Bummed about first round of nursing school tests.

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I had 4 tests in one week. I made a 75 in Pharmacology (10 point scale), 80 in Pathophysiology, 78 in Health Assessment (80 is a C and passing in nursing classes), and 82 in Foundations (which is a C). I am used to making A's and B's in everything. Anything I can do that I can use to help me study? I have the Fundmantals Success book and an NCLEX Book (Saunders). How do you manage your time? I have multiple planners and one large calendar on my fridge. I guess I just am feeling a bit discouraged. I really don't want any C's at all. I know C's= RN, but I want to go to grad school for nurse practitoner and you need a 3.5 at least for that.

Specializes in Urology, ENT.

Change how you study, and stay on top of your information. You won't be able to read everything, and read what it says in the schedule (the ones the teachers give you). I've found when they say they're doing something like respiratory, they only focus on certain topics, of course that's highly dependent on your teacher.

How are you taking your notes? Is it like how you did in your pre-reqs? When I was in nursing school (I graduated last December), I had to overhaul my note taking and reading. I didn't highlight as much in my books, and what I really didn't understand, I went to my teachers. Have you looked at the rationales? Does it make sense when you read it?

For Pharm, I did charts and name associations. If it sounded like a pokemon, it's a psych drug (hey, it helped).

Oh, and another thing about taking notes -- don't just take notes for the sake of taking notes. Take notes in a way meaningful to you. If that means writing in three different languages, so be it (...yes, I did that. There's only one other person in the world who can make sense of my notes).

Specializes in Urology, ENT.

And your grades are awesome for the first round of nursing school tests. I had a lot of classmates who flat out failed their first tests in nursing school (..who may I add had way higher GPAs than I did when we graduated). I can tell you right now mental health nursing isn't in my future (really struggled in that class), and I can't for the life of me tell you what has to happen to an infant when they're 16 months old. I just know Babinsky should be gone by that point, and high-shrill cries are bad bad BAD signs.

You're doing great. Nursing school exams take a while to get used to. My instructor told us that if we want to pass the NCLEX, we should be getting nothing lower than a 75, preferably 78. It sounds like you know the material and need to practice test-taking skills. I do a lot of practice questions from Kaplan and Saunders in the days leading up to a test, and try to meet with a professor to talk through my wrong answers after a test. I still usually end up in the 82-88 range with a couple of black sheep here and there. It's hard! Don't your pre-req's count toward your GPA for NP school?

I was an A/B student until I entered into the nursing program. We had to get 77% to pass exams or even the course itself, except Pharm and Dosage Calc in which we had to have 90% to pass. Nursing is just a lot harder and more is expected of a nursing student. Don't beat yourself up about it...you're doing just fine. Remember C's get degrees. That's what one of my instructors told us. I'm not saying to settle for C's, but don't stress out if you're not getting A's either.

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