I'm a first semester clinical student whose average in Pharm I is a 70. I need at least a 77 to pass. I have 2 more chances to bring that up but one of those chances is a cumulative final. I think I know what my two problems are but I need help in figuring out a way of overcoming them. Any advice you can offer will greatly be appreciated as I am really scared that I might fail.
1) My professor is new and is a pharmacist by trade. Judging from comments she's made, I get the sense she doesn't feel nurses are responsible and intelligent. Thus, she purposely makes her exams difficult to ensure those who pass are adequate enough to do the job. While I understand her reasoning, I feel she doesn't calibrate her exams to our level. More seasoned professors of mine have taken into consideration that we are new to this NCLEX style of questioning and calibrate their exams to our level. She makes them so difficult. I tend to do well when I take my study guide questions that come with our textbooks but hers are so beyond hard that I always end up doing bad.
2) There is too much information and not enough time. I have at least one exam per week and b/c I am a slow learner, I need to focus from morning to night on those exams, which leaves little time to focus on Pharm. One thing my professor does is include almost every medication mention in the chapters on her exams so I quite frankly need more time to basically memorize the entire extbook. I would say cut back on studying for my other exams but truth be told, I went from being a straight A student to now being a B- students. I'm afraid cutting back on studying for my other exams will jeopardize my standing in my other classes.
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One other thing, particularly since your instructor is not a nurse... get a decent NON-NURSING pharmacology book (personally, I'm a big fan of Lippincott's Illustrated Review but I also like Brenner's Pharmacology book.
See her for office hours and really pay attention to what she wants you to know. As someone above stated, you do know what her tests are like. Sometimes, as I'm reading I try to think of questions that my professor would ask in an exam.
Every pharm class is different, but our questions are all application and how to talk to the patient. Sometimes we need to remember to.. for lack of a better term, "dumb down" our reasonings and explanations for drugs so that a patient, can easily understand without any confusion.
Also, does it seem like your teacher picks questions from her lectures or from the book? That way you can prioritize how to study. For example I focus on lecture first and then if I have time, I read because our exams are basically made from lecture material. But, if I'm stuck or if I'm not exactly sure of what is being said in my lecture notes, I refer to my book to get a better understanding.
Another thing that helped me is really focusing on the mechanisms of action and patho for each drug that way I can see how it works systemically. Like Beta Blockers block the beta receptors in various parts of the body. I make a chart of what it's blocking or doing and how that affects heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels, etc and then figure out side effects, contraindications and nursing implications from there.
But you really do need to stop blaming the teacher, because your right, there's nothing you can do about it. Trust me, I've been there, done that, I know what its like to have a teacher that I don't really like or agree with in their teaching style. The only thing you can do is talk to her! Don't be afraid to talk to her one on one and try and see what she wants her students to know. Also, get a tutor to help you go through the topics.
Try and do a test review with your teacher. She can explain to you why certain answers are right, and once you figure out how a teacher thinks, the tests become much easier. Any time I was having a hard time in a class, talking to the teacher made it make a lot more sense.
1) I’m tired of people on this forum making it seem like I am blaming the professor. In order to solve a problem, you must first findout what is causing the problem. Whether anyone here agrees with it or not,she is a part of the problem. But I am not new to school, I’m aware thatdifficult teachers exist and I’ve always found a way to work around it. Unfortunately, since she is so new to teaching,I feel she changes her style so much that I can’t figure it out. For instance,I showed her the index cards I made for our previous exam and asked her to go over them with me and see what, if anything, I did wrong. She picked out 10 that she proceeded to angrily tell me that I wasted time making and had I paidmore attention in class, I would’ve known better. However, although she doesn’tallow you to record her class, I secretly do it (I know it’s wrong but I’vefound in previous classes that having them there to listen to over time and time again has greatlyhelped me and with my failing grades in this class, I decided to take this desperate risk). Just to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake, I listened again to those tapes she went into great detail duringthe classes about those 10 medications. Not to mention from day 1, her motto has always been “once it’s in thetextbook, it’s fair game.”
As a rule, I tend to take hardprofessors b/c I find it easier to figure out their teaching style than easier ones who try to appease the students. But I can’t figure her out. Which is whyI came to this forum in the first place. I know I can’t be the only who’s everhad this issue. It’s sad that so many here choose to be critical instead oftrying to help someone who is clearly trying to help themselves.
2) You actually did give me some good advice and I thank you. As far as finding anon-nursing book, I’ve actually decided to hire two tutors—one that is a seasoned nursing professor and one that is a pharmacist. It’s too early to tellbut so far I feel like they’ve given me some ideas that can be useful.
Thank you but her office hours are only 30 minutes after class. She's not flexible at all but I do sometimes go late to the other class and try to see her. And really for the last time, I'm not blaming her. You need know the cause of a problem in order to fix it. The only reason I mentioned her in the first place is because I was looking for ideas on how to work with a difficult professor when you don't know how to. I've had difficult professors before. In fact, I have two others right now that I completely dislike (and at the beginning of the semester thought they were going to be my biggest challenge) but I was able to figure out their teaching style so I'm doing well in their classes. My pharm is a little different cause I can't get a good read on how she thinks or comes up with her questions. Instead of criticism, I was hoping for sound advice on how to best prepare when you don't know exactly what a professor expects.
Oh, and for the record. I just found out another class of students issued a complaint against thsi teacher. Apparently every student in that class is failing. I know you guys on here want to make it seem like I'm the problem not her. But there's a difference b/w being difficulty for the sake of being difficult vs. being difficult for a reason. I may not like my other two professors but at least I get why they're they way they are.
For anyone taking Pharmacology I highly recommend this book. It was invaluable to me. It's really well organized and easy to understand. In fact the whole series of these books are fantastic. I went out and bought all of them.
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One other thing, particularly since your instructor is not a nurse... get a decent NON-NURSING pharmacology book (personally, I'm a big fan of Lippincott's Illustrated Review but I also like Brenner's Pharmacology book.
I don't care for the Incredibly Easy book at all.
Take a pass on all the 'nursiness' and just go with the straight pharm like it's given to everybody else. You will miss out on some important implementation stuff but that's (a) in a good drug guide (Davis reigns supreme), (b) probably not a big part of the tests, and © in the book which you already own.