Blame a man named Benjamin Bloom. He was an educational theorist who came up with names for categories of types of questions an exams. Your faculty know who he was - and they use these categories to develop test questions for your nursing school exams.
Let's start at the bottom with the simplest types of questions (everyone wishes exams were that easy!) Knowledge is the "simplest" or most straight forward of the categories of different types of questions.
Knowledge -- is basic "regurgitation" of facts. i.e. If you can memorize - you can answer these types of questions. You won't (or shouldn't) find many of these types of questions in nursing school
How many chambers does the heart have?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
Comprehension is a little trickier - but still these questions can be answered with a little late night cramming the night before the exam. A comprehension level question would be more along the lines of the following:
Put the following chambers in the correct order that a RBC would travel back to the heart to exchange CO2 for O2
a. Left Atrium, Right Atrium, Right Ventricle, Right Atrium
b. Right Atrium, Right Ventricle, Left Atrium, Left Ventricle
c. Right Ventricle, Right Atrium, Left Ventricle, Left Atrium
d. Left Atrium, Left Ventricle, Right Atrium, Right Ventricle
Best Way to Fail a Nursing School Exam
It's one of the biggest and most frustrating mistakes that nursing students make -- if you are studying for nursing school exams and only study at the level that answers knowledge and comprehension level questions -- you're not seeing the scores on the exams that you would like - or that are passing.
Nursing School exams are written at the level above comprehension - or the application and analysis levels.
Tomorrow we'll give you strategies on how to prepare to answer application and analysis level questions on your nursing school exams. Some simple changes to your study habits can reward you with much more satisfying nursing school exam scores.
LeaRNursing Nurse Consultant Team
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