First semester anxiety

[coastiewifejenna]

So I am in my first semester in nursing school and I am having the hardest time of my life. I graduated very high in my high school class and did extremely well on my ACT. I have been in the program for only a month and I have not done very well. My program is somewhat unique in that all of our tests from day one have been NCLEX style questions. I have a hard time trying not to read into the questions and second guess myself. I read my text books and I try to go through and I do fairly well on the questions at the back of each chapter. But My husband leaves for the Coast Guard in 9 days and I don't want to let him down. I chose nursing so that I would be able to get a job anywhere he goes. But for now, I have had to move back into my parents house. We took a test the other day and I failed. It is the first time since I started the program that I wish I would have chosen the CNA or the PN program instead of the RN program. My instructor tells me that I will be a great nurse and in clinicals I do very well, I just have the hardest time with the tests. I am just at a loss and am willing to try anything. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

read the information and weblinks on this thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/looking-test-taking-224581.html - looking for test taking strategies

[tlc2u]

i found the test taking strategies in one of the front chapters of saunders nclex reveiw book to be very helpful. when you do the chapter questions from your textbook mark the ones you get wrong and look at the test taking strategies to determine why you are getting any questions wrong. when you do enough practice questions and determine why you get ones wrong you begin to see a pattern to the types of questions you get wrong. (ex. i often miss questions because i missed a "key word" in the question or because it is a negative question, such as what should the nurse "not" do. and i pick an answer for what the nurse should do because i did not clearly read the question.

also i remember when i first began nursing school, there was so much new information to take in i didn't have a clue that there were other books i could use to supplement my textbook. books like "fundamentals made easy" or "reviews and rationales fundamentals of nursing" help explain the topics in a simple way and have additional practice questions to help with test taking practice.

i wish i had known about these books when i took fundamentals. i used made easy or reveiws and rationales for all my other semesters.

also if your book has a cd or a website you may find additional practice questions there.

some other fundamental books have websites available. some of these have additional practice questions as well.

http://wps.prenhall.com/chet_kozier_fundamentals_7/

hope this helps.