no. You should start with words like what, when, and why.

Number Four, read the answers for clues if you can’t do number three.

Let’s reword the following question for practice:

A six year old girl has a fractured femur and her parents take her to the emergency room. Her parents replied, when asked how the injury happened, that she fell off the couch. During the exam the nurse finds several lesions on her buttock. Which statement would be most appropriate for the nurse to record from her findings?

1) Slowly and carefully read the stem.

2) The adjectives “most appropriate” means that you need to choose the best answer.

3) Using your own words, ask the stem question. “What is the best charting for this situation?”

4) You don’t need to read the answers for clues since you were able to complete step 3.

Over the next several days, you will be receiving additional installments in this exciting and informative series. If you are truly serious about taking control of your future by passing the NCLEX-RN Exam, we hope you will take time to read each installment. In fact, you might consider printing out each installment so you can have them all in one place when you need to refer back to them in the future.

In this, the first installment of the “Crack the NCLEX-RN Code!” mini-eCourse, we’re going to explore ways to “deconstruct” the types of multiple choice questions you’ll see on every page of the exam.

Multiple choice questions have three basic parts to them:

1. The stem contains the situation of the patient; problems and health care needs.

2. A question or incomplete statement that you must answer follows the situation.

3. The three wrong answers are called distracters. The correct answer is what you are looking for.

Distracters will contain some logic according to the stem, but they will not specifically answer the question. They may also be common nursing practices, but not the best ones.

The correct answer is what you must choose and what you must learn to detect by understanding the logic behind nursing care.

For example, an NCLEX-style question must be broken down into its components:

A four-year old girl who has been sexually abused by her father is scheduled for play therapy with a nurse. The nurse knows that the primary goal of play therapy for a four-year old is to…

a. Determine through direct observation of the girl during play what kind of abuse has occurred.

b. Encourage communication since the girl may not have the emotional or intellectual ability to verbally express her perceptions.

c. Assess whether or not she is functioning at the right developmental level.

d. Give the girl the opportunity to show anger and hostility with dolls during play time.

The components of this question are:

Stem – four year old girl, sexually abused by father, scheduled play therapy, primary goal of play therapy for a four year old.

Answer choices –

a) Determine what kind of abuse has occurred. The child might willingly communicate what kind of abuse she’s endured. The nurse should concentrate on the purpose of play therapy and not on the type of abuse. **This is a distracter.**

b) Encourage communication. Children communicate through play and the goal of play therapy is to encourage communication of children by using their own language.

**This is the right answer.**

c) Assess her developmental level. Even though the nurse would probably be able to determine what developmental level the child is functioning at, this is not the main goal of play therapy.

**This is a distracter.**

d) Opportunity to express anger and hostility. Although play therapy does give children the chance to express anger and hostility, it does not exactly address the question because it isn’t the primary goal of play therapy.

**This is a distracter.**

As you can quickly see, there is a method to deconstructing multiple choice questions. If you once found them confusing, you’ll learn there are proven ways to “unpack” them so the answer almost presents itself to you.