Should I Even Bother With Finishing Prereqs?

[TCASII]

Hello, I just found the site and have a few questions for those in the know.

I've managed to get all my prereqs finished expect chemistry, and I also want to take my coreqs prior to starting NS. That leaves nutrition, Eng102, and patho, IIRC.

My problem is chemistry. I barely made it through the intermediate algebra class needed for chemistry, and had never had algebra or chemistry in HS. I'm extremely bad at math. I took chemistry a couple semesters ago and got a D. I passed the lab with a C, naturally. The instructor was from another country and very difficult to understand, so I met with a tutor a few times hoping that would help. It seemed like 2 semesters worth of information getting crammed down my throat in 1 semester. I knew I should have just dropped since the instructor was so hard to understand, compound that with the fact our exams were 100 questions to be completed in an hour! Yeah right.... :icon_roll

Anyhow, I got A's in microbiology, A&P I and II, and pretty much all my other classes I've taken. I've had a couple B's and C's, but mostly in classes I didn't care and got lazy. I found the A&P very easy when so many people in the class felt overwhelmed. I probably only studied one hour, maybe two before our exams. A little more for micro when going over some of the DNA stuff. I love medicine and have read graduate level medical books for a long time as a hobby, but I'm so bad at math. Tutors are often not very helpful because they can't explain why you do what you do, they'll say "That's just how you do it". Okay, so this number is something random you pulled out of your hat and you knew this from conception eh?

Is nursing school itself going to be this way? I've asked nursing students, and a few nurses, when I worked in a hospital, and they just say it's hard and you can't work at the same time. I understand the amount of study time being longer, but what else can be said about it? The main thing I see people complain about is the fact that answers on the tests aren't 100% clear, that there's so much grey area on the majority of questions, and their respective answers, that it's real easy to pick the wrong one. I've seen this on the NCLEX review books, so I know what they mean by that tactic.

Any thoughts? Comments?

Thank you,

Chris :)

[PMHNP10]

I also don't have a phobia of math, in the clinical DSM sense of things It's just been something I've always had problems with. A lot of my teachers growing up were not friendly at all about my difficulty in learning the numbers game.[//QUOTE]

I'm not asking for a response; these are just rhetorical questions: Are you a clinician? Have you already seen one in the past and they told you it wasn't a phobia? If you answered no to both of these question, how do you know you don't have a phobia? If nothing else, certainly you can agree that from your post it seems you were conditioned to not like working with numbers. In addition, your trouble with math is so extensive that you are asking us on a bulletin board whether or not you should complete your prereqs because of the possibility of having to take a math oriented chemistry. I'm just providing some food for thought. In the end, it is your choice; you can eat the food, or feed it to your dog. Good luck to you.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Good luck to you. If you can make A's in A&P then you can handle nursing school and math.

I would take a look at the conversations you are having with yourself "I am so bad at math" "tutors don't help". Could be you're self-defeating yourself. Open you're mind to the possibility that while you'll never be a mathmetician, you can understand and you can pass math/chemistry. If things aren't working out with a tutor, ask for another one. I have six chemistry tutors to choose from in my class. Also watch the approach with the tutor. Don't say "I'm horrible at math and I don't understand any of it". Start with what you know. And yes, there are certain rules in math and chemistry and that is just how it's done.

Good luck to you. Stay positive. Stay focused. Don't defeat yourself. Good luck!!

[Maxs]

Look dude, here is the problem, I can help you with this in a step by step solution, I can't promise you an A in chemistry but I can promise you a B in chemistry. If you want to learn math here is what's going to happen, you first need to realize how you learn. Chemistry's math is harder than algebra because it requires you to read the problems and that means your full attention to every bit of detail. At first you need to understand the rules of fractions. after that, you need to understand the rules of exponents, then you need to start chemistry addition of significant number rules, subtraction of significant number rules, multiplication of significant number rules, and division of significant number rules. Once you understand this, that means you will always know how many units your answer is supposed to be.

Then you start learning about conversions, say for start with as simple as this for example is 1 mole of O2 = 16.0g then 16.0 g O2 = 1 mole O2. DO you see how it works back and forth it uses the concept of equation and conversion at the same time and a lot of people don't expect that. If you want you can PM me and I will help you with all your chemistry problems, I will not solve all your homework problems but I will show you how to do each one. But in order to grasp chemistry by the hand, you first really need to understand the meaning of what I said other wise your wasted.

And I don't think you should give up, because of math, I mean if you were an engineering student I can understand why you wouldn't want to take calc I II III and Physics for science and Eng I II III and circuit analyses and all that, but luckily nursing is not a field that demands math.

Maxs

[truern]

"but luckily nursing is not a field that demands math....Maxs"

Huh??

Explain that to the students in my nursing class that have to retake the drug calc test after spring breakand pass, or exit the program.

OP, nursing math is simple....don't let a fear of math keep you from nursing school