How to Read the Rd Exam Questions
Well, it'due south been awhile! And it's been an exciting while! I am happy to study that I passed the Registered Dietitian examination. Woohoo! Information technology was a tough two hours, but I got through it, sweaty palms and all. I took it about a month ago and have been sitting on the post for a while, merely I have sufficiently recovered from the doozy of an exam and now I can think clearly about it and reverberate. But seriously thinking dorsum, information technology wasn't that bad. Grab a coffee, get comfy, and be prepared for a long and thorough post.
I felt it is only fitting that I discuss what I did to pass the test after all my posts well-nigh my internship rotations. Equally I discussed before, the examination allows you to say you are a Registered Dietitian and are the nutrition practiced. To take discover out more nearly the exam and how to qualify, read this: How to Become a Registered Dietitian. Sounds kinda scary, but I hope it'southward not as daunting as information technology seems. It just involves lots of science and to me, science makes sense and after you get a experience for it, you tin can "logic" your way out of a lot of problems, even if you've never seen them before.
So anyway, the examination consists of taking 125 to 140 questions over 2 ½ hours covering everything you take learned from your DPD courses, the internship and life experiences. It is split into four domains, which are the pillars of the nutrition field and each domain is given a dissimilar weight. Those domains are Principles of Dietetics, which takes up 25% of the exam, Nutrition Care for Individuals and Groups, which takes upward 40% of the exam, Management of Food and Nutrition Programs and Services, which takes upwardly 21% of the exam, and finally, everyone'due south favorite, Foodservice systems, which takes up xiv% of the test. There was a footling sarcasm with that last one, considering information technology seems everyone I talked to (electric current RDs and dietetics students alike) seemed to agree this domain was the worst. But who knows, maybe you will like it. Then that means if you had to take 140 test questions (which I hope you lot will never take to!), you would take about 35 questions in Principles of Dietetics, 56 questions in Nutrition Intendance, 29 questions in Management, and twenty questions in Foodservice. The exam is computer adaptive, meaning the more questions y'all get correct, the less questions you must answer, with a minimum being 125 questions. If you go more than wrong early on in the exam, you lot may accept to take up 140 questions. It also takes note of which topics you may not have a good understanding of and gives you more than of those to ensure it is thorough. Early on in studying, my biggest fearfulness was that the exam would give me a bunch of TPN calculations, only past the end of studying I was hoping for more of those questions because they seemed straightforward and easy compared to other topics. Oh, the ability of studying!
Getting on to the actual studying, I volition become over what books and computer software I used to report and examination myself and my opinions of each one. You have a lot of options available to you and actually, your but limits would be how much money you have and your preferred method of studying. Everyone learns and retains information differently, then what works for someone else may not work for you lot. This, equally I accept learned, besides takes some trial and mistake. Before getting to the studying, I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on studying efficiently, ways to memorize content effectively, and what other people have said about the RD exam. I continued to sentinel these videos in between, because for some reason watching these videos made me experience more confident and motivated about studying. I likewise read a few blog posts on the test as well, which opened me up to other study resources, and I asked the RDs I worked with during the internship. Someone told me they typed their whole Jean Inman cover-to-comprehend (yikes) to help them retain information, and others used a lot of flash cards. But everyone seemed to all agree that taking TONS of test prep questions was key. I concord. I probably took over ii,500 test questions from various platforms to written report. You need a way to gauge if you are retaining information, and that'south the way to do it.
With that said, here is my overview of the platforms I used to report.
Main Report MATERIALS
Visual Veggies
I was fortunate to have my dietetic internship plan provide us interns with a copy of this program to start with during orientation. It is an actual program you download onto your computer and it has a bunch of examination questions under each of the four domains. It even breaks it down to the subtopics of each domain. Y'all accept the option to take pre-programmed full-length tests and mini-quizzes or you lot tin can create your own tests. Later you complete a quiz, you go an explanation of why the right reply was correct. The nice affair about the software is that it gives you detailed feedback on your testing statistics, including timing, percentage you got correct, domains y'all are stiff or weak in, and it provides tips on ways to study at the end of each quiz or test. This was my first exam prep and I recommend it.
Jean Inman
Although Visual Veggies was a good start, I felt I needed something more comprehensive so that I didn't miss something. And so, I bit the bullet and bought the Jean Inman guide, which many say this guide is the ultimate study guide. I was able to go my hands on a pirated version of information technology, as I'one thousand sure you lot will too, only I get paranoid. I don't want the FBI knocking down my door to confiscate my pirated study guide. Besides, there something about the ideals that bother me. The lady (Jean) is an RD and MBA and had worked hard to get where she is, so I felt a little dingy for adulterous her. Anyway, I ordered information technology online and they shipped a binder with the study guide, CDs, and the exam questions to me a few weeks after. I wish they would've sent flash drives of the sound instead of CDs because I had to track down a computer with a CD drive to convert it to MP3s and then download it onto my flash drive so I could listen to it on my figurer. My computer doesn't take a CD drive.
The study guide breaks down the content, once more, past domains. But information technology covers everything you could possibly need to know. All this information should not exist new to you because you would take covered it in your courses and internship. With me, a lot seemed new because it's been years (closer to a decade!!) since I was in a diet class (especially direction) and I forgot. To start, I listened to the CD and while looking at the guide and marked items that seemed of import (which seemed like all of it) and I made mental notes of where I was weak. For instance, I pretty much had no thought about all the management domain. I know a lot of people said they highlighted the parts where she said "annotation", only it seemed random to me, so I didn't pay that much attention, and, in the end, I was fine. Listening to the audio and taking quick notes on the side took near a week, simply I was also taking Visual Veggies questions in between. If I powered through it, it probably would have taken a day or two. I tried not to get likewise caught up in fully understanding what she discussed because I just needed an idea of the latitude of what I needed to know, if that makes sense. I'grand a big movie sort of person, so I needed a large pic of the textile.
In one case I got though it and identified "need to know" from "nice to know" I started making wink cards. Now, I'm not usually a flash card person but I thought I'd try information technology out. It worked for some things, similar lab values, formulas and vitamin deficiencies and values, but for other things it was likewise tedious, like for nutrition education programs and disease direction. That's when I turned to YouTube.
SUPPLEMENTARY Report MATERIALS
YouTube
I honestly feel that if it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't have passed. Non only did I use it for motivation and study tips, simply there is so much content related to all the domain topics. I created my own study playlist for things I was weak in and things I needed a visual of. For instance, my playlist included videos on how certain nutrient chemicals react in an acidic or basic solution, digestion and assimilation processes, the TCA cycle, beta oxidation, hormone regulation, mechanism of activity for medications, motivation theories, and food safety. I am too a visual person (which I think a lot of people are) and although I could read almost it in the Jean Inman guide, a video (with nice graphics) was and so much more meaningful to me. I also plant that you are more likely to retain and apply data if you read, hear, and watch content (hello Social Cognitive Theory). By the finish, I had nerveless 70 videos. Whenever I couldn't wrap my mind around something, I'd look it up on YouTube. Now, the merely caveat here is you must resist the temptation to lookout kitty and blooper videos…. Something I tested to keen lengths.
EatRight Prep
Looking back, I wish I had made this one of my primary study materials. I got this program ii weeks before I took the exam because with all my other swain interns failing the examination, I got nervous. I felt I needed an edge and someone else who failed the test said the EatRight Prep questions were closer to the actual test questions. I hold. I also really liked how each reply was explained, even why the incorrect choices were incorrect. It seemed Visual Veggies just focused on explaining why the answers were correct, just in the exam, using critical thinking skills and procedure of emptying were fundamental. Understanding why the incorrect answers were incorrect was just equally important every bit agreement why the correct answers were right. The position papers from the Academy were a nice bear upon, merely those were definitely "overnice to know" material. I'd similar to become back and read those now that I'k legit, merely I demand to do information technology soon because the program is web-based and goes by subscription. I had a 3-calendar month subscription.
Khan Academy
Just similar the YouTube videos, I thought Khan University was helpful and allowed me to encounter how everything works together in the torso. They have a whole department on biology, physiology, and medical terminology and this was immensely helpful.
Registered Dietitian Examination App past MED PREPS LLC
When I didn't take access to my estimator and hard copies of my study materials, I turned to my phone. Everyone knows exactly where their phone is at all times, so I took reward of this. Fifty-fifty if I did 5 questions, it was however practicing my RD skills. The app helped me go on certain subjects in my head. There is so much content to know for the test that it'south easy to forget what you studied ii weeks ago. The app was random in the way it gave questions to you, so you never knew what you were going to become.
Side note
Breeding and Associates: I must make a mention here since this was another study guide I got my hands on. A swain RD I worked with at Denver Public Schools gave me his textile. I flipped through it, but it seemed super tedious. It could work for y'all, simply for me I felt information technology wasn't what I needed.
Lastly, use mnemonics whenever you can to memorize some of the more mundane subjects. It was the only manner I memorized lab values.
Final thoughts
It is possible to pass the exam. So many people take passed it before you, and your potential is no different. Sure, it may take time and dust, just one affair I've learned over the years is that the brain is an amazing organ. Your brain is no dissimilar from all the other RD2Bs out there. So, when you lot're puffy-eyed from reading and in a fog well-nigh the TCA bike, merely think that.
How to Read the Rd Exam Questions
Source: https://tumbleweednutrition.com/how-i-studied-and-passed-the-rd-exam/