Strategy under time pressure
Before you read
Test yourself first: 5 questions
Question 1 of 5
The instruction 'have the patient void' means to have the patient:
Answer: A. To void is to urinate. The everyday sense of void — to cancel or nullify — is a different meaning of the same word, and the clinical one is what charts use.
Question 2 of 5
Which word is an ANTONYM for 'temporary'?
Answer: A. Three of these four mean short-lived. Spotting the odd one out is often faster than defining each word.
Question 3 of 5
The word 'purge' most nearly means to:
Answer: A. Purge means to empty out. In tubing, purging removes air; the word carries the same sense of clearing.
Question 4 of 5
A 'febrile' patient has:
Answer: A. Febrile = with fever, afebrile = without. The a-/an- prefix meaning 'without' shows up throughout the exam (apnea, anemia, aphasia).
Question 5 of 5
'Prognosis' and 'diagnosis' differ in that a prognosis:
Answer: A. Diagnosis says WHAT it is; prognosis says WHERE IT IS GOING. The pro- prefix, meaning forward, is the memory hook.
Keep the streak going with more questions like these, each with a full rationale.
