St Louis University

Whoops, I made a mistake in the schedule.....
The second half of summer, you have pathophysiology and maternity.
(not PHARMACOLOGY and maternity).

So for each class....

Intro to Clinical Decision Making- you have...
two exams over lecture material
two skill demonstrations you get tested over, one is a sterile procedure and one is a more basic skill, like transferring patients
one exam over principles you learned in lab
2 papers/assignments (they are completed with a partner)

This is the way Health assessment is structured too. You're not graded strictly on lecture stuff, there is other ways you can make your points.

Pharmacology is two tests over lecture material, plus a drug calculation test. Communication has lecture components and lab components.

In the first part of the summer, the theory tests that I mentioned are really heavily based on lecture material, not really book reading. I didn't really read that much in the summer, there is hardly time for that.
I only read to supplement my lectures and clarify what I was unsure about. The stuff I read about was how to perform certain procedures or how you go about listening to the lungs, etc.
The tests are not tricky at all. They are very straightforward. Whatever study habits you use to succeed now in school, those should work.
I studied pretty much daily over what was covered in lecture. Then, I read about whatever skills we were going to be going over in lab the next day. Again, I probably studied more in summer than I did in the following semesters, just because it is so much material presented so quickly. These are also the skills you will use your ENTIRE nursing career, so study up. It's a hard transition from being out of school to such a demanding semester, especially when it's so bright and shiny outside. But, summer is the hardest part! it really does get easier, and you learn how to work the system, so to speak.

For Pharmacology, she will give you a study guide. Study the study guides!!! She will pretty much base her tests on this, and only this! The study guides are lengthy, so split them up among friends.

As you move on in the program, the tests get more based on nursing judgement. They ask you to prioritize your care. There are study guides you can purchase to help you prepare for the tests, and at this point, doing practice questions are the best way to prepare for the tests.

One thing I would recommend highly is to make friends, learn everyone's names, make alliances, exchange cell numbers with people. You guys can colloborate in study guides, practice doing health assessments on one another, share information....etc.

Hope this helps...... Also, I was kind of OCD during the summer semester, and typed up my notes in outline form for pretty much every class! I would be willing to share these, too.

Thanks for sharing. I would be very glad to look at the way you organize your notes to make it helpful for studying. Can you share about your experience in community clinical? You talked about splitting up the study guide among your alliances/friends, how was this helpful? Did you form study groups and if so, how many times a week do you guys meet to discuss class topics?

Sorry it took me so long to reply.... busy semester.
What do you mean by community clinical exactly?......

I did one study group early in the year and it was not very helpful for me. There were too many people and we had just begun studying for the exam and hadn't ironed out specific questions. It was a mess. If you do decide to do a study group, make sure it is small: 2-4 people, and make sure you have studied a good amount before you get together, so you have specific questions/weak points that your study partners can flush out for you.
We also found each other on facebook and started threads with various school-related questions on them. VERY helpful. May even be more valuable than a physical study group.
But I would still split up study guides and start an e-mail chain attaching each person's contribution.
Also, another tip, you and a friend should each buy a really good careplan book and share them. They are EXTREMELY useful when you have a careplan due tomorrow on a patient you just met today.

Does anyone know what the cutoff gpa was for this program for the previous class?

I'm currently a sophomore at SLU and I like it. I plan on apply to their Accelerated BSN program next fall. Hopefully, I get accepted! Anyway, it's a great school with an excellent nursing program. The one thing no one likes about it is that it's expensive!