9 Tips to Pass the Nursing Board Exam

9 Tips to Pass the Nursing Board Exam

There are tons of nursing sites that give tips on how to pass the nursing board exam or even to ace it and they show almost the same things. Today, I will give another perspective that will guide on what to do study and thus, passing the board.

I am just a recent board passer and it may give you a tinge of doubt on the post's credibility. But I already went on this journey and I just want to share how these strategies worked for me.

So let's start! ^^

1. Know Past Experience. Asking someone who had the experience will help you condition your mind on what to expect when taking the board exam. They would definitely share the hard work sand heart tugging moments when they took the board. It will create you a mental picture of the whole scenario which would prompt you to prepare and be serious on your review.

  2. Check Your Motivation Gauge. Are you now on a serious mode? You should be. Your application for board exam is non-sense if you don't take necessary measure to work for your success. Build a motivation. See what inspires you. To whom are you doing this? For yourself to have a bright future, your family to make them proud or because you want to be of service and foster change?Wow. Think of your goals, and work them out!

 3. Know the BON. I wasn't surprised at all when Nursing Informatics items were also given. Dr. Carfredda Dumlao,one of the BON specialized in Telehealth nursing. Dr. Divinagracia is an expert in Research and Management and Dr. Carmencita Abaquin is expert in both Medical/ Surgical and Oncology nursing. Almost all of them have management as their forte. So study well on their specialty. A lot of board exam questions will be based on their expertise.

  4. Know Core Competency of Nursing. On her speech in a  Maternal and Child Symposium held at Pulilan, Bulacan, Dr. Divinagracia emphasized the core competencies of nursing as the guide for the new Nursing curriculum. Therefore, they do apply as well in plotting questions for the board exam. November 2014 and May 2015 is bombarded with research, management and a lot of prof ad questions all through out the 5 NPTs. Core Competencies for nurses are composed of the following: Beginning Nurse's Role on Client Care, Nurse's role on Leadership and Management and Nurse's role on Research.

  5. Be Updated With the Current Trends in Health. Topics such as Mers CoV and AIDS were both covered on the previous board exam. They are the talk world wide. So nurses be updated of the information that may be given as question such as what is the animal that bred the virus? like that. They are under communicable disease so a lot of concept about communicable disease were also given. 

6. Know all the Concept. It's better to be a "Jack of all trades, but a master of none" rather than to have a mastery on a certain concept. Remember that questions from nursing board exams are really unexpected so review all the concept. Make plans on how to divide each concept in the entire course of review before you enter a review center.

7. Answer as many questions as you can. Review centers typically gives 3500 or more questions for you to answer. But that is not enough. You need to answer as many as you can. The more you practice answering questions, the more you sharpen critical thinking. The more you answer hard question, the easier it becomes on the long term. Train your brain and your body to answer a lot of questions. Make a goal of answering 100 questions each day with rationale. Be sure you have rationale with you so you can validate your answers. Without rationale it is non-sense.

8. Post it on the wall. It is very effective. I once entered a friend's dorm  and saw a lot of fundamental of nursing concept on her wall. It is easy to remember things when you actually see them everyday. I think it's better to put lab values and nursing/medical terms on the wall. I actually learned torticollis by that time and it actually stayed so long in my mind. The more you see it, the more it retains in your mind.

9. Religiously attend your review centers. Review centers can make a quantum leap in reaching your goal to be an RN. Attend regularly. Don't be late. Destroy your bad habits of being absent and late, you are now on a serious mode. Show that you truly deserve the license by breaking your old habits. Make no absence as much as possible. Review centers polishes your knowledge and will guide you on different strategies that will be helpful in taking the exam. One absent makes 10% loss for you. Be consistent.

That's it! I hope you learned something. Kaya yan nurses! :)