HELP!!! Math Diagnostic Test

Lylesmom · May 17, 2007

I pm'd you, to try to help

Christian_SN, RN · May 17, 2007

CONGRATS on getting in the program. for help, your best bet is to get a basic math book .. or on-line. if you look it up then you will LEARN how. u will need this for med/s when you graduate.

WDWpixieRN, RN · May 17, 2007

Get a copy of Calculate with Confidence.....try a Barnes and Noble or Borders locally before ordering and waiting for it to arrive online....Borders has a discount club you can join for free w/an e-mail address (you join in the store).....this week's coupon was for 30% off....makes ordering online not quite the bargain it used to be...

It's in workbook form and starts all the way back to decimals, fractions, and Roman numerals and works you up to IV calcs, etc.....for now stick with what you need to know to get past that test....

My entire class of second semester students agreed it was one of our better investments!! Read the reviews listed on the link I listed above...

mafiamom · May 17, 2007

ya know what? that kind of math scares me more than any class i have taken so far! when you are 36 years old and living life - you just dont DO that kind of stuff anymore, kwim?? i made it thru some seemingly IMPOSSIBLE science courses with A's - but i looked at you math questions and felt like i was gonna throw up LOL!!

everything is so relative - i will for SURE be getting that reccomended book - thanks for the link!

eldragon · May 17, 2007

Your college should have a learning lab, and someone there who will be glad to help you out.

I had to take a math test my first block, and studied by myself the first time. I failed it by a few points, because I placed the decimals in the wrong places in division.

I had to go to the schools learning lab and have the person there help me, and she was happy to help. It's sometimes easier to have someone physically show you how to do things, and then you repeat it in front of them. That way you know you are doing it correctly.

I passed the math test with flying colors on my second try. So, don't hesitate to go to the college as ask for help. That's what they are there for.

IrishIzCPNP, MSN, RN, APRN, NP · May 17, 2007

My school actually had a 1 credit math course that we had to take. It was Math for Nurses. I don't know if other places offer it or not but it was a pretty nice class. I know some of us didn't need the class as much as others but I still think it was good because some people really needed that. We take a math test at the start of every semester. It's 10 questions and you must get 9 correct to pass. You can take it a couple times but you have to pass.

WDWpixieRN, RN · May 17, 2007

ya know what? that kind of math scares me more than any class i have taken so far! when you are 36 years old and living life - you just dont DO that kind of stuff anymore, kwim?? i made it thru some seemingly IMPOSSIBLE science courses with A's - but i looked at you math questions and felt like i was gonna throw up LOL!!

Our program also offers a continuing ed class for the nursing math/dosage.

I went back to school full-time in my 40's for a business degree. Never used the math much in my line of work (IT)....here I am at 51 doing the nursing school "thang"....I had to relearn math for this program....believe me, if *I* can do it, you will too!! I looked at my high school transcript and had a "D" in Algebra -- tells you how much maturity helps!! I absolutely ace the math these days...and nursing math is 1000X easier than any intermediate or college algebra course you will encounter. Take a breath and just take the time to get the concepts down pat. They're just numbers -- kind of like a puzzle.

The difference is in the life-or-death nature of these computations once you are on the job. Learn them well.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 17, 2007

mammaoftwo. . .these are pre-algebra level math problems. so, you can either purchase a pre-algebra textbook, or i am going to give you a companion website for a math textbook publisher where you can get free unlimited access to practice problems from any of their math textbooks that range from pre-algebra all the way up to calculus. just follow the directions i've listed below and choose the book for pre-algebra by elayn martin-gay. what you get is unlimited practice problems as well as step-by-step instructions on how to solve each one, if you ask the program to do that for you. this is a fabulous site and i found it because i took a math course that used one of the textbooks from this publisher. once i discovered it, i started using it to work practice problems. to master math you have to work sample problems again and again and again. at some point you will begin to see that there is a rationale to math. be patient when working with this program at first. if you have dial up internet connection it will take a little time for the drivers necessary for the program to run to download onto your computer. then, half the battle is learning how to use the programs buttons to input division signs and (gulp!) fractions, exponents or radicals. the site is called interact math.

here are instructions for accessing http://www.interactmath.com/ . once you are on the site, click the "enter" button. the next page to come up asks you to select an author and textbook title from a drop down menu. look for martin-gay's book (martin-gay: prealgebra: 4e, enhanced - the 4e stands for the 4th edition of the book and you always want to chose the enhanced versions of the software on this site because they are the newest and most updated programs). after choosing your book title, click the "submit" button. at this point, an installation wizard window pops up. you need to install the mathxl player (it's free). you may have to first install an active x driver, but the installation wizard will tell you that. just follow the instructions of the wizard to download what you need. it is all free. once the mathxl player is downloaded and installed, you will be given access to the practice problems for the textbook you chose. [every time you go onto this site, the installation wizard will appear and check to see that you have the proper software installed in order to use the software.] you will first see a page of drop down menus for chapters, sections, and objectives contained within the textbook you chose. by expanding the chapters menu, you can see how the chapters of the book are organized. pick one. the appropriate sections and objectives for that particular chapter will appear as well as a list of exercises that are links to the problems within that chapter. click on an exercise link and you will be taken to that particular problem. it takes some time to become familiar with using this program. when you go to a problem (exercise) screen you will find active buttons on all sides of the screen that you need to check out and learn what they do for you. buttons at the top allow you to go back and forth between the previous and next math problem so you don't have to keep going back to that first page with all the drop down menus. as you progress through the problems they become more advanced and increase in difficulty. you can ask the program to show you the step-by-step solution for every single problem it presents to you by clicking on a button on the right side of the page that says "help me solve this". a button below it, "view an example", will show you a sample problem of the same type already solved in a step-by-step fashion. you can also print out a step-by-step solution using the "print" button. you have three tries to get the correct response or answer that the program seeks. once either occurs a new button appears at the bottom of the page: "similar exercise". clicking on this button will bring up another problem of the same type exactly like the one you just solved, but with different numbers. all the same buttons on the right side will still work and you can still ask for step-by-step help if you still need it. that is another great feature about this program. buttons on the left help you to enter things like fractions, radicals and powers. play around with them to see how they work. i could not find a help button or a set of instructions to help in using the program, so you are kind of left on your own to play around with the buttons on the left side to figure out how they work for you.

good luck with your learning. i nearly flunked 7th grade math. with the fear of my mother's wrath and hunkering down i actually developed a real love for mathematics over the years and i have taken calculus. math is very logical. once you get the logic and rationale of it, there will be no stopping you.

Danish, MSN, APRN, NP · May 18, 2007

Get a copy of Calculate with Confidence.....try a Barnes and Noble or Borders locally before ordering and waiting for it to arrive online....Borders has a discount club you can join for free w/an e-mail address (you join in the store).....this week's coupon was for 30% off....makes ordering online not quite the bargain it used to be...
It's in workbook form and starts all the way back to decimals, fractions, and Roman numerals and works you up to IV calcs, etc.....for now stick with what you need to know to get past that test....
My entire class of second semester students agreed it was one of our better investments!! Read the reviews listed on the link I listed above...

Same book we used in my program for Math and dosage calculations. It had tons of practice problems and explained everything very well.

mammaoftwo · May 18, 2007

Thank you all so much for all the great advice! I really, really appreciate it.

You know, when I looked at the math test, I did almost throw up!

Math has ALWAYS freaked me out. They kept passing me with D- in algebra in high school which did not help me. I never learned how to do fractions, decimals and have always just been able to do regular math, the simple stuff.

I am not going to let this math defeat me though and will learn how to do this stuff.

Again, many, many thanks and blessings to all.

rdnkmommy · May 20, 2007

I have been using http://home.sc.rr.com/nurdosagecal/ to help me get ready for the test.