I had my first nursing exam today. Now I try to be a perfectionist, and after fulfilling my pre-requisites I ended up with a 3.8 gpa. I was easily accepted into a BSN program.
My first nursing exam was Pathophysiology. I think I earned an 87% on the first exam (52/60) based on the post-exam review (official grades posted tomorrow). It's still haunting me...I never changed any of my answers except one - which I happened to get right. However, since Nursing is a competitive program, and I did not earn that A, I keep thinking I did not do as good as I know I am capable of doing for that exam. My wife is telling me stop it, and that I did fine.
Part of me feels like I did not do good enough - yet people were leaving the post-exam review saying, "I got a 76% at least I passed it" (which is another issue - I don't see how someone can be proud of that). Another part of me says I just need to work harder at zoning in on the areas that are causing confusion to earn an A for the next exam.
Good Grief, I studied for my first Funds exam for probably forty hours, not 13...... and I got an 89. And I am THRILLED with it. I passed. I didn't lament that it wasn't an A...... because I PASSED. Once I saw some of those questions, I was thinking "What the.....?:confused:" All that material I studied left my brain and boarded a flight to Hawaii and was having fruity umbrella drinks promptly at 8 a.m. when I sat down to take my test. True, studying 40 hours in my pre reqs would have pretty much guaranteed me an A. Nursing school is a whole different beast.
I can totally relate. I had a 3.9 gpa before i started 100% nursing classes this semester. So far I have taken 3 tests and a skills check off. I got 86% on my health assessment and fundamentals tests and 100% on my pathophysiology test. Although I am glad I passed the tests I still wonder why I did not do better!
I think you're definitely being too hard on yourself, but just about everyone in nursing school is. Let's face it, most of us were getting 98+ on our prereq exams so we could just get into nursing school. Here is the deal though- why do you feel the need to be so competitive now? You're all in the same boat now. You've already edged out the competition.. you're cohorts now.
There are times that I take an exam and am convinced I couldn't possibly have even got half of the questions right... when I see a passing grade after one of those tests, I'm usually 'just happy to have passed'... it's not that I want to settle for mediocrity, it's just that sometimes, you have to take the misses.
Try not to be too hard on yourself. My mantra is "B is the new A".
LoriRNCM, ADN, ASN, RN
1 Article; 1,265 Posts
Good Grief, I studied for my first Funds exam for probably forty hours, not 13...... and I got an 89. And I am THRILLED with it. I passed. I didn't lament that it wasn't an A...... because I PASSED. Once I saw some of those questions, I was thinking "What the.....?:confused:" All that material I studied left my brain and boarded a flight to Hawaii and was having fruity umbrella drinks
promptly at 8 a.m. when I sat down to take my test. True, studying 40 hours in my pre reqs would have pretty much guaranteed me an A. Nursing school is a whole different beast.