Going into this exam, I was more confident that I was going into the pharmacology one. Over the course of our time at UNE we have had three different medical-surgical classes and I felt as if I had a good understanding of the content. During this exam, I chose to try a new strategy. This time I was not scheduling breaks and I was going to make sure that I read each question carefully along with all the answers even if I knew the answer right away. This helped me greatly with this test because in the past I have been so quick to jump the gun and go with an answer that I thought was right and did not take the time to read the other options. Not scheduling breaks also allowed me to stay more concentrated on what I was doing and made it so I was actually less mentally fatigued. I think when you know a break is coming, you get lazier in your thinking and just try to get to that checkpoint where a break was planned. I took fewer breaks this time but took them at the right points when I knew my attention and quality of work was beginning to decline.
When it came to the content on this test, I felt that I was reletivly competent. On several occasions, I felt like I was failing and getting multiple questions wrong in a row. I seemed to have had almost all select all that apply questions and they came back to back. In other adaptive tests I have taken, there was only a hand full of select all that apply. On this exam, on the other hand, I think of the 75 questions I answered, 20 of them were select all that apply. This was discouraging because oftentimes I struggle with these questions and get 1/2 of 3/4 of the answers but not the whole question correct. After completing the exam and reviewing my test, I was rather proud of the fact that I got a significant amount of these questions correct. Next time I take an adaptive exam, the main thing I want to change is losing focus the closure I got to 75 questions. Knowing that this exam can shut off at 75 is something that is so fixed in my mind and all I can think about once I get to question 50. Luckily on this test, my exam did shut off at 75, but on the last one, it didn’t. When this happened I was overcome with this feeling of dread and shame that I was not smart enough to finish in 75 questions. I think it is important to realize that even if you finish in 200 questions, it does not indicate that you are incompetent or stupid. Overall I think this all comes down to confidence and trusting in my knowledge and knowing that if I do my best and take my time, the worst that can happen is that I have to remediate. Remediations at the end of the day are still a great learning experience and teach you more about a concept that you were clearly lacking knowledge of.
Your strategy is working well for you!