NCSBN test questions
Review: Michelle Hall June 2009
Textbooks
Potter & Perry 2009- Clinical Nursing Skills and
Techniques
Kozier 08-Fundamentals of Nursing 7/e &
Techniques in Clinical Nursing 5/e
Ignataviscius 2010- Medical Surgical Nursing
***** This book was used A lot to write questions
and to check for accuracy of information.
Smelton 08-
Black 08
Edelman& Mandle- Health Promotion
Medications
Make sure to include the Trade and
Generic Name in all questions. The
NCLEX uses both because different areas
different names for Trade medications
Questions saying “newly prescribed” you
should assume the client has NEVER
taken the medication before, so look for
possible contraindications for
adminstration.
Writing a test questions
Terms to know
◦ Stem- is the question itself or what you are
asking of the reader
◦ Key-is the answer you are looking for
◦ Distracter- is used to distract the student away
from the correct answer and to make them
THINK.
Need to be realistic and plausible
◦ Central idea- is identified in the question
Basic Do’s and Don’ts of writing
Do not use a patients age, in the question
Avoid irrelevant information
Do not use except
Do not use gender
Reread the question to see if anything stands
out or hints what the correct answer might be
◦ Do not write a question with answers that start
with the same letter in 3 out of 4 answer example
3 answers that start with the letter C and one that starts
with the letter A.
Basic Do’s and Don'ts Continue
Nclex uses Blooms Taxonomy for writing all test
questions.
Patients who have acute disease, write t he question
like this “client who has_____ presented as.”
Patients who have chronic disease write the
questions as follows “client with________presented
to the ER as.”
Do not use any terminology that could offend a test
taker in any way, such as using a women has, or an
older gentlemen has, or a Arabic patient has.
Test Plan
All Test questions come from the 2007
Test Plan set up by the NCSBN.