Failed 2 classes in Nursing School

[sgomez91]

Today I found out that I didn't get the score I needed on my Pharmacology final exam in order to pass the class with a 76%. I was totally devastated and still feel pretty bad. I started nursing school in Fall of 2013 and failed one class, Pathophysiology, so I retook it this semester and passed but now failed Pharmacology (ended with a 73.3%). I think in my school, we can only fail two classes and then wait a year before reapplying. I made an appointment to speak with my advisor on Thursday morning but I honestly feel very down. After all the studying, all the hard work and all the struggles, I failed. I don't know what to do, if I should wait a year and get a job in the meantime or if I should apply to another program. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Episteme]

Examine your study conditions. For every hour of lecture, the AVERAGE student should be putting in at least 3 hours of outside study. So, for pharm... a tough course for you... maybe you should be doing 4:1. A three credit class would mean 12 hours/week just on pharm.

How do you study? When I ask this of students they usually say... I read my book and "went over" my notes.

When you "read" your book, do you remember what you read on the previous page? (My eyes glaze over, personally.) Do you take notes on what you read? Do you then take the notes from the book and integrate them with the notes from lecture, looking for areas that don't match up? When you're reading your book (or notes from lecture) do you write down unfamiliar words and look them up? Do you record your lectures and then listen to them taking notes again?

Sometimes students way "I'm in a study group." That can be good and bad. Study groups can degenerate into gossip and time-wasting. Or they can be boring because no one prepares and everyone just stares at each other until someone says "You wanna start at the beginning of the chapter?"

So what did you do successfully in other classes and not in these two?

I think you need to come up with a plan for success as you go forward. Are you by any chance holding down a job while going to school?

[sgomez91]

Yes, you're absolutely right. My error was that at the beginning for the first two tests, I didn't dedicate the amount of time studying I needed to. For the third test and final exam I spent hours and hours at school, mostly because I can focus better, with study groups and on my own. I read the book, I took practice quizzes online from the textbook, did some Kaplan NCLEX style questions as well, looked over notes which are my professor's printed out power points, made notes from that, flash cards, charts, used a pharm made easy book and quizzed myself and had classmates quiz me as well when we got together. Honestly, I did less studying in other classes and did well in them. I do not have a job. I am a full time student.