555-Lippincott's Review for Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification, Fifth Edition-Lippincott-1451

Strategies for a successful certification examination ❍ 7Parts of a test questionMultiple-choice questions on certification examinations are constructed according to strict psychometric standards. Asshown here, each question has a stem and four options, including a key (correct answer) and three distractors (incorrectanswers). A brief clinical situation or case study commonly precedes each question. Note how clearly the question is written,with no unnecessary words in the stem. Each option should be relatively uniform in length.StemA 57-year-old patient is admitted with acute bronchitis.During the admission interview, he tells the nurse thathe is allergic to bananas. Based on this statement,the patient may also have an allergy to which drug or substance?OptionsA. Iodine-containing drugs _______________________ DistractorB. Cephalosporins _______________________________ DistractorC. Latex _______________________________________ KeyD. Penicillins ___________________________________ Distractornow well prepared to discriminate between the choices for test items you were uncertain about. Returnto the questions you didn’t answer or those you marked for later review, and then answer those questionsor review your answers for possible changes. Don’t be afraid to change a selection if you later thinkof a better choice.Finally, complete the exam and submit it. For a paper-and-pencil exam be sure to erase any stray pencilmarks before turning in the exam. If you’re taking a paper-and-pencil exam, you’ll be notified of your resultsin a few weeks. If you’re taking a computerized exam, you’ll find out the results right away—which can befrightening. Take another deep breath, and view your results. Whether you scored high enough to pass thecertification exam or not, you should feel good that you created a study plan, worked on a timeline, and preparedto take the test. If you weren’t successful, as soon as you leave the test center, write down the test itemsyou were uncertain about. Then, go back and alter your study plan to include the items you listed.Taking the certification examination shows confidence in your knowledge of medical-surgical nursing. Anorganized study program, good test-taking strategies, and last-minute review of test items can lead to successfulcertification as a medical-surgical nurse.