NCLEX-RN®: Different Practice Item Types

00:00 The NCBI gives you some practice type questions.

00:03 Now you're going to look at these and think, really, these were written by nursing people.

00:07 Yes. Because they're going to use things that have nothing to do with nursing care.

00:12 That's because they want you to understand and focus on what the question will look like, what the little symbols will be before the numbers.

00:20 That's what they want you to focus on.

00:21 So they're going to give you super easy questions that have absolutely nothing to do with nursing school.

00:27 So let's start with the multiple choice option.

00:30 Now, in the multiple choice item, you'll see a question and you'll be asked to select the best answer from four options.

00:37 Okay, You'll see a little circle in front of each answer choice.

00:40 Now, in order to select it, you can use your mouse or the number on the keypad to help select your answer.

00:46 So it's always going to be one, two, 3 or 4.

00:48 And you can only choose one option in a multiple choice question.

00:52 Now, are you feeling like I already knew that? Yeah, just celebrate it because there are so many things that can throw you off in studying for the NCLEX you can get discouraged, Celebrate when you can.

01:03 If you already knew all that about the multiple choice question, well done.

01:07 After you selected your answer, you click next to confirm your answer and you'll move on to the next item.

01:13 Now, this is a multiple response.

01:15 You guys might call these a select all that apply.

01:18 Some people call them an satta.

01:20 If you're super into the lingo, either way, nobody likes these, nobody likes these.

01:26 But you see what you're looking at here.

01:27 We're talking about fruits.

01:29 Again, not focusing on the question, but notice what's different.

01:34 Okay, good.

01:36 The multiple response item question is different from the four option multiple choice in two ways.

01:41 Multiple response items have small boxes instead of circles, and you can check more than one box.

01:47 So once you make that decision, remember, treat this as a true false question.

01:51 If I know the topic of the question is which of the following are fruits, I would go to number one and treat it as a separate question.

01:57 Is an apple a fruit? Yes, I would check it.

02:01 Number two is a banana of fruit.

02:03 Yes, I would check.

02:04 It is a cow of fruit.

02:06 No, not that I'm aware of.

02:08 I would not check. It is a dog of fruit? No. Is an elephant of fruit? No. So for this answer, I would just selected number one and number two and What I would go back is click next to confirm my answer choice and move on to the next practice item.

02:26 Now this one, you see a calculator on your screen.

02:29 So this is like one of the fill in the blank items or a calculator question.

02:33 In this type of question, you'll see a question and you'll be asked to calculate and type in your answer.

02:38 Please type only a number as your answer.

02:42 Nothing else goes in that answer box.

02:44 Now you'll include a decimal point if it's appropriate or needed.

02:47 Do you round, do you not round? That will be made clear in the instructions.

02:52 Also, remember, if you've got something like a medication, it's a tablet.

02:55 You can't give 1.37 of a tablet.

02:59 So you'll have to make a decision what would be the safest in clinical care.

03:03 Now, what if you want to change your answer? I am the worst at changing answers.

03:08 So if you're like me, try not to do that.

03:11 But if you do have to change your answer, if you mistyped in a wrong number, just use the backspace key to delete the number and you can type in the correct number.

03:20 You'll you'll be able to type in numbers as you answer.

03:23 If you try to type other characters, you'll see a message box that's asking you to try again. So they've added a safety For those of you that try to put words in like milligrams or whatever you got going on there, you'll get a message that tells you only to type in numbers.

03:40 Now you'll not have to type in the unit of measurement, right? Just numbers.

03:45 Again, if rounding is necessary, they will tell you and instruct you in the question to do that. And again, big finish.

03:52 Click next to confirm your answer and you'll move to the next practice item.

03:57 Whew. I wish the hotspot questions were all this simple, don't you? This is just giving an example of the following.

04:03 The figure contains four boxes.

04:04 Which boxes in the upper left hand corner.

04:07 Now, another possibility for this type of question.

04:09 You may see like a chest wall and they would ask you where you should listen to a certain heart tone.

04:14 Those can also be hotspot types of question, maybe a female torso, and they'll ask you where's the best place to listen for fetal heart tones? So you'll see a problem and a figure and you'll need to use the mouse to select an area of the figure. So if you want to select it, you don't.

04:31 People always want to ask me, what's the margin of error? How close do I have to get it? And I always tell them as close as you can.

04:39 There's no real information released on that as to what the margin of error is or how much space you have.

04:45 Just try and make your best clinical decision.

04:47 And if you want to select an area, you put the cursor on the area you want to select and then click the left mouse button.

04:54 Now when you do that, an X is going to appear and show your answer.

04:57 If you want to move that, you deselect your answer, you just put the cursor on the X and click again. Your answer will be deselected and you can change your answer just by pointing the cursor to another area and clicking the left side of your mouse again.

05:10 Once you're satisfied, click next to confirm your answer and move to the next item.

05:16 The official name of this type of question is an exhibit item.

05:20 Now, some things are the same that you're used to seeing.

05:22 Some things are different.

05:24 You'll see at the top is the stem of the question, the words before the answer choices. You see that you have four options and the circles that tells us it's going to be one most correct answer.

05:35 But under where you see the exhibit, you'll notice that they have tabs.

05:38 That's what makes it an exhibit exhibit.

05:40 Question Now you can click on each of those tabs and we have practice questions for you in our review to show you how to do that.

05:47 But that's what they're talking about.

05:49 When you hear them mention an exhibit question, you'll see a problem and an exhibit. If you want to look at the exhibit, click on the exhibit button.

05:57 Each exhibit contains information behind three tabs.

06:01 See those tabs there? Good. Now you want to click on each tab to read the information that's presented there.

06:07 Take your time.

06:10 Read through all the information, keeping track of what's going on, what's changing, what's normal and what's abnormal.

06:17 Remember on the NCLEX you have a write on wipe off board.

06:20 You can write some notes to yourself as you're going through.

06:23 Once you've got your answer, same drill.

06:26 Click next to confirm your answer and move on to the next item.

06:32 This is called a drag and drop ordered response item.

06:35 So for this question here, you see first six months of the year appear in a list below.

06:40 Please arrange these months in alphabetical order.

06:43 All options must be used.

06:45 So you would put these in order from top to bottom, in alphabetical order.

06:49 And no, you won't see a question this straightforward or simple on the NCLEX.

06:53 But it's the same concept.

06:55 You'll see a problem and a list of options.

06:57 You'll be asked to place the options in a specified order.

07:01 They might things like numerical order, alphabetical order or chronological order.

07:05 Highest to lowest risk.

07:06 Et cetera. Pretty much guessing.

07:08 You're not going to see alphabetical order on an NCLEX but they do list that as a possibility. Now, the unordered answer options are in a box on the left side of the screen. You put them in the correct order on the right side of the screen.

07:21 So to put the options in a new order, click on an option, drag it to the box on the right side of your screen.

07:27 You can also highlight the option in the left hand box and then click the right arrow key on your keyboard to move the option to rearrange the order of options.

07:35 Once you've been put, you've placed them in the right hand side of the box.

07:39 You want to select the option.

07:40 You would like to move and click the up or down arrows and it will adjust its placement for you. So take your time with these.

07:46 These are usually ones that you can get correct If you take your time, pay attention to the order they asked you to put it in.

07:54 Is it highest risk to lowest risk? Is it lowest risk to highest risk? Because if you do all the work of getting those things in order, but you have it backwards, that's a very sad story.

08:05 You don't want to miss a question because of that.

08:07 Now you can also click on an option and drag it to a new position within the right hand box. That's another way you can move it, and to complete the item, you have to move all the options from the left hand box to the right hand box.

08:19 When you're done and you're satisfied with your answer, you click next to confirm your answer and move to the next item.

08:27 Now, when you're in the NCLEX testing center, you'll be wearing headphones.

08:30 The ones they gave me were like the big kind of like landing an airplane kind of headphone. It'll depend on what your center uses, but either way you'll have the ability to listen to an audio clip so it will look like this.

08:43 What you see on the screen again, for this one, you've got four options.

08:47 It's just one of those are correct things that are important for you to know is you can adjust the volume by clicking and moving the slider.

08:54 So see with a little speaker there, you can move the slider, make it louder or softer for you. You can click the play button to start the audio clip and to repeat it.

09:05 Now, once you've listened to the question where you're clear on what it's asking you, you've eliminated three answer choices.

09:11 You're rock solid on your fourth and best answer choice.

09:15 You click next to confirm your answer and move on to the next item.

09:21 This is a graphic item.

09:23 Now here they've shown you road signs.

09:25 That's what they're using.

09:27 Obviously, as we've talked about, that won't be what you see on the exam, but it's the same concept. You'll see a question in options that are graphics instead of text.

09:35 So it's still a multiple choice question, but you just see graphics or pictures instead of text. Now the options will have circles in front of them just like a multiple choice question and you will only be able to select one option, pick the most correct option, make sure you've eliminated the other three options and said Why? Then click next to confirm your answer.

09:57 Move on to the next item.