Verbal Study Guide for the NLN NEX

There are two types of questions in this section of the NLN NEX test, with about half the questions of each type.

• reading comprehension—One type is a question about a reading passage in one of these areas: health, nature, science, or technology. You will need to extract details, identify the main idea, and make inferences based on the passage.

• word knowledge—This type of question asks you to find the meaning of a word presented in a sentence. You’ll need to use context clues and word parts in addition to accessing your existing word knowledge. Note that words always appear in context and not in isolation.

The following information covers improving your reading and comprehension, especially in a timed situation. We also have some ideas for addressing the vocabulary questions.

All questions on the NLN NEX are typical multiple-choice questions with four answer choices. You will have 60 minutes to answer a total of 58 questions. Only 50 of them will be scored, but you will not know which ones.

Reading Comprehension

Put simply, reading comprehension is your ability to understand and regurgitate information you have just read. It is important when reading not just to skim over the text but to fully absorb the information presented to you. It is especially valuable to notice the main idea and key details.

Main Idea

A text almost always has a major focus, a prominent message it is trying to send, or a key concept it is meant to inform on; this is called the main idea. It is common for the NLN NEX to directly ask, “What is the main idea of the passage?” in multiple-choice questions. When reading the answer options, think about what the author wants the reader to take away from the passage. What is the key concept? Scan for repetitive phrasing, argumentative statements, and a strong claim in the conclusion or introduction.

Finding Details

To support the main idea of a piece, an author must utilize supporting details, which are more specific and distinct pieces of information. Details are a bit trickier to understand but can be easy to spot once you identify the main idea. Details are supportive bits of information that usually answer questions like who, what, when, and where, whereas the main idea tends to tackle how and why. Details are found in the body of each passage or paragraph, usually after the first sentence, known as the topic sentence.

It is important to recognize the difference between the main idea and details to comprehend the purpose of any given passage.

Applying Information

It is important to not only have or understand information but to know how that information is used. Therefore, the passages you read may show information being applied. These examples will illustrate the practical application of the concept discussed in the passage. This concept is likely connected to the main idea of the passage, so once you have a sense of the main idea, see if there are examples showing it in action.

Examples are often chosen because they are representative of common scenarios where the information is relevant. For example, if a passage is about a hospital policy in patient care, the passage may include examples illustrating how nurses put this policy into practice. Readers can see how this policy would play out in real people’s lives.

Deducing Word Meanings from Content

You will be asked to deduce word meanings based on the content. This might occur in word knowledge questions and also reading comprehension questions. With such questions, you’ll need to look for context clues. This means that the content will not directly provide the answer to the meaning of a word, but rather, you’ll be able to determine the meaning. If you do not immediately know the meaning of a word, imagine there is a blank there instead of a word. Then, read the material wherein the word appears. What meaning needs to go in that blank to make sense? Look at the answer options and determine which word most nearly matches that meaning.

For example, let’s say you were asked to provide the best meaning for therapeutic,, as given in the following sentence:

Sleep is therapeutic; it heals us mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Which answer choice best expresses the meaning of “therapeutic”?

• beneficial
• positive
• complicated
• curative

The best answer would be curative. You could deduce the meaning of therapeutic from the content of the sentence. The sentence uses the verb heals to express what sleep does. Healing is a positive thing, and positive is one option, as is beneficial. However, these are both more general than curative. This word relates to curing or healing. It expresses the more specific way that sleep is beneficial and positive. The other answer choice, complicated, might at first seem appealing because of the mention of three different ways sleep heals us, but complicated generally has a negative connotation, which is not reflected in the content of the sentence. It also doesn’t connect to the word heals, which the other three choices do, and which curative particularly does.

Applying Information to a New Situation

Once you understand a concept, you can apply it in different situations. This skill builds on the foundation of reading comprehension. You may need to take information from the text and infer how it might be used in different scenarios. An inference is when something isn’t directly stated in a text, but there are clues that allow you to make a reasonable assumption. For example, if a passage gives you information in a certain context, you may have to consider how that information could be applied in a different situation or context. Let’s look at an application question regarding this passage:

Passage

Mindy has found that her handmade notebooks sell very well at farmers’ markets and craft fairs. At such venues, she has an entire booth to herself, and the booth is situated on a major walkway. Crowds of market patrons walk by throughout the event. The booth is in easy view, and numerous people stop to admire her work and take a card, even if they don’t buy anything. Her online sales have also increased, a trend she attributes to the visibility of her products at high-traffic community events. However, as all her products are handmade and she does not have employees, she has to think carefully about distributing her stock. She brings many notebooks to farmers’ markets and craft fairs. At the end of these events, she has only a small number of notebooks remaining. Sometimes, at the end of the day, she’ll offer a discount to the last few shoppers lingering in her booth and manage to leave with no stock at all to bring home with her. While this sometimes puts her in a bind regarding creating enough stock for the next event, her goal is, of course, to sell her products.

Question

Mindy is seeking to explore additional venues. She finds a brick-and-mortar store that provides a permanent vending site for local artists and crafters. The store is well stocked with an eclectic mix of products from numerous creators. Mindy’s wares would be in the southeast corner of the building, behind some ceramic and textile crafts. The store itself is in a slightly underdeveloped part of town away from the main shopping areas, but it does seem to generate enough revenue to stay in business. The store’s owners have offered her one, two, three, or four shelves on which to showcase her notebooks. Which will she likely choose?

Answer and Explanation

Of course, we cannot be absolutely sure what Mindy would do, but we can apply what we know from the passage to make a solid prediction. In this scenario, you’re applying what you know from one situation—her sales experience at craft fairs and farmers’ markets—to a new situation. From the passage, we learn that having a highly visible booth close to where many people are walking is important to her sales. She brings a large number of her products to these settings because she knows she’ll sell them.

In the potential new setting, however, her products will not be as readily visible to as many people. We learned that her products would be in the back of the store and that patrons wouldn’t see them unless they passed through other crafts. We also learn that the store itself is not in a main shopping area. Given this, and given that her stock is limited, she will likely start off with only one shelf at this new venue. This would allow her to explore a new venue without risking much inventory.

Inference

Making inferences takes more skill than identifying stated material; in order to infer, you must extract information based on what the text says. Questions requiring you to make inferences may ask which is most likely, reasonable to expect, what will probably happen and similar phrases, all asking you to make decisions based on the information provided.