Background: I have low GPA of 2.5, 31 credit hours. I did bad my freshman year and made some C's and even F's because I didn't even bother to drop the course. I got dismissed. I'm not proud. Now I'm paying for it and retaking some classes and continue taking pre-reqs for nursing to raise the GPA at a community college right now. It seems like it's taking forever. I initially planned on doing ADN to BSN, but I'm doing bad in a&p and feel discouraged, and I'm half way done with my pre-reqs now so I might as well go for the BSN. I ultimately want to enroll for the BSN program at the university I attended my freshman year.
Okay. So I am failing a&p. I don't know if I can hang on to this class for another 4 weeks. I have a very hard professor and the exams are brutal. He told a girl in my class that she needed a back up plan because nursing probably isn't for her, and told this foreign guy that he was a slow learner, if that says anything. And total we can earn up to 1,840 points in the class. I've already lost 230 points. I did better the first time I took a&p. I should have taken it seriously back then and finished because I actually had a good professor. So much regret.
I initially planned on finishing up this summer class at the community college and transferring to the university in the fall to continue taking pre-reqs because of commute. But now that I am thinking about dropping out this summer...
I'm thinking about taking a&p at this technical college in town, and transferring over to the university. They offer it online as well. There are a few classes that I need to retake, but can only retake at the university I failed at and nowhere else, otherwise they will just average out my letter grade instead of taking the better one. And since I am on academic probation I am only allowed to take a certain number of credits, I planned on taking a few at my community college. I know it is not recommended, but I think it will be manageable.
So, how bad will it look if I am attending 3 colleges in one semester? There are 2 or 3 classes I for sure have to take at the university. Possibly a&p and the technical college. And other pre-reqs and the community college because of cost, because of the university academic probation, and because it doesn't look like the technical college offers a whole lot of classes anyway.
I wanted to stick the class out until I dropped below a B. I'm at an 87% for now, but I have made D's and F's on all of my lecture exams so far. And a C and D on my lab. I studied for hours and hours and hours for the last exam. I know I'm not a great student, but the tests honestly seem unreasonable. A third of my class are at a 70 something percent right now, which I was surprised to hear. Should I continue to stick it out?
Organization skills and time management are crucial to your study habits. Do you study 1 hr with no distractions and take 20 minutes break in-between each hour? Try to evaluate your own study habits. No matter which area of studying you are pursuing, good study habits are important to develop on your own. This will also carry on to the working field as well.
Anatomy was the course I struggled with most, so I understand where you are at! If I have learned one thing from nursing school (I graduated in May) is that it requires a lot of sacrifice. It took me a long time to realize that, but once I did I was a lot more focused on what I needed to do to succeed. I think some of the commenters on here have been harsh, but they are realistic. I wouldn't look at what needs to happen next for you to fail and try something else. Rather, it's what you need to do moving forward to get the grade you need. Talk to your professor, dedicate more time to studying, find people in your class to study with, look for a tutor through the school that you are at, find resources online (there are a million free and fun resources to help you learn). From what it sounds like, multiple people are struggling and you guys could team up together. Another thought is to ask someone who is doing well what their study tactics are. Everyone learns differently, but there's no harm in trying! Unfortunately anatomy and physiology really is the foundation on what you will be learning these next few years, so it is key to not only passing it but understanding it.
Tips that helped me:
-Print power points and bring them to class each day to take notes on - laptops and computers are nothing but distractions!
-Write out your notes (writing in notebooks always helps me retain the information) when you are studying
-If you are a visual learner, draw and label what you are learning on a piece of paper, or draw on a friend or family member
-Set goals on what study material you want to accomplish each day, and make sure your last 1 or 2 days before an exam is left for reviewing, not learning new material
-Quiz yourself! You never know what you actually KNOW until you apply it in practice questions
Another thing to keep in mind about transferring schools and dropping/failing classes is that every thing that occurs throughout your education is documented on your transcript. It's not going to look very good if your transcript shows you moving from one school to another because of failing courses. My employers both for my nursing assistant position and *future* RN position required my transcript, so this is something that future employers will look at. That's why I recommend you sticking it out and really buckling down these next few weeks.
I definitely do not want to make this a pessimistic post because I believe that if this is something that you really want, you will be able to eventually succeed! I'm sorry this is so wordy, I just wanted to be realistic to your situation, while instilling some help! My last piece of advice is to maybe contact a nursing mentor at your university. This can be someone to guide you, give you advice, and hold you accountable for these next few years.
So, I'm also trying to up my GPA, not because I had bad grades, but because I took 50 hours in my home country and when the company evaluated it they didn't even bother of doing it right, and I ended up with a 2.1 (I'm serious, they didn't even ask me what was ON the classes, or how many hours I took) and since I've been here for over a year, I've taken almost 60 hours, gotten A's in all of them, and my GPA is barely, BARELY 3.2. So I wish you well, but if you really want to make your GPA better in little time, then the only way is to ONLY get As, and take like 18 hours per semester (which is what I did). You could probably make it better for sure, but I don't think it will take you the short amount of time you want. I don't think you need to quit on your dream of nursing school, just be more realistic with the situation. I truly believe you will be able to raise your GPA though.
I also think those ratings on "ratemyprofessors" are not really accurate. Most of my teachers have been wonderful and 75% of them had horrible reviews in that page.
Apparently you don't understand how to calculate your average. If you have earned a 50% and a 70% on each exam you current grade average is a 60%.
If what you are saying is that you still have 87% of your grade left to earn that means nothing other than you better get As on the remaining exams to pull you currently low grade up to passing
Are you sure what you're planning to do is even possible? In my area, you can pretty much forget about getting into any nursing program with anything under a 3.9 GPA and every program I know of penalizes you for retaking classes. One of them even penalizes you for transferring credits.
Sometimes its wise to know when to cut your losses.
Also might be worth looking into academic amnesty. Where your transcript can be wiped clean after a certain number of years and you start over. Some schools allow this others don't. You really need to think about reality and what programs you want to apply to and their requirements
mariarose
23 Posts
Organization skills and time management are crucial to your study habits. Do you study 1 hr with no distractions and take 20 minutes break in-between each hour? Try to evaluate your own study habits. No matter which area of studying you are pursuing, good study habits are important to develop on your own. This will also carry on to the working field as well.