Help!? A&P I....again, any advice?

stpauligirl · Jan 4, 2006

Help!?
Spring semester starts in five days. I took A&P I last semester and completely flopped! I am taking it again this semester and I'm going in with a whole new attitude.
I can and will succeeed this semester!
I know I can do it, I have all A's and B's in all my other classes...but A&P has kicked my behind!!
Lab? No problem! Lecture, chemistry, all the memorization, chemistry? Ahhhh, already having nightmares! And, Yes chemistry is my down fall!
Does anybody have any advice? Is there anything I might be able to do over the next five days to help prepare myself to start the semester out right? I don't want to be behind before I begin (again).
Thank-you! Thank-you! Thank-you!
(In advance )

Get a tutor at your school to help you work through and understand the Chemistry part of the course. Are you taking the same teacher, if so then you already know what you need to know. How many credit hours were you taking last time? If you took too many classes cut down on credit hours while taking A&P so that you have adequate time to study the material. Get a study guide for the book if available. Over the next 5 days read the first 3 chapters and do the practice questions in the text as well as at the end of the chapters, take note of the questions that you have difficulty with and save for the tutor. Get a taperecorder so that you can get the best notes possible. Good luck this time around :balloons:

(Which book are you using, we had Martini, maybe I can help you with things because I just took A&P1 last fall )

Angels' · Jan 5, 2006

:) Welcome to the AllNurses Forum :)

I’m taking basic chemistry this semester, and have almost no clue as to what these science classes require.

I wish you the best in all your classes.

A pre-nursing student, :)

Angels’

lisabeth · Jan 5, 2006

Well, I am doomed I'm afraid. I have never had Chemistry, and it isnt listed anywhere in the program for nursing. The nursing instructor didnt say anything about taking Chemistry. Any possibility for a passing grade with no Chemistry knowledge at all? :uhoh3:

stpauligirl · Jan 5, 2006

:) Welcome to the AllNurses Forum :)

I'm taking basic chemistry this semester, and have almost no clue as to what these science classes require.

I wish you the best in all your classes.

A pre-nursing student, :)
Angels'

I think it is good that you start out with Chemistry. I did and I am glad that I did because I would have struggled more in A&P, and I see that the same stuff is coming up in Microbiology (which I am taking this semester). Good luck in Chem you will do fine.

stpauligirl · Jan 5, 2006

Well, I am doomed I'm afraid. I have never had Chemistry, and it isnt listed anywhere in the program for nursing. The nursing instructor didnt say anything about taking Chemistry. Any possibility for a passing grade with no Chemistry knowledge at all?

Chem is required to graduate from the ADN program at my college and it is a prerequisite for admission to the BSN program at UT here in San Antonio. What kind of nursing program are you getting into? On the bright side, you are lucky if you don't have to take Chem to get into your nursing program :) I didn't have any knowledge of Chem either when I signed up for one of the required courses but did well. The course I had to take was Intro to Chemistry with lab and it was for non-science majors. Where in Texas are you located? I am a student at San Antonio Community College which has an ADN program. But I try to get accepted at University of Texas Health Science Center in the BSN program and I have to take more classes to get into their program(which is probably impossible for me to get into:uhoh3: ) Please don't cry, you will be ok. You can always get a tutor.

lisabeth · Jan 5, 2006

I am going to a community college for the two year RN. Noone said anything about Chem. :crying2:

I am closer to Dallas.

Little Panda RN, ASN, RN · Jan 5, 2006

Hello FaithHope&Love, I wish you the best this time around. You can do it! When I was taking A&P I, II I would use my tape recorder (the little one, not sure what you call them exactly:chuckle ) and I would read my lecture notes and tape what I was having a difficult time remembering. Which was just about all of it :rotfl: . Then I would listen to this tape every night as I was lying in bed just before I went to sleep. I have heard it said that what you hear or read just before you go to sleep stays with you. I believe this to be true, because I made "A"s in both these classes. Just and idea so I thought I would share:) .

stpauligirl · Jan 5, 2006

I am going to a community college for the two year RN. Noone said anything about Chem.
I am closer to Dallas.

Wow, that is odd.....did anyone give you a degree plan? I know that all you need to apply for the 2 year program is A&P1 and a math test or college algebra and that Chem is not a prerequisite to get in but to graduate you need several other classes, like English 1 and 2, and so on.

There is this awesome very nice lady here on the board, her name is Fun2care, she is also from your area and I swear she knows EVERYTHING there is to know about this nursing school business. Maybe she can help. Fun2care if you read this, we need you desperately.....where are you, please please please we need your wisdom.

bsugaRN2b · Jan 5, 2006

Hello! Definitely wishing you good luck on this time around, I got a B+ in the class, and I'm going to share a few tips, and maybe they'll help you out:

- For starters, it's said a lot, but very true - read and reread your notes every night, because tests creep up really quickly, and if you leave them to the last day...enough said.

- What I did that helped me a lot was to retype my notes - I take really simple notes in class b/c my hand hurts after a while, so I can't take detailed notes in class, so I'll write down the basics w/a little more info, and then do it in complete detail when I type it up. Then, (I'm a visual learner) I color-code my notes, because it helps me to focus, have lots of highlighters on hand for this one, as they run out easy :chuckle ...HOWEVER, on the flip side of color coding, you DEFINITELY can't put it off 'til the last second, b/c some people get distracted by it, and won't get the benefit from it b/c they get caught up in it looking all pretty...

- A good policy: If you can teach it to someone else, there's a 99.9% chance that you know it well enough for the test. If you can't, review, and try teaching again. Practice makes perfect!

- Reread notes before you go to sleep (I find this works particularly well for processes and the like), it soaks in better!

- A tip from a friend of mine, also for processes: jumbo-jumbo sized index cards...aka mini posters. She puts them on the wall, and basically they're really simple, like writing a big index card, nothing artsy or anything...for a process, just write the key words in sequence, and put them up on a wall...so you're studying even when you're not trying to! Makes interesting decorations for a dorm wall, at least...

- If you're more of an auditory learner, you could record your notes w/a voice recorder, or if you have an MP3 player with the option (has to have a LOT of memory, though!). I personally don't use recorded notes, but my friend does, and since she doesn't have a voice recorder, I record them on my MP3 player and let her download them to her computer, helps her a bunch!

- (Random, but it works for me, lol!) The former Julliard-wannabe listens to classical music when she studies, lol! I swear by it, and after I got the highest grade on the first test, I've had to keep my classical CD's locked the week of a test. They figured it out though, they just crowd my room the night before the test...but hey, none of them were part of the dropout crowd, so it didn't hurt!

Good luck, though - you sound like your heart's in it though, and attitude is seriously half the battle, so you'll be fine!! :balloons: :yeah:

~Adria

1Tulip · Jan 5, 2006

Gsnitch... I was only able to write my dissertation by listening to all the works JSBach composed for the organ. Classical music can really help. (But not opera sung in English. I start paying too much attention to the arias.)

I pretty much endorse what's been said here. I think FH&L needs to consider changing study methods. Science isn't entirely about memorizing (though that is certainly a big part of it.)

I have taught Phys, Pharm, and Pathophys. People who were used to getting A's tanked in my class all the time and would come to my office the next day in shock. Those that took my advice invariably brought their grades up by one whole grade (sometimes two) on the next exam.

In a nutshell: Tape lecture. Go to quiet study area with tape, pencil and paper. Turn on the tape. Listen until the instructor makes a statement of fact or explains a concept. (Keep the sections of lecture very small.) Turn off the tape. Write down (IN YOUR OWN WORDS) what the instructor just said. If you can't put it in your own words, you didn't understand what was just said on the tape.

This works because (I found) every student who failed one of my exams really, really, truely thought they had understood the lectures. If they did, it was on a very superficial level. They didn't realize they only had surface knowledge of the material, however, until they failed the exam.

You have to find out BEFORE an exam what you don't know.

As you take notes (remember... in your own words), you will find areas of the lecture you just don't get. If so, pull out your textbooks, or other references and see if you can fill in the blanks and make what the lecturer said more comprehensible. But... maybe what the instructor said was contradictory or poorly explained. You will have the opportunity to go to her/him and ask for very specific explanations. Then you fill in your tape/notes.

It is time consuming to do this. (About 3 hours for every hour of lecture, I've found). But like I said... I know it works especially if the exams are drawn mostly from lecture.

Good luck.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2006

become familiar with navigating around these links i'm listing below because they will be helpful to you in coming to an understanding of the material you are supposed to learn.

study tips:

http://student.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/goshp.html

- click on the link at the left side of the page for "study tips" advice from a microbiology professor

http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio201/index.htm

- click on the link at the left side of the page for "survival tips" advice from and a&p instructor

for anatomy help:

http://www.bartleby.com/107/

this is gray's anatomy on line, the complete text. you can enlarge the pictures. pictures of the bones not only name the various landmarks of the bones, but also show the areas where the various muscles and ligaments are attached.

http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio202/index.htm

- the home page of the above - follow links on the left side of the page to lecture notes (the general outline of the profs lectures) and study questions (answers are at the bottom of the pages). many of the sections of lecture notes have links to interesting online resources about some particular subject scattered throughout, so check out each page from top to bottom. most of the questions are multiple choice, but i did see at least one fill-in-the-blank practice test. occasionally the instructor has a link to a review sheet for the students to fill out. the section on the brain has a beautiful interactive brain tutorial for learning the cranial nerves and a test here:

http://www.gwc.maricopa.edu/class/bio201/cn/cranial.htm

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/aplab/index.html

- this is a very large site developed by the a&p department of the university of wisconsin to help students to study laboratory materials for practical exams - lots of labeled pictures! click on "table of contents" at the left to link into the massive information on this site. there is also a section of exam questions at the link "ap test home".

http://homepage.smc.edu/wissmann_paul/anatomy1/

- a&p student help pages from santa monica college - very extensive collection of pictures and explanations and web links to all kinds of information related to a&p

http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/index.html

- home page of the biology teacher at frederick high school in frederick, oklahoma. this instructor teaches a high school class of a&p. although you want to link into the biology ii homepage, i notice that there is information in the biology i homepage to link into that also pertains to some a&p. there are plenty of quizzes and practice exercises scattered throughout this extensive site, but i could not find any answers. presented in a little easier than college level, i thought this was an awesome introduction to a&p!

for chemistry help:

http://regentsprep.org/regents/chem/onlineresources/index.cfm

- this is an online resource with many links to all kinds of help with chemical subjects on a website for preparing for the new york regent's exam in high school chemistry. within the links are explanations of the topics as well as some worksheets with answers, particularly in solving equations.

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/nph-pertab/tab/periodic-table

and

http://www.wfu.edu/~ylwong/balanceeq/balanceq.html

- the periodic table. click on any element to bring up a page with more specific information about it