Following are 12 situations in which you might be crossing the line, therefore jeopardizing the integrity of an exam and consequently your certification or potential certification. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.
1. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone the exam was a lot harder than you thought it was going to be.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
2. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone there were a lot of neurology items.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
3. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone there was an item asking which you would treat first if your patient is both bradycardic and having frequent PVCs.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
4. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone you didn’t realize you needed to know the medication used to reverse malignant hyperthermia.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
5. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone you didn’t feel prepared enough in the topic area of cardiovascular.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
6. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone to always answer a type of item in a particular way.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
7. You are an exam candidate, and after the exam you tell someone that you need to look up indications for vitamin K and Protamine, as you always get them mixed up.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
8. You are a review course instructor, and ask your students to debrief difficult items with you after the exam.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
9. You are an educator, and ask course participants to let you know if there were any major content areas on the Test Plan for which they didn’t feel well-prepared.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
10. You are an academic faculty member, and ask your advanced practice students to tell you about exam items they found to be difficult.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
11. You just passed the exam, and write down a few items you remember and email them to your friend who has signed up to take the exam.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____
12. You just passed the exam, and post exam items that you recall from testing on a website or listserv.
Did you cross the line? Yes ____ No ____