How does someone survive biostatistics?

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

I am in a 9 week online biostatistics course required for my MSN Education track at IWU. My 4.0 GPA is surely going to disappear. I have hired a math tutor but he is so far "above" my intelligence level it is doing no good. This is supposed to be a basic course, but I feel like I am trying to learn Mandarin Chinese in a week. Numbers have never been my friend and I am in a state of panic 100% of the time. there is a mid term coming up soon, and final exam worth 100 points each and I am almost at the point where I am going to just give up and sacrifice my "A" for my sanity. Any suggestions? :cry:

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I am in a 9 week online biostatistics course required for my MSN Education track at IWU. My 4.0 GPA is surely going to disappear. I have hired a math tutor but he is so far "above" my intelligence level it is doing no good. This is supposed to be a basic course, but I feel like I am trying to learn Mandarin Chinese in a week. Numbers have never been my friend and I am in a state of panic 100% of the time. there is a mid term coming up soon, and final exam worth 100 points each and I am almost at the point where I am going to just give up and sacrifice my "A" for my sanity. Any suggestions? :cry:

There's an old saw about what you call a person who graduates nursing school with a C average?.

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Nurse.

While an 4.0 GPA is surely a goal worth striving for, it helps to keep perspective. Do your best, but don't break the balance of your life for another couple tenths of a point on your cumulative GPA.

That's my :twocents:

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Biostats at any level can be difficult! I suggest the "dummies" series especially if you have not taken stats before. I checked them out of the library and found them easy to read. There is one called Statistics for Dummies and Probability for Dummies. I spent a few days reading both of them. After that, I had a basic understanding and that made my course material much much easier to follow. Good luck!

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

Of course you are right, and I have told myself that, but I guess my type "A" personality is showing....Thanks for your input

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

I am obviously not as smart as you! I bought 4 books prior to the class that were supposed to be "basic" PLUS the Dummies one. It is all Greek to me. I am taking some solace in the fact that all 9 of us in the cohort are struggling. At least I am not alone. Thanks for the suggestions, though.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Talk to you tutor. Say something like, "This is not working. We need to try a different approach. Can you recommend some really basic resources for me? Can you explain that again in a simpler form? I don't understand what you just said."

You are the boss of this tutor. Be the boss. Get your money's worth.

I used to work as a teaching assistant for research classes and I know that the important stuff you need to know CAN be explained to nurses who hate math -- explained in a way that makes sense to them. A good tutor should do that for you. If your tutor is incompetent at teaching, find another tutor.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU.

I don"t know enough to know what I don't know. That's the problem. I have to "get over" the fact that I don't want to seem stupid. My tutor is great, it's just that those who know how to do this stuff tend to not understand how "word oriented" folks don't get "numbers oriented" material. This presents a problem because the people who WRITE the textbooks are, of course, those "number oriented" people. (LOL)

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