Orientation Flashcards
7 cards from real MOCA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Orientation flashcards as text
A patient correctly names the date, month, year, and day of the week, but cannot name the city. What score does this patient earn on Orientation?
Answer: 5
Correctly answering 5 of the 6 orientation items (missing only city) earns 5 points.
Which MoCA orientation item is most likely to be incorrect in a patient experiencing delirium?
Answer: Date
In delirium, the specific date is most frequently the first orientation item to become inaccurate due to its high granularity.
The MoCA orientation score contributes what percentage of the total possible MoCA score of 30?
Answer: 20%
The Orientation section is worth 6 out of 30 points, which equals 20% of the total score.
A clinician notices a patient scores 0/6 on Orientation but performs well on memory and language tasks. What should the clinician consider?
Answer: The patient may be experiencing acute delirium or the result may reflect a test-taking issue
A dissociation between 0/6 orientation and preserved other domains warrants consideration of acute delirium, motivational factors, or administration error.
How does the MoCA handle scoring if a patient gives the correct day of the week but is off by one day due to confusion about midnight administration?
Answer: No credit is given; the exact correct day must be stated
Standard MoCA scoring requires the exact correct response; partial credit or adjusted scoring is not permitted for the day item.
Which statement about orientation and the MoCA's sensitivity is most accurate?
Answer: The MoCA orientation items are more sensitive to dementia than to MCI, as orientation is often preserved in MCI
Orientation is typically preserved in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and is more likely to show deficits in frank dementia.
A patient taking a MoCA test says the correct city name but mispronounces it due to a speech articulation disorder. How should the examiner score the city item?
Answer: Full credit, because the intended response is clearly the correct city
If the examiner can clearly identify the intended correct response despite articulation issues, full credit is awarded.