Failed first med surg exam :(

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Oct 6, 2013

Nursing school is a different game altogether. Let me give you an example. You have a patient whose blood glucose is 628. The normal range is 60-100 (70 to 100 or 80-100 depending upon the author of the textbook). What can you tell me about the situation? This is so much more than a number. Of course it is high. Okay so, with the number, I can conclude the patient is hyperglycemic. But what does hyperglycemic mean? What does it look like? What should I expect to see as abnormal findings (the pathology)? As this person’s nurse, what will I do as part of the plan of care? What medications should the nurse anticipate the physician ordering?

So, my point is, memorizing information is not going to make you successful. You have to be able to put pieces together. You have to be able to understand and apply what you learned.

Here’s another example. An adult has been throwing up non-stop for three days. Which metabolic condition is the nurse most concerned with?

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Ohh and by the way, you can’t expect an instructor to go over every point from the chapters that were assigned for reading. There simply isn’t enough class time to do so. Case studies are good. It affords students the opportunity to showcase what they learned from the readings. So, start reading and understanding the concepts, then on the next case study, show off to the classmates and your instructor about how well you understand the material.

Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN · Oct 6, 2013

Take a deep breath! Meet with your instructor and ask them to go over the exam with you. Look at the questions you got wrong and understand why your answer is wrong. In nursing school it's much more than knowing the correct answer it's understanding why it's correct and how it applies to the patient.

Look for additional resources in your school, take a learning style quiz, know the best way you learn and change your study habits to fit your style. Best of luck!!

BTW ParkerBeanCurd love your quote! I'm very partial to "Jesus is a biscuit, let him sop you up" --Latrice Royale

Yellow90 · Oct 6, 2013

U can still bounce back from this. When u study do you understand the material and not just memorizing it. Knowing what is physiologically going on with the disease will help you understand the s/s and the Most important interventions. Always know the diseases process, main s/s, and most important nursing interventions. After you study do test questions. Do the ones that come with the book and invest in a nclex book to do questions on the diseases you are studying about

loveSBK · Oct 6, 2013

Thank you for your responses. I will try everything you guys have mentioned. I definitely try to understand the material and not just memorize it, plus it would be too much info to memorize. I will go over the test with my professor tomorrow and hopefully I will see where I went wrong. Of course I don't expect her to go over each point but it would be nice for her to lecture in class in case we had any questions. The only reason why I do not like doing case studies is because we are in groups (of 6+ people) and when is time to share the info, is madness. People act like children. But I started studying and using different resources to be able to really understand the material and S&S.

Thanks

springchick1, ADN, RN · Oct 7, 2013

Hello everyone. This topic is becoming very repetitive and now I understand why. I am taking med surg this semester and is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken (I am a bio major). I studied so hard for this exam and I was not even close to a passing grade. I read the book did notes, practice questions, studied from different sources, and when I took the test I felt like I did not know anything. I do not have test anxiety and I have done really well so far in the program. 80% of my classmates failed, and we don't know what to do. Our professor does not lecture in class, she only does some case studies on some chapters and the rest of the chapters she posts videos on them online. We cannot ask questions as we are watching these videos so I think that has affected our learning. Our next test is in two weeks and on 12 chapters, and we only meet once a week and only covered 2 chapters so far. What can I do? Please help!!!! Thank You[/quote']
How did the rest of the class do on the test?

loveSBK · Oct 8, 2013

There are two med surg classes, in total about 8 people passed the exams...none with A's. Each class has about 35+ students in it.

allycat77, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2013

I agree about Med Surg being difficult. Our Med Surg courses are divided into 2 shorter courses in 1 semester so in case you don't do as well in one part, you are not stuck with 7 credits worth of a not-so-great grade hitting your GPA. My professors have been great though, and hold a review session for us before each exam. If your cohort as a whole is doing poorly, I think you could ask them to do an exam review as well, so you can ask questions, etc. I asked afriend who is doing well what she does, and besides doing all of the reading, she uses the teach-back method in a study group and also accesses the textbook website to do the practice quizzes/exam. Does your instructor let you see what you missed?

Yellow90 · Oct 8, 2013

I agree about Med Surg being difficult. Our Med Surg courses are divided into 2 shorter courses in 1 semester so in case you don't do as well in one part you are not stuck with 7 credits worth of a not-so-great grade hitting your GPA. My professors have been great though, and hold a review session for us before each exam. If your cohort as a whole is doing poorly, I think you could ask them to do an exam review as well, so you can ask questions, etc. I asked afriend who is doing well what she does, and besides doing all of the reading, she uses the teach-back method in a study group and also accesses the textbook website to do the practice quizzes/exam. Does your instructor let you see what you missed?[/quote']
Yea i totally agree here... I had a study group of about 6 other people and it was great. We studied the material on our own, got together and reviewed them altogether. It was great other people had different ways of understanding material and their were other who thought certain areas of info was important that you may have overlooked, and if someone didn't know something you would teach them about it and vice versa its easier to learn the material when you hear it in other terms

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Oct 9, 2013

Yes...one of my other favorite quotes! I went to see Latrice live at a show about a month ago...funnier than on television! It was a good time!

Take a deep breath! Meet with your instructor and ask them to go over the exam with you. Look at the questions you got wrong and understand why your answer is wrong. In nursing school it's much more than knowing the correct answer it's understanding why it's correct and how it applies to the patient.
Look for additional resources in your school, take a learning style quiz, know the best way you learn and change your study habits to fit your style. Best of luck!!
BTW ParkerBeanCurd love your quote! I'm very partial to "Jesus is a biscuit, let him sop you up" --Latrice Royale

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Oct 9, 2013

WHAT? Now, that is a different story. That would be a little more than 10% of the class passed the first exam. As others have metioned, you're not out of the game. Those exams are different than any other exam I have ever taken. Perhaps meeting with the instructor and asking her what you can do in order to improve would be a good idea. As one person mentioned, study groups are a good idea too. If only 10% of the students passed, I am thinking that perhaps there is something wrong with the exams. Does your instructor write the exams or are they from a testbank?

Good luck to you.

There are two med surg classes, in total about 8 people passed the exams...none with A's. Each class has about 35+ students in it.

randill8084 · Oct 10, 2013

Sometimes you have to brush it off, you may fail one test but succeed in others. 80% or above is the new A