Any C students out there?

NJTami · Oct 19, 2008

Honestly, if you pass you pass. Nursing is a Career Change for me, I have worked primarily in the corp. environment, but honestly NO ONE has ever asked me what my GPA was during an interview. I had the diploma, that's all that mattered. Perhaps it's different in nursing but once you graduate and get your first job it won't matter what you got in a class.

BellasMommyOBRN · Oct 19, 2008

hmmm...c's all the way through...every class? or throughout one class? the honest to god truth is that nursing schools are competitive to get into and a low gpa may not cut it. some community colleges admit students into their nursing program on a lottery basis. whenever your name pops up, your in it. could be a short wait, could be long.

you already know what you have to do to do well. the encouragement i can give you is that you don't have to be a genius to pass the pre-req's, you just have to give them the fair amount of time and effort. this is the time to turn yourself around. once you start receiving high grades, and prove to yourself that you can do this, you will see your confidence carry you through the rest of your journey.

it will never happen if you don't believe in yourself.:heartbeat

tigers11 · Oct 19, 2008

C's get Degrees. If you are doing the best you can don't beat yourself up about it. If you have a passion for helping people and want to a good job you are already ahead of some people! You'll be fine, just get through it.

suanna · Oct 19, 2008

I've posted this advice many times before. Look into if your school has a seminar or class on test taking skills- It can do a lot for your GPA and greatly improve your time required to study. That said, You are in the school of nursing now?- as long as you don't mind walking on the edge of a cliff C s will get you through but it gets tougher and tougher as the program progresses. I would be worried that C s in the earily classes can turn into D s in the more advanced work (or worse). I myself graduated with a low B with C s in most of my non-nursing classes. New wife and two new daughters, working 40+hrs a week I had to set priorities other than a high GPA. The difference is I knew if I needed to I could put forth a little more effort to bump up to a B or A for a test or two. That takes me back to - learn to study smarter, get the grades you need to pass but really learn you nursing core classes. Confidence will come in time- it isn't found in a GPA but in skills mastered an goals achieved.

DaveCRNA · Oct 19, 2008

First, if you are working hard and a C is what you get, then a C is what you get and it is passing.

If you want higher grades, then I'll try to pass along a couple of strategies.

1. Find a person or two that have higher grades and study with them all the time! This will help. Don't be a complete slouch, you have to bring some insight to the group or they will dump you, but if you participate, it will help you.

2. Seek out your school's tutors. They should have some type of "learning center" that provides free or very low cost tutoring. Don't be proud, use these services, this is difficult stuff and you need to "get it" anyway you can. Nursing school is about learning, not grades.

3. As suanna said, get some test taking skills. There are variety of ways to do this.

4. (most important) Believe you can do better. A positive attitude can and will help.

Grades don't really matter once you pass the NCLEX!!

However, you may find a little later in your career that you want to get an advanced degree and lower grades do have an impact, so work hard now and do the best you can!

I hope this helps.

funfunfun · Oct 19, 2008

hmmm...c's all the way through...every class? or throughout one class? the honest to god truth is that nursing schools are competitive to get into and a low gpa may not cut it. some community colleges admit students into their nursing program on a lottery basis. whenever your name pops up, your in it. could be a short wait, could be long.
you already know what you have to do to do well. the encouragement i can give you is that you
don't have to be a genius to pass the pre-req's, you just have to give them the fair amount of time and effort. this is the time to turn yourself around. once you start receiving high grades, and prove to yourself that you can do this, you will see your confidence carry you through the rest of your journey.
it will never happen if you don't believe in yourself.:heartbeat

thanks for the reply...i am talking about only nursing courses. i have finished all my pre-req and my gpa was a 3.98. i did great. this is the 1st timei got a c on anything (paper/exam/homework) since i have been in school. i knew i would sail through nursing couses like i did in my pre-reqs but it actually see the c+ on my exam really hit me hard. from what other have said c=rn. i am "hoping" that now i know how they test so i will do better next time. i know i knew all the content...it was the test that through me. i have been studing more test q's this time around and bought the saunders nclex review book lots of people on here have recommended. so i am going to pray that it will help on my next exam. wish me luck!

funfunfun · Oct 19, 2008

If you are doing the best you can don't beat yourself up about it.
This is exactly what my husband is saying to me...