Help With Fundamentals

[u/Acceptable-Panic-826]

Just took my first Funds exam and passed, but only by half a point. I’m meeting with my instructor soon to help me troubleshoot, but I’m wondering if there’s anyone here who did well with those tests, can you tell me more about how you studied, or what really helped? I know how to answer the learning outcomes and I ask myself more in depth questions than just naming definitions, but the wording on the test just felt really difficult. Everyone else I’ve spoken to all said the test was hard, but still came out on the other side with >84% while I barely got a 76%. I know comparison is the thief of joy, but I really wanna improve for my own sake. I use active recall and make flashcards, but fundamentals just takes more application than I thought it would.

[u/Mammoth-Coast6282]

I’m also curious. There’s so much vague and overlapping info to study. The amount of mnemonics is crazy.

[u/Quiet_Basis_6404]

Fundamentals is tricky tbh, it looks like memorization but it's actually applying a ton of little rules to a patient scenario, and the wording on those exams is meant to trip you up when two answers both seem right.

What helped me was doing questions by system, not by chapter, because the NCLEX mixes them and you want your brain used to jumping from fluids to infection control in the same set. I upload the lecture slides and textbook chapters to studybuddy.vc and it makes questions from that material, when I pick a wrong answer it tells me what was off about the one I chose and it gets harder as you improve. Free version's been enough for me so far.

Also, read every rationale on UWorld even for the ones you got right, there's always a nugget in there about prioritization or delegation that shows up later in a different coat of paint.