Suggestions?!?

kahumai, RN · Mar 30, 2004

As far as the nursing entrance exam, I don't know because I wasn't required to take it. As far as how time consuming nursing classes will be...VERY! :chuckle You will most likely have to cut back on hours spent at work, if you work at all. Time spent socializing with friends will be brief, and you will have to focus alot of time and energy on nursing. It's very easy to get side-tracked by other things you may want to do, but I gather that since you said you have wanted this for along time, you'll be able to find resources along the way to help you out. You may find that the old saying "1 hour class time = 2 hours studying at home" will almost ring true, and even then it may not seem like enough time. You'll get it if you just work hard. Good luck with your pre-reqs!!!!!

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Mar 30, 2004

What should I expect on the nursing entrance exam? And more importantly, how can I prepare for it?! (I purchased "Nursing School and Allied Health Entrance Exams" by ARCO... anyone ever heard of this?? I've heard mixed reactions on whether or not its helpful. Another thing that scares me; there seems to be a lot of math on the entrance exam, I HATE MATH! I'm not even on college level math! I'm taking Math 099 for Christ's sake..)
Will it be extremely time consuming? You bet. It will take first priority in your life even if you don't intend it to. Nursing school is a greedy beast and what it wants most from you is TIME, TIME and more TIME. Classes for me are technically Monday through Thursday but there are the Friday skills check-offs and sometimes Saturday too. Some exams are taken on "off" days and then there's the studying, the care plans, the med and lab reviews and papers... get ready to write lots of papers.
As for the ARCO book... I used it in preparation for my NLN exam. If anything, it overprepared me for the math portion because it's all word problems. Word problems are algebra problems in application format. If you can get even just a little comfortable with those, you'll do fine on the math portion of the entrance exam whether it's NLN or NET. I got 92 on the NLN and began studying for it with the ARCO book months before the actual exam. There are test-specific review books. NLN has one and so does NET.
That's great that your family will help you financially. I work only one 12 hour shift a week as a tech. More than that would be too much for me. It depends on the student.
See ya!

orrnlori, RN · Mar 30, 2004

I took the NLN pre-nursing test. It was like a mini-ACT or mini-SAT. It has reading, science and math. The math was like senior high school stuff. I had been in school 19 years when I took the NLN test and scored an overal 94% which got me into the nursing program on rolling admissions. If you want help I think you need to find out exactly which test your school is giving. Different schools give different aptitude tests. Get the name of the test and post it here and maybe someone can help you.

AmyLiz · Mar 30, 2004

What should I expect on the nursing entrance exam? And more importantly, how can I prepare for it?! (I purchased "Nursing School and Allied Health Entrance Exams" by ARCO... anyone ever heard of this?? I've heard mixed reactions on whether or not its helpful. Another thing that scares me; there seems to be a lot of math on the entrance exam, I HATE MATH! I'm not even on college level math! I'm taking Math 099 for Christ's sake..)

I liked this book. It helped me prepare for my entrance exam & I did quite well on it. At our school if you didn't pass one of the sections of the exam, you could make up for that section by taking a class (ie. if you didn't pass the verbal section, you would take a medical terminology class) and when you passed that class, it would make up for that section. A friend of mine didn't pass one part & did this.

cuz_i_can · Mar 31, 2004

Hey guys/gals

thanks for the replies! I think I'm just too paraniod

about being tested; knowing that about 400 people apply for

the program each year and they can only take in 75, so I want

to do as best as I possibly can. The actual nursing program doesnt

really require any Math classes, but I am taking a "College Algebra"

class this summer, just to prepare myself for the exam. I'm not

quite sure as to what the actual entrance exam is... I suppose I

should check on that.. But, thanks! :)

RNSuzq1, RN · Mar 31, 2004

Hey guys/gals
thanks for the replies! I think I'm just too paraniod
about being tested; knowing that about 400 people apply for
the program each year and they can only take in 75, so I want
to do as best as I possibly can. The actual nursing program doesnt
really require any Math classes, but I am taking a "College Algebra"
class this summer, just to prepare myself for the exam. I'm not
quite sure as to what the actual entrance exam is... I suppose I
should check on that.. But, thanks! :)

Hi,

All of the posters here gave very good advice. Last month I took the Entrance Exam for my School. A few weeks before that - I challenged their "Algebra Placement Exam" - instead of re-taking the course. My 19 year old son is an Engineering/Math Major and he spent 2 months helping me prepare for it (I drove the poor kid crazy). I amazed us both and scored much higher than needed for the entrance requirements and felt very prepared for the "math portion" of the entrance exam.

Although there was some algebra in the math portion - unfortunately for most of us that had focused mainly on "advanced algebra" - it was mostly "very long" word problems dealing with decimals, fractions, percentages, long division, muliplication, etc. We were totally thrown off guard when we saw all the word problems and found out "Calculators" were NOT allowed for the test. :angryfire My study guide for the exam did include word problems and I did "GREAT" on all of them - but had my handy, dandy calculator with me - had no idea I wouldn't be allowed to use it in the exam.

Just my opinion - but, even with a calculator - if you don't know how to work a "word problem" you won't come up with the correct answer - so I really wish they had let us use one considering the time limit for that portion. We had 40 minutes to work out 45 really long problems (less than a minute per problem) - you could hear people "scribbling" on paper like mad - just a little bit stressful.

The original poster is only 19 and probably won't get this - but hopefully some of you my ancient age will. During the math portion without my calculator I was feeling a bit like "Jethro" doing my "gizintas". As in - 1 gizinta 2, 2 gizinta 3 - lol... :rotfl:

Thankfully, I did really well on the rest of the test - it consisted of English, Science (Biology-Chemistry-little bit of A&P), and Comprehension. The best advice I can give you as far as the "math" goes is - get some entrance exam and SAT study guides and practice, practice, practice working word problems out on paper and try and gradually pick up your speed - because during this test - time is everything - each question unanswered is marked wrong. Everyone I talked to after the exam ran out of time and ended up guessing on the last few questions. Hope this helps you out a bit. Susan