My guide to making the grade during nursing school and maintaining your sanity. - Page 7

I'm doing awesome! On the first test I got a B. It was the lowest B but still i'm happy!

Thank you so much! I'll definately follow this advise when I start, stil waiting for my acceptance letter for Spring 2012(yall cross ur fingers for me) What can you advise about dosage calculation test? I heard people say we should study the book before starting...? And if so whats the best book to get??

I just received my acceptance letter last week for spring 2012 acceptance. I was extremely happy and excited for the first 5 minutes after opening the letter and then my emotions fell. I got very scared and worried about how I was going to accomplish this. Advise like this really helps relieve the anxiety. If anybody that started in fall of 2011 have any other thoughts, suggestions, ideas for the spring class that would be awesome!

I still dont know what I'm doing wrong:-( my second test is on Wednesday, and I'm so scared because of how bad I did on the first test. I read this post weeks before I started school and felt so confident, but everything is going down hill for me:-) maybe this isn't for me. I guess it's a good thing I know now and not wait till I'm at the end of the semester and flunk out. Good luck to everyone who's doing so well.

OMG! I am doing exactly what you are doing and getting 80's! All that studying for almost nothing! I don't like cutting it that close. I will take your advice and anything else you recommend. We have Med Surg I and Pharmacology next semester Jan of 2012 any suggestions??? Thanks and keep up the blogs! It is a great help to all of us. Congrats on making it through the program.

Good guidelines, but in my nursing school, we study by PBL. It's problem based learning. We don't have a teacher, we have a "facilitator." So we go through case studies, pick out what we think is important to know, each student gets assigned something, and then we bring back the information to class and present it to the rest of the class. It's pretty difficult to get used to. It's like we are teaching ourselves. So, although you have good pointers, it's not like I can go over suggested sections. Simply because the "teacher" doesn't tell us where to look.

I agree that may work for some professors, and for my Clinical Reasoning and Assessment class it works great (along with reading anything in boxes!). For my Intro to Nursing Fundamentals (I think that's what it's called, we just call it by it's course number, lol) the number 1 study tip here would leave you struggling to get more than high 70s to 80. And we need a 78 to pass. The reason? There are two instructors for the class and one makes the study guide/powerpoints. I have the one that doesn't make the study guide or powerpoints. So, we get a study guide and powerpoints that have very little to do with the actual nursing exam.

Bottom line: If the above works (and it will for many classes), do it! If it doesn't, alter your study habits and find another way - try reading the introduction and anything bolded/boxed/etc.

And lastly, find out how to take a nursing exam - that is some of the problems my classmates have had. They don't know how to choose the best answer, when sometimes three or four answers are good, you have to choose the best answer! So, read a book on taking nursing tests. I studied with one woman, we both were about equal on content. I've taken these style of tests before, she hasn't. On one test, I got an 89 and she got in the low 70s.

Wow! Thank you so much! This has helped me majorly when it comes to knowing how I am going to study material once I'm in the program! I definitely don't want to feel burnt out on it all so soon! Thanks again for taking the time to post this!

@gcat626RN -

Mmmm. Maybe a teaching career in your future? There is a such a dearth of good nursing instructors.

You can begin by being the nurse educator for your floor!

I'm starting my BSN in January, and I've been out of school for a few years, so this information was a fantastic way to wrap my head around learning again. I like the idea of studying with the NCLEX to get the whole process going.