HESI midcurricular

[may8755]

Ater studying, attending midcurricular reviews held by the nursing professors at my school, and doing over 1000 practice questions.....

I took the midcurricular HESI yesterday and made an 848, when we needed an 850 to pass. I failed. So close, yet not good enough. Now, I get to (actually more like have to) retake it on May 5th. I think the pharmacology part was what got me. I feel like I study and study, but the pharm stuff just won't stick.

Any tips on how to keep all the pharm information straight? I have tried making notecards, making notes on notebook paper, reading and rereading, and just straight up memorizing, but when it comes time for the test, it all mixes together. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Sterren, BSN, RN]

I have a really hard time with pharm too, but what seems to help is being able to relate it back to a diagnosis. Do you look up/study the pathophysiology with each of your patients? If you don't, it might be helpful to start. We were required to and while it was very time-consuming at first, it really did help me to understand why patients were getting certain medications. Now I can think back and remember "oh yeah, Mr. X had A-fib and was on blood thinners .... etc" and it helps a lot. I can't memorize drugs, it just doesn't work for me, but for some reason having the pathophysiology to relate a drug to really does help.