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So now that I am starting a BSN-RN program this fall, is it okay to understand the information instead of just memorizing it to get A's on tests? I'm taking pathophysiology over the summer and feel like I've been putting tons of effort into it and am only getting a B! I have been using online resources that accompany the textbook and reading sections that are not assigned as well as doing the assignments. However I feel like I am starting to understand the material better than if I was just studying the instructors notes and 'lectures' even though she keeps emphasizing that those are what the tests are based on. So yeah, is it more important to keep my 4.0 or is it okay to slack off and learn something useful for a change?
There are no guarantees that a high GPA will be the ticket to admission. I was recently accepted in Georgetown's NP program. In conversations with my admission counselor, I learned that G-town has rejected applicants with 4.0 GPAs--and they tell prospective applicants to take the GRE if their GPA is less than a 3.30 (getting a high score on the GRE might help overcome a low GPA). From my understanding, they won't consider an applicant who has less than a 3.20. So, even when schools look at an applicant's entire application from essay to interview to GPA to references, etc., some schools are so selective they want students who excel in everything and falter at nothing.
Honestly, I don't even remember my nursing school gpa. I do remember realizing that no one kept that perfect 4.0 and that I got mostly A's but that's all - I must have blocked the rest from my memory I think a couple girls were stressing who wanted to go to CRNA school...but the most important things are to graduate and pass the NCLEX. Good luck!!
Memorizing won't get you far in nursing school. You have to do more than that. You have to comprehend the ins and outs of what you memorized, understand how certain things affect what you memorized and then be able to answer a question that seems only vaguely related to what you memorized. In other words.....that lovely buzz-kill called critical thinking.
WHile you do not need a 4.0 to go to either Graduate school or to become a RN, you will want to do the best that you can. It may end up being a 4.0 or a 3.5 or a 3.0 or a 2.9. Whatever it is, you will still be able to become a RN.
You need to also be somewhat careful of online resources...some of them are not that accurate.
I would not worry at all about Grad School. Frankly these days, programs abound and their requirements are, as far as I can see, fairly light for admission. Most places also seem only to care that you have the degree, not that it is a quality degree....
A 4.0 does not result from 'memorizing' everything. You're trying this approach and getting Bs.
While nursing school tests are completely different and not about regurgitating facts, it's possible for a pre-req class to still be based on memorizing. My pathophys class certainly was that way. (Yes,I needed to understand processes, but even that was still just remembering/understanding facts rather than the crazy application questions where you're choosing the BEST answer out of multiple good/reasonable answers.)
Good grades matter for graduate schools and nurse residency programs. As of late thanks to the poor job market and glut of new grads, they matter more during the new grad job hunt. Will a 4.0 guarantee you a job? Not at all...but it may help you get more interviews. It's not 2006 anymore: now jobs are fewer, competition is greater, and employers have the upper hand right now and can be as selective as they like.
Once you have a couple of years under your experience, grades will not matter as much, if at all, while you are looking for work.
And it is possible to get a 4.0 or near it while at the same time understanding the material you learned. In fact, it's necessary to do just that.
I think you are right to understand as opposed to straight forward memorization.
Sure, one can memorize signs and symptoms, but if you understand the patho, well, then the signs and symptoms fall into place.
I cannot speak to whether or not you need a 4.0 for further education, as I have never researched that.
DarkLotus
233 Posts
I'm not trying to memorize everything, I'm trying to understand the material. My patho professors says that all the information for the tests is on the lecture notes that we get from her so if the tests were open notes we could all get 100's. However all the lectures do is make me wonder more about the subject so I read unassigned parts of the text or do the online resource activities. These things help me 'get' it but do not help me with the quizzes at all. So it seems like the more time I spend trying to understand the material the less likely I am to memorize what she will put on the tests. This is my first class at the university where I am starting the RN program this fall. I just hope the other professors do not have her mentality of 'if it's not in my notes you don't need to know it'...