Are your pre-req grades a predictor of your grades in nursing school?

jss1985, ASN, RN · Apr 2, 2017

Do you plan to work full time when you're in nursing school? Being overwhelmed with one class right now is a little concerning. Do you know what is causing your low grade?

My union lets you work part time while maintaining a full time schedule, as long as you get accepted in a program. So I'm covered there.

In terms of being overwhelmed, well this semester has been stressful for me on a personal level. I had to renew my PCT license on the national level for the first time, I passed but my first micro exam suffered with a 67. My wife and I are stuck with 2 freeloading family members who have been living with us for almost 2 years now, they are supposedly moving out soon, but food goes quick and we have no living room. We share our bedroom with our youngest (age 2). All of which is a recipe for headache and depression.

Ilikeletters · Apr 3, 2017

My grades:

Anatomy B

Micro A

Physio B

the rest don't really matter for nursing school. Nursing school I ended up with a 3.76 GPA, so pretty close but did better in actual nursing school than pre-reqs. Nursing school definitely builds upon those 3 - I had really tough professors for those classes so even though I got Bs, they really prepared me for nursing school. My physio professor told me she'd rather have me as a nurse for her kids with my B than some people that got As because she knew how I thought through things and that I got it despite the B. As I went thought nursing school, I had lots of AHA moments where the things I didn't fully get in the prereqs all of a sudden clicked and I think that's why I ended up doing better in actual nursing school.

gM_2010, MSN, PhD, RN, NP · Apr 4, 2017

From an anecdotal standpoint-prereq GPAs don't always translate to high grades in nursing. The difference is that nursing courses require students critically think and apply the content. Most science classes are at the know and understand levels.

I've had more students crying in my office when they were just passing a nursing class test when they had "straight As" in their sciences. It's time to apply the content and think-skills one does not necessarily get in prereqs.

Good luck!

CS911 · Apr 4, 2017

What do you think was the cause of those bad grades? Study time? Understanding the material? Something going on in that particular semester?

I will be the first to say that a solid foundation in A&P is a must for success in nursing school. However, sometimes the A&P classes go in-depth, much past the context of clinical medicine.

For example, nursing tests won't ask: An 89-year-old client is admitted for dyspnea on exertion and fever. You auscultate crackles in the right lower and middle lobes of the lungs. Which pathogen is the most likely the cause, and identify it according to the gram stain below:

Nursing really is critically thinking -- every intervention or question has a "why" behind it. For example, if a patient is having difficulty breathing, which of the following should the nurse do FIRST?

A) Give the patient oxygen

B) Sit the patient up

C) Call the provider

D) Obtain pulse oxymetry

PrereqTaker89 · Apr 4, 2017

Are those relatives yours or your wife's?

Serhilda, ADN, RN · Apr 13, 2017

I'm finishing up my first year of nursing school right now and from what I've seen, those that struggled in anatomy and physiology or microbiology are barely passing nursing school exams or failing out, even if they made an A in those pre-reqs. It wasn't an A that came easy for them. Those that did well, even exceptionally well in pre-reqs, usually make B's now. A's are rare.

Personally, I would not suggest continuing on with nursing if you don't feel completely confident with pre-reqs. That's the foundation you're building on, you wouldn't build a house on a shaky foundation and expect it to not to collapse, right?

I'm sorry if this doesn't seem encouraging. I think once you identify exactly what made these classes challenging for you (was it juggling work and childcare? Maybe a lack of support or poor time management?), you can then wait until you're at a better point in life and try again. Hopefully it's not that you simply find the content difficult because that's not an easy fix at all, honestly.

jss1985, ASN, RN · Apr 13, 2017

What do you think was the cause of those bad grades? Study time? Understanding the material? Something going on in that particular semester?
I will be the first to say that a solid foundation in A&P is a must for success in nursing school. However, sometimes the A&P classes go in-depth, much past the context of clinical medicine.
For example, nursing tests won't ask: An 89-year-old client is admitted for dyspnea on exertion and fever. You auscultate crackles in the right lower and middle lobes of the lungs. Which pathogen is the most likely the cause, and identify it according to the gram stain below:
Nursing really is critically thinking -- every intervention or question has a "why" behind it. For example, if a patient is having difficulty breathing, which of the following should the nurse do FIRST?
A) Give the patient oxygen
B) Sit the patient up
C) Call the provider
D) Obtain pulse oxymetry

I choose B. Everything else would be followed by C (by provider Im assuming call for "help/additional medical staff"?), D, and A. After providing O2 for X amount of time, i would recheck pulse ox to see if anything changed.

Did i pass?

jss1985, ASN, RN · Apr 13, 2017

I'm finishing up my first year of nursing school right now and from what I've seen, those that struggled in anatomy and physiology or microbiology are barely passing nursing school exams or failing out, even if they made an A in those pre-reqs. It wasn't an A that came easy for them. Those that did well, even exceptionally well in pre-reqs, usually make B's now. A's are rare.
Personally, I would not suggest continuing on with nursing if you don't feel completely confident with pre-reqs. That's the foundation you're building on, you wouldn't build a house on a shaky foundation and expect it to not to collapse, right?
I'm sorry if this doesn't seem encouraging. I think once you identify exactly what made these classes challenging for you (was it juggling work and childcare? Maybe a lack of support or poor time management?), you can then wait until you're at a better point in life and try again. Hopefully it's not that you simply find the content difficult because that's not an easy fix at all, honestly.

Im assuming you're talking about the C+ in A&P I... I took it at a community college where i was attempting to get into an ADN program. They had their own special nursing prerequisite that wasn't transferrable to a BSN but was required for entry ti their ADN. It was a pre nursing med/math class.

The instructor for that class was hard on us. I totally got the calculations and did them step by step but he would always come up with something that would throw us off like why does one plus one equal one? The strict 45 min time limit on tests didnt help either.

Anyway i took that with A&P I. The first science class i had taken in 10 years since high school. I spent the first month of that semester failing both. I got discouraged with nursing and dropped the med math class. When i did that my A&P I grades improved and i ended on a C+. Probably would have been higher if i didn't take it with that class.

As for the statistics... I was getting As in that til the final. Thats what gave me the straight C. I don't think i studied enough for the material in the final as opposed to the rest of the semester.