Top 5 Guessing Techniques for the NLE

You may have noticed that from my post Top 10 Ways to Pass the Board Exams, my #6 tip is "Learn how to guess correctly". Because if there's one thing I've learned from the chaotic and stressful experience of reviewing and taking the nursing board exam, it's that it doesn't matter if you've memorized the every type of protein in the body or the pathophysiology of every disease known to man (thank Obama I didn't), in the end, you are still confined to the four choices the Powers That Be has provided for you to goggle upon. And if these 4 choices fails you, these guessing strategies could be your next best friend.

Welcome, to the Holy Grail of Test Taking Strategies. These secrets have been passed from generation to generation of board exam takers. The following information is FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Read with caution, be alert and guard the knowledge of this data with your life.

Top 5 Guessing Techniques for the NLE
(A.K.A. The Madam Auring Techniques)

5. Always be in the middle.

When it comes to figures (Laboratory Data, Normal Values) you have no idea how to even start answering, just cancel out the upper and lower extremes and settle on focusing your inner mojo vibe on the two choices in the middle. That way you have a 50% chance of getting the right answer rather than only 25%. Believe me.

4. Look for the Ugly Duckling.
The Ugly Duckling has always been different compared to her brothers and sisters. Her siblings all look the same and she feels so out of place. If you cannot decide which choice to select, look for the different one, the one pointing in the opposite direction. It, most often than not, point to the direction of your PRC License. :)

3. Mirror, Mirror
"Mirror, mirror hanging on the wall, you don't have to tell me, who's the biggest fool of all..." You need not feel like the biggest fool when answering particularly tricky questions in the board exams. Trick #3 makes use of a simple strategy even preschoolers can understand. Look and select the choice with the same word (or a word with the same meaning) as the keyword in the question. Back in Pentagon, we had the greatest time playing match up with Psyche questions Sir Jimenez has prepared for us. And believe me, this technique works like a charm.

2. Be the most irritatingly perfect Mary Sue Nurse you could be. Even if it can only be possible in your imagination.
The BON loves perfect nurses because they only exist on test papers and questionnaires. Ideal clinical settings and scenarios are the ones often written in the questions, with adequate workforce, complete and sterilized equipments without the overpopulation in hospitals, burn out of staff nurses and nonexistent supplies. Hence, the interventions and reactions of a perfect nurse is what should always be considered when answering. And they say nobody's perfect. Ha.


and if all else fails...


1. Go for the letter D) All of the Above
Not exactly rocket science but it works really well in those questions who have sentences and paragraphs as their choices. You get all mumbly jumbly with all those words and get too preoccupied in finding out the "wrong" with the sentence when in fact they're all correct. So spare yourself the hassle and the headache and just shade letter Dog. This technique works really well in CHN for some reason. One of my biggest regret is not believing in its power and ending up getting a 79 in Test II because of my skepticism.


So that's that. I'm not sure if what I wrote is actually understandable. I'll try to write a follow up post to this with examples next time. I'm too lazy to search through my mini library of xeroxed reviewers to copy 5 measly questions at the moment. Sorry 'bout that.


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