1Reading Comprehension18.2%
Reading passages on health-related subjects, each followed by questions. Be able to do four things with a passage: say what its main idea is, work out what a word or phrase means from how it is used, find what the passage states, and draw a conclusion the passage supports.
- 1.1Identify the main idea of a health-related reading passage.
- 1.2Work out what a word or phrase means from the way it is used in a passage.
- 1.3Show understanding of what a passage states.
- 1.4Draw logical inferences from the information in a passage.
Where people lose points: Answering from what you know instead of what the passage says. The passages are about health topics you may have opinions on, and an option that is true in general but not stated or supported in the text is wrong. The other habit to break is taking an inference one step too far: the right inference is the modest one the passage clearly supports.
2Vocabulary and General Knowledge18.2%
Word meanings, both in everyday English and as words are used in health care settings. You are asked what a word means, usually in a short sentence.
- 2.1Know the meaning of words commonly used in general English-speaking settings.
- 2.2Know the meaning of words commonly used in health care settings.
Where people lose points: Ordinary words with a narrower meaning in health care, and pairs that look alike. Lists of definitions fade fast; a word learned in a sentence stays. Because this is memory work, it rewards ten minutes every day far more than an hour once a week, so start it on day one whatever else you are studying.
3Grammar18.2%
The parts of speech and what each does in a sentence, the standard terms of grammar, and the errors that occur most often in writing. Be able to pick the correct sentence from four, or find the word that is wrong.
- 3.1Identify the parts of speech and how each functions in a sentence.
- 3.2Understand key grammatical terms and apply them correctly.
- 3.3Recognize and correct commonly occurring grammatical errors.
Where people lose points: Trusting your ear. Spoken English tolerates things the exam counts as wrong: a verb that agrees with the nearest noun instead of its subject, the wrong pronoun case after a preposition, and commonly confused words such as affect and effect or lie and lay. Learn the rule for each, then practice until you can name the error, not just sense it.
4Basic Math Skills18.2%
Arithmetic with whole numbers, fractions and decimals; ratio and proportion problems of the kind used in health care; and household measures and conversions between them. Nothing here goes beyond pre-algebra.
- 4.1Carry out basic arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction and multiplication.
- 4.2Solve problems involving fractions.
- 4.3Solve problems involving decimals.
- 4.4Set up and solve ratio and proportion problems of the kind used in health care.
- 4.5Use and convert household measures.
- 4.6Recall and apply general math facts.
Where people lose points: Fractions and conversions. Most misses are a dropped step: adding fractions without a common denominator, misplacing a decimal point, or converting between household measures the wrong way round. Set proportions up with the units written in, so that a wrong setup looks wrong. And practice by hand: whether you get an on-screen calculator is your school's decision.
5Biology9.1%
Introductory biology: the properties of water that matter to living things, the major biological molecules and what they do, metabolism, the structure and function of cells, cellular respiration and photosynthesis.
- 5.1Explain basic concepts of biology.
- 5.2Describe the properties of water that matter to living things.
- 5.3Identify the major biological molecules and what they do.
- 5.4Explain metabolism in living organisms.
- 5.5Describe cells and how they function.
- 5.6Explain cellular respiration.
- 5.7Explain photosynthesis.
Where people lose points: Mixing up cellular respiration and photosynthesis. They are near mirror images, and questions ask which process uses what and produces what. Learn them side by side. Likewise the four classes of biological molecule: know each one's building block and its main job, because the questions pair them.
6Chemistry9.1%
Introductory chemistry: matter and its properties, chemical equations and reactions, reading the periodic table, the structure of the atom, basic nuclear chemistry, and how atoms bond.
- 6.1Describe matter and its physical and chemical properties.
- 6.2Read and balance chemical equations and describe chemical reactions.
- 6.3Use the periodic table to find information about elements.
- 6.4Describe the structure of the atom.
- 6.5Explain basic nuclear chemistry.
- 6.6Explain how atoms bond to form compounds.
Where people lose points: The numbers attached to an atom. Know what the atomic number counts, what the mass number counts, and how to get the number of neutrons from the two. Know the difference between an ionic and a covalent bond from a description. Balancing a simple equation is a method, like a math problem, and only practice makes it quick.
7Anatomy and Physiology9.1%
The language of anatomy, the main structures of the body, and what each body system does. Of the three science exams, this is the one closest to what a nursing program goes on to teach.
- 7.1Use general anatomy and physiology terminology correctly.
- 7.2Identify anatomical structures of the human body.
- 7.3Describe the body systems and how they function.
Where people lose points: Trying to memorize the whole body at one level of detail. Organize by system: for each, the main organs, the job of the system, and the path something takes through it, such as blood through the heart or food through the digestive tract. Directional and positional terms are easy points that people skip.