PAX Study Guide Book 2020 and 2021: NLN PAX RN and PN Study Guide 2020 and 2021

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FREE Test Taking Tips DVD OfferTo help us better serve you, we have developed a Test Taking Tips DVD thatwe would like to give you for FREE.This DVD covers world-class test takingtips that you can use to be even more successful when you are taking yourtest.All that we ask is that you email us your feedback about your study guide.Please let us know what you thought about it – whether that is good, bad orindifferent.To get yourFREE Test Taking Tips DVD, emailfreedvd@studyguideteam.com with “FREE DVD” in the subject line and thefollowing information in the body of the email:a. The title of your study guide.

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b. Your product rating on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highestrating.c. Your feedback about the study guide. What did you think of it?d. Your full name and shipping address to send your free DVD.If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us atfreedvd@studyguideteam.com.Thanks again!PAX Study Guide Book 2020 & 2021

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NLN PAX RN & PN Study Guide 2020 & 2021and Practice Test Questions for the NLN PreEntrance Exam [Updated for the NEW Outline]Test Prep Books

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Table of ContentsQuick OverviewTest-Taking StrategiesFREE DVD OFFERIntroduction to the PAXVerbalWord KnowledgeReading ComprehensionCritical ThinkingVerbal QuestionsAnswer ExplanationsMathNumbers and OperationsAlgebraGeometryMath QuestionsAnswer ExplanationsScienceGeneral BiologyHuman Anatomy and PhysiologyChemistryHealthPhysicsScience QuestionsAnswer Explanations

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Quick OverviewAs you draw closer to taking your exam, effective preparation becomesmore and more important. Thankfully, you have this study guide to help youget ready. Use this guide to help keep your studying on track and refer to itoften.This study guide contains several key sections that will help you besuccessful on your exam. The guide contains tips for what you should do thenight before and the day of the test. Also included are test-taking tips.Knowing the right information is not always enough. Many well-preparedtest takers struggle with exams. These tips will help equip you to accuratelyread, assess, and answer test questions.A large part of the guide is devoted to showing you what content to expecton the exam and to helping you better understand that content. In thisguide are practice test questions so that you can see how well you havegrasped the content. Then, answer explanations are provided so that youcan understand why you missed certain questions.Don’t try to cram the night before you take your exam. This is not a wisestrategy for a few reasons. First, your retention of the information will below. Your time would be better used by reviewing information you alreadyknow rather than trying to learn a lot of new information. Second, you willlikely become stressed as you try to gain a large amount of knowledge in ashort amount of time. Third, you will be depriving yourself of sleep. So besure to go to bed at a reasonable time the night before. Being well-restedhelps you focus and remain calm.Be sure to eat a substantial breakfast the morning of the exam. If you aretaking the exam in the afternoon, be sure to have a good lunch as well.Being hungry is distracting and can make it difficult to focus. You havehopefully spent lots of time preparing for the exam. Don’t let an emptystomach get in the way of success!When travelling to the testing center, leave earlier than needed. That way,

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you have a buffer in case you experience any delays. This will help youremain calm and will keep you from missing your appointment time at thetesting center.Be sure to pace yourself during the exam. Don’t try to rush through theexam. There is no need to risk performing poorly on the exam just so youcan leave the testing center early. Allow yourself to use all of the allottedtime if needed.Remain positive while taking the exam even if you feel like you areperforming poorly. Thinking about the content you should have masteredwill not help you perform better on the exam.Once the exam is complete, take some time to relax. Even if you feel thatyou need to take the exam again, you will be well served by some downtime before you begin studying again. It’s often easier to convince yourselfto study if you know that it will come with a reward!

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Test-Taking Strategies1. Predicting the AnswerWhen you feel confident in your preparation for a multiple-choice test, trypredicting the answer before reading the answer choices. This is especiallyuseful on questions that test objective factual knowledge. By predicting theanswer before reading the available choices, you eliminate the possibilitythat you will be distracted or led astray by an incorrect answer choice. Youwill feel more confident in your selection if you read the question, predictthe answer, and then find your prediction among the answer choices. Afterusing this strategy, be sure to still read all of the answer choices carefullyand completely. If you feel unprepared, you should not attempt to predictthe answers. This would be a waste of time and an opportunity for yourmind to wander in the wrong direction.2. Reading the Whole QuestionToo often, test takers scan a multiple-choice question, recognize a fewfamiliar words, and immediately jump to the answer choices. Test authorsare aware of this common impatience, and they will sometimes prey upon it.For instance, a test author might subtly turn the question into a negative, orhe or she might redirect the focus of the question right at the end. The onlyway to avoid falling into these traps is to read the entirety of the questioncarefully before reading the answer choices.3. Looking for Wrong AnswersLong and complicated multiple-choice questions can be intimidating. Oneway to simplify a difficult multiple-choice question is to eliminate all of theanswer choices that are clearly wrong. In most sets of answers, there will beat least one selection that can be dismissed right away. If the test isadministered on paper, the test taker could draw a line through it to indicatethat it may be ignored; otherwise, the test taker will have to perform thisoperation mentally or on scratch paper. In either case, once the obviouslyincorrect answers have been eliminated, the remaining choices may be

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considered. Sometimes identifying the clearly wrong answers will give thetest taker some information about the correct answer. For instance, if one ofthe remaining answer choices is a direct opposite of one of the eliminatedanswer choices, it may well be the correct answer. The opposite of obviouslywrong is obviously right! Of course, this is not always the case. Someanswers are obviously incorrect simply because they are irrelevant to thequestion being asked. Still, identifying and eliminating some incorrectanswer choices is a good way to simplify a multiple-choice question.4. Don’t OveranalyzeAnxious test takers often overanalyze questions. When you are nervous,your brain will often run wild, causing you to make associations and discoverclues that don’t actually exist. If you feel that this may be a problem for you,do whatever you can to slow down during the test. Try taking a deep breathor counting to ten. As you read and consider the question, restrict yourselfto the particular words used by the author. Avoid thought tangents aboutwhat the authorreallymeant, or what he or she wastryingto say. The onlythings that matter on a multiple-choice test are the words that are actuallyin the question. You must avoid reading too much into a multiple-choicequestion, or supposing that the writer meant something other than what heor she wrote.5. No Need for PanicIt is wise to learn as many strategies as possible before taking a multiple-choice test, but it is likely that you will come across a few questions forwhich you simply don’t know the answer. In this situation, avoid panicking.Because most multiple-choice tests include dozens of questions, the relativevalue of a single wrong answer is small. As much as possible, you shouldcompartmentalize each question on a multiple-choice test. In other words,you should not allow your feelings about one question to affect your successon the others. When you find a question that you either don’t understand ordon’t know how to answer, just take a deep breath and do your best. Readthe entire question slowly and carefully. Try rephrasing the question acouple of different ways. Then, read all of the answer choices carefully. Aftereliminating obviously wrong answers, make a selection and move on to the

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next question.6. Confusing Answer ChoicesWhen working on a difficult multiple-choice question, there may be atendency to focus on the answer choices that are the easiest to understand.Many people, whether consciously or not, gravitate to the answer choicesthat require the least concentration, knowledge, and memory. This is amistake. When you come across an answer choice that is confusing, youshould give it extra attention. A question might be confusing because you donot know the subject matter to which it refers. If this is the case, don’teliminate the answer before you have affirmatively settled on another.When you come across an answer choice of this type, set it aside as you lookat the remaining choices. If you can confidently assert that one of the otherchoices is correct, you can leave the confusing answer aside. Otherwise, youwill need to take a moment to try to better understand the confusinganswer choice. Rephrasing is one way to tease out the sense of a confusinganswer choice.7. Your First InstinctMany people struggle with multiple-choice tests because they overthink thequestions. If you have studied sufficiently for the test, you should beprepared to trust your first instinct once you have carefully and completelyread the question and all of the answer choices. There is a great deal ofresearch suggesting that the mind can come to the correct conclusion veryquickly once it has obtained all of the relevant information. At times, it mayseem to you as if your intuition is working faster even than your reasoningmind. This may in fact be true. The knowledge you obtain while studyingmay be retrieved from your subconscious before you have a chance to workout the associations that support it. Verify your instinct by working out thereasons that it should be trusted.8. Key WordsMany test takers struggle with multiple-choice questions because they havepoor reading comprehension skills. Quickly reading and understanding a

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multiple-choice question requires a mixture of skill and experience. To helpwith this, try jotting down a few key words and phrases on a piece of scrappaper. Doing this concentrates the process of reading and forces the mind toweigh the relative importance of the question’s parts. In selecting words andphrases to write down, the test taker thinks about the question more deeplyand carefully. This is especially true for multiple-choice questions that arepreceded by a long prompt.9. Subtle NegativesOne of the oldest tricks in the multiple-choice test writer’s book is to subtlyreverse the meaning of a question with a word likenotorexcept. If you arenot paying attention to each word in the question, you can easily be ledastray by this trick. For instance, a common question format is, “Which ofthe following is…?” Obviously, if the question instead is, “Which of thefollowing is not…?,” then the answer will be quite different. Even worse, thetest makers are aware of the potential for this mistake and will include oneanswer choice that would be correct if the question were not negated orreversed. A test taker who misses the reversal will find what he or shebelieves to be a correct answer and will be so confident that he or she willfail to reread the question and discover the original error. The only way toavoid this is to practice a wide variety of multiple-choice questions and topay close attention to each and every word.10. Reading Every Answer ChoiceIt may seem obvious, but you should always read every one of the answerchoices! Too many test takers fall into the habit of scanning the questionand assuming that they understand the question because they recognize afew key words. From there, they pick the first answer choice that answersthe question they believe they have read. Test takers who read all of theanswer choices might discover that one of the latter answer choices isactuallymorecorrect. Moreover, reading all of the answer choices canremind you of facts related to the question that can help you arrive at thecorrect answer. Sometimes, a misstatement or incorrect detail in one of thelatter answer choices will trigger your memory of the subject and will enableyou to find the right answer. Failing to read all of the answer choices is like

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not reading all of the items on a restaurant menu: you might miss out on theperfect choice.11. Spot the HedgesOne of the keys to success on multiple-choice tests is paying close attentionto every word. This is never truer than with words like almost, most, some,and sometimes. These words are called “hedges” because they indicate thata statement is not totally true or not true in every place and time. Anabsolute statement will contain no hedges, but in many subjects, theanswers are not always straightforward or absolute. There are alwaysexceptions to the rules in these subjects. For this reason, you should favorthose multiple-choice questions that contain hedging language. Thepresence of qualifying words indicates that the author is taking special carewith his or her words, which is certainly important when composing theright answer. After all, there are many ways to be wrong, but there is onlyone way to be right! For this reason, it is wise to avoid answers that areabsolute when taking a multiple-choice test. An absolute answer is one thatsays things are either all one way or all another. They often include wordslikeevery,always,best, andnever. If you are taking a multiple-choice test ina subject that doesn’t lend itself to absolute answers, be on your guard ifyou see any of these words.12. Long AnswersIn many subject areas, the answers are not simple. As already mentioned,the right answer often requires hedges. Another common feature of theanswers to a complex or subjective question are qualifying clauses, whichare groups of words that subtly modify the meaning of the sentence. If thequestion or answer choice describes a rule to which there are exceptions orthe subject matter is complicated, ambiguous, or confusing, the correctanswer will require many words in order to be expressed clearly andaccurately. In essence, you should not be deterred by answer choices thatseem excessively long. Oftentimes, the author of the text will not be able towrite the correct answer without offering some qualifications andmodifications. Your job is to read the answer choices thoroughly andcompletely and to select the one that most accurately and precisely answers

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the question.13. Restating to UnderstandSometimes, a question on a multiple-choice test is difficult not because ofwhat it asks but because of how it is written. If this is the case, restate thequestion or answer choice in different words. This process serves a couple ofimportant purposes. First, it forces you to concentrate on the core of thequestion. In order to rephrase the question accurately, you have tounderstand it well. Rephrasing the question will concentrate your mind onthe key words and ideas. Second, it will present the information to yourmind in a fresh way. This process may trigger your memory and render someuseful scrap of information picked up while studying.14. True StatementsSometimes an answer choice will be true in itself, but it does not answer thequestion. This is one of the main reasons why it is essential to read thequestion carefully and completely before proceeding to the answer choices.Too often, test takers skip ahead to the answer choices and look for truestatements. Having found one of these, they are content to select it withoutreference to the question above. Obviously, this provides an easy way fortest makers to play tricks. The savvy test taker will always read the entirequestion before turning to the answer choices. Then, having settled on acorrect answer choice, he or she will refer to the original question andensure that the selected answer is relevant. The mistake of choosing acorrect-but-irrelevant answer choice is especially common on questionsrelated to specific pieces of objective knowledge. A prepared test taker willhave a wealth of factual knowledge at his or her disposal, and should not becareless in its application.15. No PatternsOne of the more dangerous ideas that circulates about multiple-choice testsis that the correct answers tend to fall into patterns. These erroneous ideasrange from a belief that B and C are the most common right answers, to theidea that an unprepared test-taker should answer “A-B-A-C-A-D-A-B-A.” It

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cannot be emphasized enough that pattern-seeking of this type is exactlythe WRONG way to approach a multiple-choice test. To begin with, it ishighly unlikely that the test maker will plot the correct answers according tosome predetermined pattern. The questions are scrambled and delivered ina random order. Furthermore, even if the test maker was following apattern in the assignation of correct answers, there is no reason why thetest taker would know which pattern he or she was using. Any attempt todiscern a pattern in the answer choices is a waste of time and a distractionfrom the real work of taking the test. A test taker would be much betterserved by extra preparation before the test than by reliance on a pattern inthe answers.

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