This week we took the final ATI which was the Comp Predictor. This was proctored and 150 questions so I thought it was great practice for students to get the feel of how the NCLEX will be. The one thing I wish was different was that it was adaptive so it could be more like the NCLEX but I thought it was a great start for us. One thing I did that helped me during this was the 3 key points before taking the test. My 3 key points were to read through the question fully, knock out the ones that are wrong first and to not overthink the question. I did these and I think they helped me a lot but one thing I could have done better was not rush myself. There were a few questions where I felt that I was rushing and passing by because I did not know them as well and was getting overwhelmed. One thing with ATI that is challenging yet helpful is that you can’t go back to questions once you have answered them so I think something that throws me off is being very sure of my answers and not being able to go back if I think about it again later on during the test. This is something that I need to work on the most is being sure with my answers as I go and not going back to answer questions because sometimes that is my downfall. Overall, these have all helped me so much with my test taking strategies and finding out which areas of content I need to focus on the most.
Prepare for Licensure #8
This week the test I did was the Comp Predictor B. I really enjoy these tests, even though they are long, I think they help me a lot to find the content areas that I need to work on the most. I find that I did really well on this Comp Predictor because I did the same thing as last week with my test and wrote down 3 things that I needed to work on during this test. This week I chose to highlight key words again, take a break every 50 questions and think about what NCLEX topic this is helping me with. When I did these 3 things I found that my test taking was much better and helped me with a lot of content areas that I was unsure about. After taking this test I realize my main focus is making sure I can do all of these things when it comes to proctored or in person tests. Sometimes I end up freezing and not taking into account anything that I have been working on while doing these tests at home, so making sure that I set goals for myself during proctored tests as well and keep a calm, level head so I can perform at my best when it really matters.
Prepare for Licensure #7
This week the ATI test that I took was on the Nursing Care of Children. This test was extremely fun for me to take because this is something I am really interested in. With this test I wanted to take everything in that I have been learning and put it into this test. Before the test, I wrote down 3 things that I needed to keep in mind while I was taking this test and they were to be aware of key words, think through the question more than the answers and not second guess myself. I wanted to do this to see how much better my score would improve and it helped tremendously! I find that I do overthink the answers and 2nd guess myself rather than being confident in my answers that were originally correct so I did my best this time around to find a good balance of thinking about the question but not overthinking it to the point where I wasn’t really looking at what the question was asking for. I think this is something that helped me a lot during this test and helped me to improve my score overall. I think it also helped that I was taking this test on a subject I really enjoyed because it motivated me to not lose focus during this test so making sure I do that for the rest of my subjects that I don’t care for as much will be something to work on in the future!
Prepare for Licensure #6
The test that was taken this week was the Proctored Pharmacology Exam. This was interesting for me because it was the first proctored ATI exam we have taken in this class after doing all of the practice ATI. In terms of taking the test, I felt much more comfortable while taking the test and making sure that I read through every question properly. I usually get very anxious when testing and put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect and get everything right but this time I just made sure that I took a deep breath before and assured myself that I was confident in my abilities to take this test. It was helpful that this first one was only 70 questions, especially because the practice ones I have been taking are 150 so it made me feel more focused, but it also was nerve-racking that the test was only 70 minutes long. When taking the practice tests I have been making sure to take my time and think through every option and even make myself time for a break but I felt like I couldn’t do that as much with this test. It is good for me to experience that because it will get me prepared for the NCLEX. One thing that was difficult for this test was that weakness in learning is 100% Pharmacology and Medications, so taking this test was hard for me to recall all of the medications but it also showed the ones that I need to study more compared to the ones that I associate with diseases processes and are able to remember more often. I think this test helped me a lot to realize which content areas of medication that I need to do more work on.
Prepare for Licensure #5
Taking this comprehensive test made me feel extremely proud of my work this semester and I felt like I was able to take all of the factors that I wanted to work on into one test. During this test I knew it would be a lot of questions so I made sure to put myself in a good environment with a lack of distractions so that I could focus and get in the right mindset to answer the questions. Since these questions were broader and more incorporated all different types of questions, I knew I had to think of the main points for each question. I believe this is what helped me do so well on this test because when I am memorizing or studying for an exam, I do my best to focus on the priorities and the main focal points that I know will constantly be brought up and a lot of these questions asked me about my nursing interventions and what I would be doing FIRST and I felt like I was WAY more prepared for them this time around. This exam really helped me show my growth and how far I have come to reach my goal of getting better at answering questions and I think the biggest difference that was made was finding a balance between taking my time but also not overthinking the question. If I really didn’t know a question, I just tried to use the process of elimination, but if I did know them I just made sure to come up in my head what I knew the main points of the topics were and be aware of that when reading the answers to the questions. I know I have a lot more to work on and I have a lot of content areas that I need to do better on, especially medications and manifestations of disease processes but I think these exams are helping me realize what I need to go back and study and look over and what my strengths are that I need to continue to be doing when I take these exams.
Prepare for Licensure #4
This reflection I going to be based on the ATI Pharmacology Practice B test that I took. This test went a lot smoother for me and I think it is because of already having the experience of doing the Pharmacology A practice test before this. This made me feel accomplished because it made me realize how much these remediations were helping me with other tests I take in the future and being able to remember certain things about medications that didn’t stick before. I believe that the remediations and the repetition of going through each question is extremely helpful. I also enjoy using the 3 critical points because sometimes it can be overwhelming to try to remember every single thing about a drug, but when you put it in the format of doing 3 of the most important points then its easier to remember for the future.
Something I did notice about myself is that since I was more confident this time around I was answering the questions much faster. This helped for some questions because it helped me not second guess myself but I know some of them I made stupid mistakes that could have been fixed by just reading through all of the answers fully. Ive realized that it is okay to answer the question fast if an answer is really sticking out to me but it is better to go back and really look through the whole question and all of the answers to ensure that I’m not making a reading error or missing out on a better option.
Something I can do better for the future tests is to make sure even when I’m confident going into the test that I still do all of the normal protocols such as highlighting and underlining the important things or key words. Sometimes this slips my mind when I go into a test I feel really confident on but I should be doing the same stuff I do for a test that I’m not so sure of and a test I am sure of. When it comes down to content, I can feel really confident about everything I have learned but in order to show that I have to be able to properly answer the nursing questions so I can display the things I’ve learned.
Prepare for Licensure #3
This week I did an ATI that was based on Maternity/Newborn. I was looking forward to this because this is a subject that I am highly interested in and thought it would be great to improve my knowledge on this topic. I think this week I felt more confident about these questions, but I also think that made me rush through some of them a little too fast and not really read into the question. I found that for this exam I was focusing less on the answers and more the questions and if I thought it was something familiar to that topic I would choose that, but that didn’t allow me to critically think about all of the options. I also had some struggles with “priority” or “first” questions because its a word that can be very overlooked, especially on an exam.
To help myself get better at answering these questions I have been trying to put myself in the hypothetical questions and think about how I would realistically act in the moment because sometimes you overlook answers that are just simply positioning the client or checking the clients band. These are all things that need to be done for any interventions and they can easily be overlooked for a medication administration or an immediate intervention, but sometimes that is not the first step.
Prepare for Licensure #2
This time around I took the Med-Surge ATI. With this test I decided to take more breaks and finish the test over the span of 1-2 days so that I wouldn’t lose as much focus and concentration on the questions. I also made sure to do a better job of fully reading through the questions because I know I had a lot of mistakes on my last ATI because I didn’t full read through. One thing that was challenging for me this time was select all that apply questions. I answers majority of them correctly but then I would leave out one answer that was also correct just because I was insecure of how many answers I was selecting, but I need to be more focused on the answers at hand and what is true/false for the question rather than overthinking how many answers I give. This is something I will work on next time by really dipping deep into select all that apply questions and looking through all of the answers before answering. I really like how these ATI tests are helping me to find problems in my content gap as well and seeing what things I have mastered and what things I need to do more studying on because it gives me great feedback to make me a better nurse in the future.
Prepare for Licensure #1
This time around doing the Pharmacology ATI, I made a plan to just go into it and not change my answers. I made this plan beforehand so I would spend more time on the questions rather than flying through the ones I felt like I knew and then being stuck on other ones and I believe this really helped me. It helped me to not overthink the questions and not get stuck between 2 answers. One thing I could have done better was highlighting key words in the question because the main weakness I had was picking wrong answers for questions that were asking contraindications or “needs for further teaching”. Making sure you read the question all of the way through and thoroughly looking through all of the answers is one thing that I need to work on.
I also found out that I can get very burnt out during tests and then I start to lose focus. One thing that could really help me, especially during ATI is taking my time and doing 10 questions then giving myself a minute to just think and reset as if I am taking a bunch of little tests rather than a 200 question test all at once.
Career Development
During our last class together, we watched NURSES If Florence Could See Us Now. This movie really opened my eyes to all aspects of different nursing and how much it means to be going to school for this career. Watching this movie made me feel extremely lucky and grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to come to UNE and learn everything this is about nursing because even though it is a rewarding career, it is a lot of hard work and dedication to reach your goal. You have to make sure you learn every aspect about all types of nursing before you really know what you want to do, along with some sleepless nights and early mornings studying and educating yourself on things that will help you in your career. One thing I learned from this movie were all the types of positions that nurses can be in, such as a nursing manager or the floor nurse who got infected with HIV and became an educator for others with HIV and workplace needle injuries. This was one thing I didn’t realize about nursing was how flexible it is and how many types of things you can do depending on what you want to do with your life.
An interview is a huge part of the hiring process and can make such a big difference when you’re applying for a dream job. The first thing I would do before an interview is 100% research the facility that I am applying for just to know if that environment is something I want to be in. I would also prepare questions to ask for myself because I feel like that is important, if not more important than answers to questions. I would think about where I want to be in the future and if this facility is going to help me get to that end goal, whether it is at that facility or somewhere else. I believe just being confident in my abilities and my dreams/passions will be able to impress interviewers.
I would say my biggest strength is that when I am passionate about something, I want to learn as much as I can about that particular thing. I may not be the smartest student or know everything there is to know but I am also an extremely hard worker and if I set my mind to something I will do it and never give up. Whatever I do in my life I always give 100% and I think that would be my greatest strength. My greatest challenge is that I am a very visual/active learner so I really don’t understand how to truly do something until I see someone do it and then do it myself. I am taking steps such as making concept maps and putting a lot of work into SIM and clinicals to make sure that that weakness becomes a strength for me over time.
