Has anyone gotten into Mt. Sac's nursing program for Spring 2009? There is an orientation week that starts on Monday. Does anyone have any insights or knows about what will happen during this orientation? I know there's a HESI exam for Tuesday. Do they select the final candidates based on the results or are you in regardless? It's all very exciting!
Is anyone already in the Mt. Sac program or has recently graduated? What's it like? Are the instructors fair? What clinical sites do you go to?
I know that as an LVN student, I've seen Mt. Sac students at Intercommunity Hospital in Covina. Where else do you guys go?
:icon_roll i know what u mean. i forgot to ask them if the testing was going to be the first day of orientation and if we are going to get our results that same day....
Yes, it takes one year approx. I was originally 392 or something like that and I will be getting in this Aug. I applied May 2008 I think. So you should be getting at least an alternate placement for Spring 2009.
Does anyone have any pointers for the HESI assesment test??? I am a alternate for fall 2009 at Mt.Sac :) I am stressing out because I don't know what focus on when studying.
First of all, congratulations on getting into the Mt. Sac Nursing program. It is absolutely one of the best. Right now I'm in the first semester and boy, has it been a trip..!! Take a deep breath and smile cuz you're on your way. Just because you're an alternate does not mean you won't get in. I was # 4 and there were a total of about 120 people at our orientation back in December. All of the alternates got in!! A lot of people decided not to go or failed the HESI, so don't give up.
The HESI I believe is on the 2nd day. Just go over your anatomy and physiology and of course, do a lot of math, basic math, I mean like percentages, ratios, fractions, multiplication, etc., etc. Nothing too bad. You find out your grade right then and there because each time you finish a section in the HESI, it tells you when you're done, so be on the look out for that each time you finish a section. There's reading passages to test your comprehension as well, and then there is a test to find out what type of learner you are. It's not bad at all.
Angie, and everyone else in the program are VERY, VERY nice. They are fair and really want to help you succeed. There's help everywhere and there are RNs in the HCRC everyday to help you with your skills, even on Saturdays. There is also a simulation clinic that will also test your skills each semester and is like a real hospital environment. My first simulation experience will be on finals week.
Once you are in the program, you are treated like royalty. It's staying in the program that's a challenge. My advise would be to get a good dosage calculations book and start doing the problems over and over: the tablets, pills, capsules, reading med labels, IV calculations, dosage and weight, and know our metric conversions as well as conversions from gram to milligrams, drams, mLs, tsp, and Tbsp, etc. etc. It will give you a jump start.
I'm giving you this advice because once you get into the program, you have to stay in. You NEED TO PASS ALL DOSAGE CALCULATIONS TESTS!! If you do not, even if you have an A in the class, they will remove you from the program..!! No ifs, ands, or buts..!! I'm not kidding!! So study your math..!! Practice, practice, practice..!!
If anyone has any questions, please just post it here and I will be happy to answer anything you guys are worried about or curious about.
i am so nervous about this entrance exam its driving me nuts! you have given me a piece of mind.....how long is the exam? how many classes do you take the first semester?
i am so nervous about this entrance exam its driving me nuts! you have given me a piece of mind.....how long is the exam? how many classes do you take the first semester?
cabo,
lol. they give you plenty of time to take the hesi. i think it was 5 sections in length with the subjects i discussed in the earlier post. it took me about an hour and a half but they give you like 4 hours.. i honestly don't remember, but they give you plenty of time.
the first semester you take 3 classes. you guys are starting in the fall so you won't be able to take pharmacology in the summer since they don't offer it. it's a really hard class and it lasts 12 weeks. in the winter session they offer it for 6 weeks but it's twice as hard and twice as fast-paced. i just finished my final yesterday and am happy to say i got a b for the class. (i got a 91% for the final).
so..... 1st semester you take: nurs 1a - 8 wks (nursing theory) and nurs 2 - 12 weeks (pharmacology). during orientation, the pharm teacher, mr. romero, will give you guys blue study guides that you must work on..!! it will help you out a lot. also, try to buy the cordon math book and study the assigned chapters as well. it will give you more confidence and a great head start for the program. like i said before, you need to pass a dosage calculation test in nurs1a in like the 3rd or 4th week to continue with the program. if you fail, you're out..!! they do give you a second chance to pass, though, but it's way more harder. you will get pre-tests in both classes on the 1st day but they don't count unless you fail them. they will give you remediation if you fail.
pick your hospitals wisely. they're all good but remember that some of them have different schedules. i highly recommend ms. boyer for clinicals(she's also the wednesday group instructor) but the bad thing is the hospital is in fullerton. but she is great..!! i also like ms. vitug (she's my clinical instructor) for fnr and foothill pres. the other teachers, ms. carin is freakin' hard so i don't know with her (i think she's pih). and ms. middleton is nice, too i heard (she's in icmc). now, there are 96 of us so they split us into 2 groups: there's a monday theory and a wednesday theory. if you're monday you have theory and clinicals mon-wed with thurs being for nurs 2. if you're in the wednesday group, you go mondays for nurs 2, and wed-friday for theory and clinicals.
in the middle of the 9th week, you start nurs 1b - 8 weeks, and hopefully you got a good grade in nur1a. you get another dosage calculation test like the 2nd or 3rd week and you guys better pass it..!! they will kick you out if you don't pass. you get another chance, but the test is harder. just keep that in mind.
so, in all 3 classes for the 1st semester. overall, it's been pretty stressful, but nothing in life comes easy, right.?? but it's doable so far and the people are just terrific. so don't stress, study your math calculations, go over your anatomy and physiology, and you will be fine. oh, one more thing..... you get a quiz every week in both nursing theory and pharm. so, yeah, they keep you on your toes. right now i have to go, cuz i have a quiz tomorrow and have to study!! (i'm in the wednesday group.)
anymore questions, just let me know..!! us nursing students must help each other out. it's hard enough as it is..!!
during orientation week you will receive a blue study guide. do all the chapters. practice, practice, practice. practice your conversions, iv calcs, dosage by weight... do it all.
you can also get the dosage calcs book for the course: "clinical calculations for nurses." the author is mary jane cordon.
Hi everyone. I took my HESI entrance exam in Monday. I found out on Tues that I passed. I was super excited because I was soooooooo nervous. Couldn't have been more nervous; I was having nightmares. Let me tell you what I remembr for anyone who will need this in the future. By the way, I DID study for 3 to 4 weeks beforehand... I did not do a lot, just maybe 15 min everyday to refresh my memory. I bought the HESI test study guide and Nursing entrance exam study guide. Used both for their practice tests. Only do HESI practice tests for the math.Math: lots of improper fractions, lots of adding, subtractiong, multiplying and diving of fractions. Lots of ratios/proportions. Lots of conversions: oz to mL, quarts to gal, liters to quarts, etc. No grains/ drams. One roman numeral question. Not a hard one. A couple military time. Nothing difficult, really, as long as you passed eighth grade. Be very careful what you put, because a lot of the questions are fill- in- the- blank on the computer; I didn't get a calculator to use and I was just fine. They will give you scrap paper. No problem on the math. Buy the Evolve Reach Hesi Study Guide... for the math studying, there is none better. it is exactly as the test will be. Reading comprehension: Very easy, don't bother studying for this. Short paragrahs, easy questions, won't leave the screen when you go to the next one. Vocabulary: Again, study the HESI, may want to get Medical Terminology for Dummies and go through it for awhile... it will help you on your Anatomy and Physiology. Overall, not difficult. I probably got between 85 and 90 percent on that. Grammar: mostly easy questions, if you speak english as a first language you won't have any problems with that. Don't study for this. I only got one question that was different and it was about finding the direct object in the given sentence. just think if it sounds right, it is right. some past/ present tense questions, also. Anatomy and Physiology: Know the veins/ arteries in the arm, ear anatomy, phagocytosis, parts of the cell, didn't get any questions on diffusion or osmosis. seriously, know your medical terminology, this is the most important. This is almost 100% amatomy questions. I did very well in Anatomy. I have to be honest.... this is BY FAR>>> BY FAR... the most difficult part of the test. the questions on the test have nothing to do with anything, there were almost no basic questions. i learned almost none of it in class. SUPER SUPER DIFFICULT QUESTIONS. I was worried that I failed because there is no way in heck I got more than a 30% on that partion of the test. Most of it was guessing. So when I say study for the Math (so you don't make stupid mistakes) and A & P only, DO IT. With how hard the A&P is, you really have no time to be studying for anything else. I studied a lot for the A&P. I had the book with me all the time. Still, on average I studied 15 min a day. I have a 3.0. I am always on the high end of average. This test was easy except for the A&P. Just study your anatomy book, HESI study guide, medical terminology and you will be fine. But if you are like me, you will still get a bad grade on the A&P but you will still be okay because the rest is so easy. Everyone who took the test with me agreed that it was easy except for the A&P. 86 people took the test, only 14 failed it. We had the get a cumulative score of 70%. I didn't have any biology except for A&P, no chemistry, no physics. Just study and you will be fine. The test was not timed, it just had to be completed before 12:30 pm; we started the test at 8:30 or so am. I finished in less than two hours. Freaking out will make the test far harder and could easily cause you to fail. Good luck!
!!
cabo2341
98 Posts
:icon_roll i know what u mean. i forgot to ask them if the testing was going to be the first day of orientation and if we are going to get our results that same day....