Are you a "test-taker" or "paper-writer"

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Just wondering what kind of students generally do better in nursing school, the ones who can study like there's no tomorrow, and do well, or the ones who would rather just write a paper on the subject... I'm definitely a test-taker, give me a paper to write and my inner child stomps her feet, holds her breath and bangs her head on the wall!!:clown:

Anyway, what kind of student are you??

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Paper writer for sure.

I hate studying, and I always have. Writing on the other hand comes easily to me. For a regular liberal arts class, I can write a 3 page paper in about an hour minutes and get anywhere from a B+ to an A for the grade.

Don't get me wrong...I do fine on tests, but I would much prefer writing papers.

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

I'm not sure that I fit into one of your categories so neatly but this I can say...

You'd better have a long talk with your inner child and get her on board because nursing school contains an astonishing amount of paper writing... enough that I think it's more of a social science than a hard science.

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Specializes in Private Practice- wellness center.

Paper writer for sure. I'm an OK test taker, but like SingDance, I can write a three page paper in a little over an hour and get an A on it. (I had to write a ten pager that was due last week, took me four hours and my professor gave me an A on it.) I'm trying to get myself back into actual real studying with my A&PI class so I won't bomb out of nursing school.

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Yeah, I'm going to have to seriously bribe my inner child (chocolate anyone?)!! Nursing is my second career and my previous job consisted mainly of proposal writing, guess I just got tired of it! lol I do write well, and don't remember the last time I got a B on a paper. For my previous degree I did do a brutally heavy amount of writing, but it is not my fav for sure. I can go through 2 years of it, knowing that once it is over, it is over, pretty sure I won't be writing papers at the hospital... hehehe Math, A&P, and CHEM are by far my fav subjects! I told a friend of mine the other night that we better brace ourselves for the amount of writing we will have to do... oh, well... it is what it is!!

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

Make sure you get well-versed in the APA style manual... and consider getting an APA formatting program (it was a luxury but money well-spent in my book).

I used to be a technical writer and have also put a number of technical proposals. The writing in nursing school was nothing like any of that.

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I appreciate the input, I do own many APA guides. I can do APA with my eyes closed. This is actually my second time around in college. Just not my fav. THX!! :-)

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Make sure you get well-versed in the APA style manual... and consider getting an APA formatting program (it was a luxury but money well-spent in my book).

I used to be a technical writer and have also put a number of technical proposals. The writing in nursing school was nothing like any of that.

btw, which formatting program do you like best?

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.

I bought PERRLA and was reasonably happy with it although it's a pretty clunky piece of software that's in desperate need of a professional re-write. It does the job alright but it's not nearly as smooth and easy-to-use as it could be.

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Im a test-taker.

You guys are killin me. I only had to take Comp 1 to apply for the LPN program, and you are scaring the crap out of me. I have written a few papers for different classes and 1 APA paper, but I really dred them. In fact Comp 2 is my most feared class. Advice?

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Specializes in ICU.

Hmmm...I don't know. I have a B.A. in history from a former life, and became quite a research-paper-cranker-outer...my undergrad thesis was 86 pages!!

But now that I'm back in school and giving the hard sciences another go 'round, I'm finding I enjoy test-taking quite a bit, and don't have much of a problem taking a test with minimal studying. I do well with time limits, love short-answer style questions, and I like having the vast majority of my grade due to just a few tests.

What I *hate* is lab reports. I took a 3 credit hour genetics lab once upon a time for "fun" (in addition to the 4 credit hour genetics lecture class - this was while I was working on my history degree; I'm crazy), and the lab reports just about killed me. Yuck. :(

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Im a test-taker.

You guys are killin me. I only had to take Comp 1 to apply for the LPN program, and you are scaring the crap out of me. I have written a few papers for different classes and 1 APA paper, but I really dred them. In fact Comp 2 is my most feared class. Advice?

I go to a liberal arts school, so writing is most of what I do...in fact, between the 9th of this month and the 5th of next month, I will have written 5 papers (two 8-10 pages, two 3 pages and one 5-6 pages). In total, this semester I will have written 10 papers minimum (if I have time for extra credit, it'll be more)...that's almost a paper a week (the semester is 13 weeks if you don't count breaks).

So I guess...tips:

1) Practice. Find prompts online and write papers from them, then get someone to read them and critique.

2) Get a writing manual, that will help immensely. My school uses Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers for our English 102 (critical writing) class.

3)Start your papers early. Even if you only write a paragraph, the next time you go back you'll see that you accomplished something and won't want to quit until you accomplish a bit more.

4) Leave your word documents open so when you're on your computer you see that the assignment is still there.

5) Finish your assignments early and ask your prof to look them over so you can revise them before the due date and get better grades.

That's all I have for you.

Good luck.

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