Help! Failed last 2 tests...

I'm sorry. How long do you spend on studying? And is this your first two tests in the program or is this a new trend for you in the program? I spend about 40-60 hours studying for tests. And though I have never failed one (graduate in May), I have gotten my two lowest scores this semester (84). That's with 60 hours of studying. Reading. Prepu. Power Points. Writing down every single power point because I retain things better when I write them down. It is hard. No doubt about it. Study groups don't work for me, but maybe they would for you. They do work for lots of people.

Hi,

I'm going to share a little bit of experience on my end. I was in your same position two years ago where I needed an 82% on the final to pass. Needless to say, I didn't end up making the grade, so I was held back a year. My safety net was torn from me and I was shunned from my original cohort. Support system was low, and I have chronic anxiety from this. Long story short, here I am two years later and in my final year of nursing school. My initial mistake was that I did not know how to study, but after taking some time off and reviewing different study methods, I found one that works for me. Flashcards and practice NCLEX questions- these are total game changers for me and I wish I would have just done these much sooner. Good luck and remember, practice makes perfect!

Nancy, I'm familiar w/ what you're going through. I'm a 4th semester student who repeated 2nd & barely made it past 3rd ha! I get burnt out very easily, as I have a family & it's easy to get distracted w/ a 3 yr old active daughter. At the beginning of the semester, my older sister (35) committed suicide 6 days before my 1st test (Psych). We were extremely close & I decided to put it off til the end of the semester b/c I didn't think I would pass d/t a severe lack of prep & study time, as you can imagine. Long story short, our 2nd test was on musculoskeletal content & I studied my tail off. I pulled out an 84. I've made A's, but I'm generally a B nursing student, & I'm ok w/ that.

Fast forward to the next content (Neuro), we had 2 class days & 1 clinical day put off d/t to weather. 4th semester moves very fast, so any sort of fluctuation of the schedule messes me up & distractions take hold. We had to put off our test for 5 days & I absolutely bombed it. I made a 64... the lowest I've ever made in school & I now have a failing average. The good news, I've got almost a month before the next test & I'm focused again. I can't afford to repeat another semester & my family can't take it. I'm going to use all of my available resources & attack Sensory/Burns/Emergent Care from a different angle. Quality over quantity. The toughest part of nursing school is not comprehending the content, it's focusing on what you're going to be tested on... & often times that isn't the most important content. That's what's so frustrating for me, as a male, is what SHOULD be tested isn't b/c they want you to think outside of the typical mechanical way of thinking that most males do. Good luck to you & I hope it works out for you.

Thank your your feedback. I feel like I am generally prepared, but the questions are so buried among distractors and i am not real good yet on picking out the actual question. It is so daunting that I have to get 80% on the final in order to pass. I have my final on Wednesday and I am studying my tail off this weekend, monday and Tuesday. I have done Nclex questions and do generally well on them. This last final is 66% endocrine, nutrition, cancer/emerengcies and HIV. The other 35% is renal, liver, f/e, diabetes and a few math.

I am really hoping to pull this off, but am very aware of the fact that it might not happen. i am bummed, but at this point, there is really nothing I can do. If I put in 100%, then it is what it is.

Keep me in good thoughts!

Don't give up! I have found it helps to quiz yourself/classmates before exams. It helps the information really consolidate after reviewing. Talk it out!

Good luck!!!

Buy an NCLEX-RN review book. It seems like you may have trouble understanding content if you can't pass the exams. Also, don't overload yourself with doing NCLEX questions every day. Aim for about 75-100 questions per day. With everyone question you don't understand, go back to your main NCLEX-RN review book and look up the content for that question. Write down every rationale you get wrong and review it before you sleep at night.

Exercise every day for wellness, relieve stress, and drink lots of water. You can do this.

Goodluck! I hope you were able to turn it around and pass

What is the next test covering?

those extra books sometimes throw you off,, study your notes, the "boxes" in your textbooks, and record yoru lectures,, make lots of side notes during the lecture and study those well. those recorded lectures helped me alot, i'd listen to them going to/from school and laying bed with eyes closed.. also you can listen to them while looking at yoru notes... study daily the days material and study all day sunday, like 10 hours. look at "what woudl the nurse do first" and how to treat the dx.

See, this is not a class (or profession) where memorizing data points is all you need to get by. Even an eidetic (photographic) memory is not going to work.

Sure, you have to know a lot of data points-- what's a normal range for common electrolytes and CBC, anatomy and physiology and terminology, and growth and development, and communication/assessment skills. But none of that is worth spit if you can't look up at the ceiling on every one and tell yourself, "Why do we care? Why does this matter?" That's because everything we do is dependent on knowing the big picture and how it all fits together, how one thing messed up can affect other things, and then other things. Then you can sort of begin to see what can happen next, and what you could do to head it off or make it better. That's the analysis that is the nursing process.

This is also why you can't do what your high school buddies do in their English or History major classes-- write the paper, pass the exam, sell the book, move on. We are held to the standard of having a good working memory of all that went before, all our prereqs and all previous semesters' content, and to be able to use it at higher and higher levels as we move through school and into practice.

So that's what you have to do, identify the why-do-we-care points. The way you do this is by looking at sample NCLEX questions that give you not only the rationales for the correct answers but the reasons why the distractors are wrong. You go back to your physiology text and read it before you go to bed or scan a few ages of your Physiology Coloring Book (serious, I mean it-- Amazon.com) instead of, oh, Danielle Steele or Stephen King or whatever or watching The Walking Dead; let it sit in there overnight to percolate.

See, when you can put yourself in the position of seeing the bigger picture, then those distractors won't distract and you'll be on your way to making good critical thinking passes at scenarios, asking the right questions to get more information for data or validation, and THAT's why you're in nursing school. Because that's what we do.