How should I plan for my classes the next year?

[humboldt13]

Hi. How should I plan my classes for the next year?

1. I plan on getting my associates in RN.

2. I would like to get certified as a nursing assistant to gain experience

3. These are the pre-reqs needed before entering the RN program: A&P I, english 101, psychology, and college algebra.

I'm going to be done with english and psychology next week. I have enrolled for A&P for the fall.

How difficult is the CNA course? Is it a heavy load? Can I balance that with A&P?

Or should I do A&P and college algebra at once? And then CNA in the spring other classes?

I would like to take as many pre-reqs as I can before the RN program next fall 2015 (If I even get accepted!). Would that be possible? The other pre-reqs are english 2, microbio, developmental psychology, public speaking, and a humanities class.

Fall 2014

A&P I

College algebra

Spring 2015

CNA

Microbiology

developmental psychology

Summer 2015

public speaking

english 2

Does this look doable? What would be the easiest layout? I am very dedicated to becoming a nurse although I'm a little nervous because I never did that well in high school so I want to do really well, but I want to start ASAP!

Also any tips on how to study for A&P? I'm nervous, but so excited.

[Idiosyncratic, BSN, RN]

I think your schedule looks very doable. :) CNA is not that difficult from my college. As long as you spend the right amount of time in AP 1 you should be good as well.

For me, microbiology was a much more difficult course so I wouldn't really take that with much anything honestly.

As for tips on studying for AP 1, get ahead from the beginning. Start studying muscles, and the skeletal system now. If I would have known this I would have done this. Start reading if you can as well.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Your schedule looks fine to me. I did 5 classes last fall and 4 last semester. Are you planning on working in the program? Why do you want your CNA? You know you can sit for the test after the first semester of nursing school? It just seems like a waste of money to me.

[applejackcrunch]

My school requires CNA certification as an admission requirement to start the core nursing courses. Personally I think it's a good idea to do the CNA course before starting core courses even if it's not required to A) earn some extra cash for those expensive textbooks and B) get some experience in patient care- being comfortable in that setting is important and a some of us really need that extra boost of experience before clinicals.

A&P and college algebra will probably take up about 4 hours of studying (practice problems, textbook readings, etc) per week per class, not including time for actual homework- unless your algebra text is like mine was and was basically just practice over and over and over again. Your schedule definitely looks manageable, but I would switch up either public speaking or english 2 to Spring 2015 and switch it out with another class, probably developmental psych since you'll probably want to keep a&p information fresh for micro. It'll keep things from feeling monotonous as opposed to writing and writing plus more writing. :)

Unless you're working full time or even more than 25 hours each week (depending on your time management skills) you could probably get english 2 out of the way this fall and finish everything else in the spring. You're not quite at full time and adding english 2 will add 3 credits on top of 8 at most? ... Definitely manageable. That way you'll have a summer free before you start the core courses! (I plan on using my free semesters to study ahead, maybe get my textbooks settled and read through a bit... that's how I get the ADHD to not rear it's ugly little head during the semester.)

[FutureNurseK]

Im actually going to be renewing my cna licence the end of the year and look into overnight work and then work part time in the program....

[humboldt13]

That is a really good idea. Clearing the summer to study before the program.