Every "normal" exam is 10%, we have 7 of those, then a final which is 20% and a group presentation (4%) and homework (8%). I'm going to continue even with the present spirit of defeat. Our next exam is Oxygenation/Bowel-Urinary Elimination/Communication/Sexuality.
Anyone went through this and actually became a nurse? How did you study? I just bought adaptive quizzing for fundamentals and I LOVE it. I think this will help.
Oh and we have to pass a specialty HESI after every semester. We can pass the class but if we fail the Hesi, we can't continue.
Specializes in Psychiatric RN & Retired Psychiatric CNA.
You gotta find your study style and quick! I struggled a lot also during my first semester and probably had borderline grades all through. Reading the book did nothing for me. I used to type notes during lectures and then hand write after class and then create my own study guides. That's the only way I made it out of school. I only retain information when I write it down. Also find a study buddy if you can and have them quiz you! Just try different things and see what works. Good luck!
"I feel so defeated." Big problem! How you FEEL affects how you perform. Suggest progressive relaxation and positive visualization. If emotions were a problem in these two exams (excessive anxiety)... get professional counseling from your school if available.
"I read and read then read some more." Perhaps your reading skills are not what they need to be! This is a VERY common problem for students. Go to your school's study skill center and seek a reading skill assessment. Two free reading skill assessments can be found at rocketreader.com If you discover that reading is part of the issue.....FIX IT!!!
"Every "normal" exam is 10%, we have 7 of those," Thus, it appears that you have stumbled on only 20% of the points available for the course. You are likely not in an unrecoverable situation.
"Oh and we have to pass a specialty HESI after every semester." The HESI test is neither good nor bad.... how schools USE it can be good or bad.
To do well in any exam you need three things:
Content mastery You need to KNOW the material!
Test taking skills You need to know HOW to analyze and work through test items.
Emotional Control You need keep your emotions out of the way, so that your knowledge and skils listed above can shine!
Suggested action list:
1. Visit your prof and ask for their guidance. Ask for guidance for mastering the content. Ask them to refer you to resources for assessment of reading and learning skills. Hopefully your school uses something like the LASSI or eLASSI for this. If allowed, looking at the test with the prof might be helpful. If emotions are a problem, ask prof for referral to resources for that too.
2. Get & use books on study skills and test taking skills. I am fond of Strategies for Test Success by Linda Anne Silvestri. Go to your school's study skills center for assessment and help if there is one available to you.
3. Be honest about your emotional state. Get professional help if necessary. Progressive relaxation and visualization are often useful. Hypnosis and meditation can be very helpful too.
Specializes in Psychiatric RN & Retired Psychiatric CNA.
"I feel so defeated." Big problem! How you FEEL affects how you perform. Suggest progressive relaxation and positive visualization. If emotions were a problem in these two exams (excessive anxiety)... get professional counseling from your school if available.
"I read and read then read some more." Perhaps your reading skills are not what they need to be! This is a VERY common problem for students. Go to your school's study skill center and seek a reading skill assessment. Two free reading skill assessments can be found at rocketreader.com If you discover that reading is part of the issue.....FIX IT!!!
"Every "normal" exam is 10%, we have 7 of those," Thus, it appears that you have stumbled on only 20% of the points available for the course. You are likely not in an unrecoverable situation.
"Oh and we have to pass a specialty HESI after every semester." The HESI test is neither good nor bad.... how schools USE it can be good or bad.
To do well in any exam you need three things:
Content mastery You need to KNOW the material!
Test taking skills You need to know HOW to analyze and work through test items.
Emotional Control You need keep your emotions out of the way, so that your knowledge and skils listed above can shine!
Suggested action list:
1. Visit your prof and ask for their guidance. Ask for guidance for mastering the content. Ask them to refer you to resources for assessment of reading and learning skills. Hopefully your school uses something like the LASSI or eLASSI for this. If allowed, looking at the test with the prof might be helpful. If emotions are a problem, ask prof for referral to resources for that too.
2. Get & use books on study skills and test taking skills. I am fond of Strategies for Test Success by Linda Anne Silvestri. Go to your school's study skills center for assessment and help if there is one available to you.
3. Be honest about your emotional state. Get professional help if necessary. Progressive relaxation and visualization are often useful. Hypnosis and meditation can be very helpful too.
Good Luck!!!
Thank you so much for taking time out and analyzing things that I may need. I will certainly check my emotions and buy some test taking skills guides.
During my first degree, a friend and I used the board-game "Trivial Pursuit". Instead of the questions off the cards, we each had a study book and would ask questions from that. I think we may have even gone so far as to type up our own question cards! It was a long time ago now
Anyway - this format of learning helped. It was fun, interactive, and easy to recall those nuggets of info later on.
Specializes in Psychiatric RN & Retired Psychiatric CNA.
During my first degree, a friend and I used the board-game "Trivial Pursuit". Instead of the questions off the cards, we each had a study book and would ask questions from that. I think we may have even gone so far as to type up our own question cards! It was a long time ago now
Anyway - this format of learning helped. It was fun, interactive, and easy to recall those nuggets of info later on.
We hear this sort of thing so often, usually at mid-semester when reality hits. You can recover from this but you have to recognize that doing the same things you've been doing is not going to give you a different result. You are not getting a good working knowledge of what you need to pass exams--or to be a nurse-- and if you really want to keep on, you've got to take a serious look at yourself and your plans to get there.
in almost all of these threads I see here, students ask for references, for test banks, for review materials, for study skills, and the like. People are often quick to provide these.
But there's one absolutely critical resource that the students completely ignore, unfathomably. I refer to your FACULTY. Yes, them: the people who want to teach you and want you to learn successfully. The people who know more about what they plan to test you about, who know your program and its syllabus better than any of us and certainly better than any review book.
This is not not high school. If you aren't learning, they will not seek you out. You are an adult now and you identify your need for help.
Go make a standing appointment with some faculty member, meet every week to go over the concepts from this week's lecture and reading. For heaven's sake, go over those exams you failed, in detail, to pick up not data points-- pretty much anybody can memorize data points-- but the ways of thinking like a nurse that you haven't grasped. The critical thinking that shows you can integrate everything you've learned including sciences and other prerequisites, and can bring it to bear to plan care. That's what they want to see in you, and they will help you achieve it if you ask.
I finished my first semester but then moved due to family. I did well at the community college program but I'm in a hospital affiliated program now and the difference is stark. There is SO MUCH support. Talk with your adviser and see what tutoring services may be available. Get a copy of "Test Success for Nursing Students". If there is a specific health science library, see what the staff there have to offer--the librarian can be your best friend--they know all the resources!!!
Content can be difficult depending on what it is and how much of it you are willing to learn and retain. The other hard part is standardized testing such as HESI or ATI. My school used both and they were used as predictors. If you failed those you flunked out or weren't allowed to take the NCLEX (depending on your year).
This is great advice. Testing yourself promotes better retention, recall, and organization within memory of the to-be-learned material than does re-reading or re-study of the same material. Having to produce the answer (short answer questions) is better than recognizing the answer (multiple-choice questions), when you are using self-testing as a learning strategy. Repeating testing at expanding intervals greatly helps retention and recall; i.e., a test immediately after first exposure to the material so that you remember the answer, followed by testing on the same material a couple of days later, then a week later. Science! (cognitive, that is).
During my first degree, a friend and I used the board-game "Trivial Pursuit". Instead of the questions off the cards, we each had a study book and would ask questions from that. I think we may have even gone so far as to type up our own question cards! It was a long time ago now
Anyway - this format of learning helped. It was fun, interactive, and easy to recall those nuggets of info later on.
Shookclays, ASN, BSN, CNA, RN
164 Posts
Thank you! I'm trying so hard..