[TexasCCRN]

Just wondering if any current or past students had any advice for preparing for the next school year. I have a laptop and voice recorder. Is there anything that you look back on and say "man, I wish I would have done or gotten this" Any thing is helpful. Thanks

[Just a CRNA]

Students have told me that they used the search engine bigwords.com as a source for finding their textbooks at a more reasonable rate. If you have the ISBN number, the search works best, but otherwise title and author/editor can also be used. Hope this helps, and perhaps saves some $$ for you.

[gaspassah]

clear all debt.
party hard now, you wont get a chance in school.
begin to regiment your time.
start reading something now to get in the habit.
fix everything you need to on you car, tires a/c whatever.
good luck
d

[eph432girl]

Originally Posted by PurplFrawg

Students have told me that they used the search engine bigwords.com as a source for finding their textbooks at a more reasonable rate. If you have the ISBN number, the search works best, but otherwise title and author/editor can also be used. Hope this helps, and perhaps saves some $$ for you.

half.com is another website to try (must have the ISBN number). I think this is associated with ebay somehow....Also, try to order asap - I have heard that it could take a week or so to get your books (have not used the website, but I plan to do so next semester)

Christine

[NurseGuy_in_06]

Originally Posted by TexasCCRN

Just wondering if any current or past students had any advice for preparing for the next school year. I have a laptop and voice recorder. Is there anything that you look back on and say "man, I wish I would have done or gotten this" Any thing is helpful. Thanks

If you are going back for your pre-req's just study a lot and try to get the good professors. If you are referring to the nursing classes I can tell you first-hand that you must learn to "think" like a nurse. Learn and use Maslowe's Heiarchy, it saved me on some test questions. Remember that a 25% drop-out rate also means a 75% success rate.

[goodknight]

Get the study guides to all your books. There gonna cost 20 bucks or so a piece, but I wish I had bought them. They were excellent to use for studying for the test.

[maturner]

With regards to preparing for C R N A school...

-Spend lots of time with friends and family
-Enjoy not having tests, papers, assignments, clinicals, etc always hanging over your head
-If you start next fall and need extra money, work more now so that you can take it easy in the months leading up to school
-Take a couple of fun relaxing vacations or take a travel assignment or two to fun places
-Make sure one of your vacations is just prior to school starting
-Get all of your affairs in order, such as car maintenance, bills, etc.
-Simplify you life, such enrolling in automatic bill payment
-Get finances squared away before school starts it is better to extra money in the beginning and easier to get private student loans while you are still employed
-Get aquainted with a PDA
-Enjoy not being a student!

[susswood]

Don't buy any new clothes.... all that sitting around and studying can buy you an extra 5-10 lbs, if you are so inclined (i.e. over 30)!!!!

[TexasCCRN]

Thanks everyone for all the good advice. Some made me laugh, some makes me want to cry! Just joking. I appreciate you all!

[dneill01]

As far as equipment, not alot left to get. A nerve stimulator, maybe a couple of reference books ie. naglehout or morgan/mikhail, washington manual and jaffee surgical procedures but most of these things will be recommended in your program. Get a miniature mouse (USB) for your laptop as it is tedious after a long time using the touchpad, one other thing is get a Jump/flash drive that you can attach to your keys, it is invaluable (256mb should suffice for a while.). Make sure that it can attach to your keys and that it does not require drivers so that you can use it anywhere. get Microsoft Office, student version should be good enough. 3 ring binders for organization are vital, a pack of colored pencils for Pathophys, cadaver lab, biochem, etc. notes. Another thought is to get your eyes checked if it has been along time as lots of time in the books is the recipe for headaches and poor concentration. Dont do any reading preparation for classes, they will provide you the material that you need to know. Spend some good time with family or friends and maybe take a nice little vacation.

Hope this helps

David