Learning how to answer SATA (select all that apply) questions is one of the most crucial skills to nursing school success. We are asked all the time for tips and strategies on how to successfully prepare for and answer SATA …ContinuedThe postEp237: How to Answer Any SATA Question (the SATA Success Pyramid) appeared first onNRSNG.
Learning how to answer SATA (select all that apply) questions is one of the most crucial skills to nursing school success. We are asked all the time for tips and strategies on how to successfully prepare for and answer SATA … Continued
Learning how to answer SATA (select all that apply) questions is one of the most crucial skills to nursing school success. We are asked all the time for tips and strategies on how to successfully prepare for and answer SATA questions that we actually created an entire course around nursing school test taking inside our NRSNG Academy.
Inside that course I dive into 11 test taking strategies unique to the nursing school experience, but in this video I wanted to cover three tips for how to answer select all that apply questions.
Before we dive too much into the strategy, let’s talk about WHAT they are.
The NCSBN (the company that writes the NCLEX) refers to SATA questions as “Multiple Response Items”. Essentially, these are any test question where you are required to select every correct answer from a list of 5 or 6 possible answer options.
They are structured like any regular item (question) except that at the end of the question you will see “Select all that apply” at the end.
We’ve discussed the general anatomy of NCLEX questions previously here.
There are a few things that many students ask regarding select all that apply questions:
How Many Correct Answers Can There Be?
This is an often debated question in nursing schools. How many correct answers can SATA questions have? Can there only be one correct option? Can all the answer options be correct?
To answer this question, we went directly to the source (HERE) to see what they had to say about it. Here’s what we found:
Multiple-response items that require a candidate to select two or more responses.
From this response, it seems pretty clear that a SATA question will require AT LEAST two correct answers. If you only find one . . . keep digging. The above quote comes directly from their website and references the most up to date NCLEX information as of 2017.
Here are a couple of other quotes found on NCSBN and learningext.com.
I think the only safe assumption for SATA or “select-all-that-apply” (also called “multiple response”) questions is that more than one response is correct.
and . .
Multiple response items are described as having five or six options with a minimum of two correct (key) options. Items contain the statement “Select all that apply.” At this time, NCSBN requires the candidate to utilize their comprehensive knowledge to determine the appropriate amount of applicable maximum correct answers to each item. In short, we disclose how many, at a minimum can be correct; however, we do not disclose how many at a maximum may/may not be correct.
While the wording in the last quote is a bit dated and that quote is only found on the learningext website and not the NCSBN any longer, the first quote essentially state the same information.
Do I Get Partial Credit?
Short answer: nope
Long answer: . . . nope
With SATA questions it’s all or none. If you get all but one of the correct answers, you still are marked wrong for the entire question.
SATA questions are generally seen as more difficult questions and as such it can actually been seen as a good thing if you start seeing a lot of them. Learning how to successfully answer them will help tremendously in your nursing education.
To help in answering these questions, I’ve developed a three step process.
How to Answer Select All That Apply (SATA) Questions:
By following these three steps, in order, you will greatly improve your chances of getting these difficult questions correct.
When you cover all the options you eliminate the chances you will become biased in your evaluation of answer options. By evaluating each option individually you force yourself to NOT look for correlations between options. When you turn each option into a true/false statement, you simplify the options and improve your chances.
This post and video are a brief summary of how to answer these difficult questions. Inside the NRSNG Academy and the Test Taking Course I go into great depth on exactly how to conquer nursing exams . . . we’ve also got thousands of NCLEX style questions (including SATA).
I want to invite you to get started with the NRSNG Academy.
The post Ep237: How to Answer Any SATA Question (the SATA Success Pyramid) appeared first on NRSNG.
