Help!! I have failed my last two tests (f/e and dm and the other was renal and liver disease). I went into the test feeling comfortable about the material. I did PrepU, nclex questions, reviewed powerpoint, streamlined info, etc. And failed. I am am not sure what I am doing wrong.
I have to get an 83% on next test to pass the class or I am done for the semester and cannot return until August:( this just devastates me! My next test is 3/18. Help!!
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.
nurseprnRN, BSN, RN
1 Article; 5,116 Posts
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.