I failed Med Surg 1

Sara5229 · Oct 16, 2008

I was in your situation.. we have to have a 78 and I failed with a 77%. I would say almost half had dropped or failed by the time I failed. The only advice I have is to stick with it if that's what you want. I was devestated at first, but now I'm just excited to retake it and think I'll do tons better b/c I now know the consequences of not giving 100% and then some. I retake Med-Surg in January. We have all new teachers this semester so hopefully that's a good thing.

Reese17 · Oct 20, 2008

Dont feel bad. In my Med-Surg class we have taken 2 tests this semester and the first one all 20 of us FAILED! on the second test only 2 passed. Our instructor is going to give us a take home test and let us make up one of the test we failed. This has been a hard semester and I blame part of it on our instructors. They give us a ton of info to study but do not teach us what we need to know. Our instructor basically reads from the powerpoint she has and we have to ask her to let us have a copy. Not to mention she has a very thick accent and its very difficult to understand her. All I can say is try your best and maybe approach studying for these exams differently. Thats what I am doing. Good Luck! :nurse:

3rdTimeisaCharm · Oct 20, 2008

try your best and try to get into a study group.

GOOD LUCK

Esther2007 · Oct 20, 2008

My class started with 40 students, now that I am taking Med Surg IV, there are 12 of us left. This semester, passing is an 80%. I do not know how many more may fail.

If you get a chance to start again, just change your study habits. You can try study group, record the lectures, get Lippincott Nclex or other books, try to understand the material and read ahead. If nursing is something you really want to do, dont give up. I have seen students who did not pass a particular semester and come back do extremely well. You can do it!

Ladypie · Oct 20, 2008

Dont feel bad. In my Med-Surg class we have taken 2 tests this semester and the first one all 20 of us FAILED! on the second test only 2 passed. Our instructor is going to give us a take home test and let us make up one of the test we failed. This has been a hard semester and I blame part of it on our instructors. They give us a ton of info to study but do not teach us what we need to know. Our instructor basically reads from the powerpoint she has and we have to ask her to let us have a copy. Not to mention she has a very thick accent and its very difficult to understand her. All I can say is try your best and maybe approach studying for these exams differently. Thats what I am doing. Good Luck!

Holy Smokes! Your learning experience with this class is not going to be a good one. I can't believe the instructor's answer to those kinds of stats is to give a take-home test. (which I assume will be open book) No one will learn anything by taking an open book test. At least not much, anyway.

Reese17 · Oct 21, 2008

Ladypie, we are not learning anything as it is with our instructor! LOL. There's no difference.

Esther2007 · Oct 21, 2008

I think part of the problem with so many nursing students failing is the lack of quality nursing instructors. Last two semesters, I had a horrible instructor. She would read straight from the powerpoint instead of explaining. What made it bad, was the fact her exams were so difficult. She would put stuff that we did not covered, but was in the book. She would also put stuff that were not important and she did not stressed in class. For the final last semester, I studied so for so many hours and only got an 82. She gave one exam, and only one person passed. Thank God I ended up with a B-, which was my lowest grade in the program so far.

missjennmb · Oct 21, 2008

just curious, but as you sound suprised about your grade, did you see it coming? How did you do on your tests for the class from beginning to end?

Please dont think me unfeeling because I know how tough it is. But I cant help but think of the students in my class that have either barely made it, and acted surprised/frustrated at the end, when everyone else saw it coming.

Another thing. I'm NOT saying that the teachers have no fault (I'm not there so I don't know obv). I have had some pretty fantastic teachers over the years and some incredibly horrible ones, and most of them fall inbetween. What I have learned though is that is really doesnt matter how much they suck, or how great they are. The key to getting through the semester is to be what THEY want you to be, and figure out their teaching style/testing style. In Fundamentals, for instance, I got an 84 on my first test (80% to pass the class). Every other test I made a 90-93.5 on, and then a 94.5 on our final. Over half of my class got "get x% on your 4th exam and x% on your final or you will fail" messages. In my Algebra class this summer, again the same situation. We had a teacher leave just before the middle of the semester, and the new one came in and 2 people dropped the class that first night because he was "too tough". The class average on the next text was 63%. I got a 97% for the semester, by reading the teacher, understanding what it was that he wanted, understanding where he WOULD and where he WOULDNT be flexible (our previous teacher was very workable and this guy expected every t crossed, every i dotted, and every problem checked two ways to sunday)

Another thought... try studying differently. It does me no good what so ever to memorize anything other than lab values and vocab, and sometimes not even that. In anatomy I can do nothing BUT memorize or I fail out, but in Nursing, it really is all about comprehension and that could depend on some small detail in the tables or charts that you would never think to memorize by heart.

I'm really sorry that you failed and I know this must be frustrating for you. I hope that you go back and give it another try. There are students in my class that are here for round two and are REALLY doing fantastic.

cicilia123 · Oct 21, 2008

Nursing exams are about comprehension not memorization. Hang in there. You are lucky to get a take home exam. My school does not believe in it. Its two failed exams and you are adviced to withdraw from the program and try coming back within the next two semesters. Sounds horrible, but its the truth. Try any NCLEX test books before your next exam. By the way out of the 86 students admitted, 30 are hanging in there after our 2 exam. :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

klaney · Oct 21, 2008

It wasn't so much as I was surprised, but just disappointed. I did poorly on one test which really hurt my grade since there are only the 5 tests and a comprehensive exam. I needed to make an 80 on the exam, which is not too bad, and I ended up making a 78. My teachers were for the most part good teachers. My clinical instructor was wonderful. You have really good ideas. I would love to hear more about exactly how you study, and also how you figure out what your teachers expect. thanks!

missjennmb · Oct 22, 2008

It wasn't so much as I was surprised, but just disappointed. I did poorly on one test which really hurt my grade since there are only the 5 tests and a comprehensive exam. I needed to make an 80 on the exam, which is not too bad, and I ended up making a 78. My teachers were for the most part good teachers. My clinical instructor was wonderful. You have really good ideas. I would love to hear more about exactly how you study, and also how you figure out what your teachers expect. thanks!

How I study... the weekend before class usually I read the chapter and do any workbook pages/end of the chapter questions. I also highlight (in pink) as I read, because it tends to keep me focused. (if its a REALLY boring chapter I type it/outline instead only because otherwise I have trouble staying awake at times) This way, when the teacher reviews the chapter (I highlight in blue and underline anything that is stressed more than once), I already have a basic understanding of the information and its more a review for me than teaching. The weekend prior to our exam I go back through and re-read the chapters that will be on the test. If I'm in a time crunch, I only read those sections that relate to our class notes (but if she says "know Florence Nightingale volunteered during the Crimean War" I will read EVERYTHING about Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War that is in that chapter...my first test this exact scenario happened, and the question was not about if she was there, but what she did there, which was not information we were told we needed to know). The morning of the test, I find a quiet place for about an hour and I just scan through everything one last time (although sometimes I skip this part if I am sick of studying, lol, because generally I have as much info as will fit into my head before this point).

Another thing I do for nursing classes is try to think up scenarios for each bit of information I get, just to get a bigger picture. If we are learning about hypokalemia, I think in my head "little old lady came in to our clinic with a potassium level of x, complaining of y, and z" and it just seems to help me put the pieces together. Its not a study technique, just something I do as I read.

I tried studying with others, quizzing eachother, discussing the chapter etc, and it did help a little bit, but the amount of quality time I got from these endeavors did not balance the amount of time spent off topic or being the only one focused on the topic (I was actually asked to come to groups specifically because I force us back on topic so much) or focusing on some part of the actual information that I already ingrained to memory and didnt need to spend more time on. So now I show up to quiz anyone who invites me to study sessions, but I only commit about an hour per test to that and only because I like those that I am helping, and it seems easier to stay on task when its shorter time periods.

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Regarding reading the teachers... this is a bit harder to explain. I'm 31 and have been some sort of Assistant to somebody pretty much every position I've held, and most have been to someone with a very specific set of expectations. Its mostly psychology and reading between the lines. I went for a job interview once, and in order to get the position I had to interview both the Sales Manager and the Technical Manager. I walk into the Sales Manager's office, she has papers scattered everywhere, has 2 cell phones, a laptop, perfect hair, perfect nails, and an EXTREMELY professional demeanor. Her office has the look of someone who does not think of home when she is working (no kids stuff/pictures of family/etc) She asks questions about my skill level, commitment level, and I can tell she is sizing me up, visually. I keep my back straight, my suit jacket buttoned, my hair is perfect, and I mirror that attitude right back at her. I explain to her that I can handle anything she throws at me, and do it with a smile and a professional attitude. I walk across the building to the Tech Manager's office. He has a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition calendar on his wall, pictures of his kids, non-work related items laying about, jeans and a casual shirt on, a few days worth of a beard, and workboots. As I walk in he says "sit'down" and he proceeds to put his boots up on his desk. I unbutton my jacket, lean forward in my chair, and show him by my demeanor that I will be very easy to work with, joking with him, asking what his job is about and what his department does, etc (but not more or less than he talks to me). I got the job. I mirrored the expectations of those who call the shots. I've done that in every job I have had. Not "kissing butt" but just mirroring their expectations to the best of my ability. After I got the job and some time had passed, the Sales Manager told me she hired me because I was professional and she felt confident that I would not be unprofessionally casual "like those in tech manager's dept", and the Tech Manager told me he hired me because "I wasnt stuffy like all those stuffed shirts in sales"... lol. I was what each wanted me to be, and because of that, I got what I wanted, and was able to do my job (which was to be the liason between Tech and Sales).

With teachers, generally I find that anything they mention more than once is worth me paying extra attention to. My first math teacher had not even really known what was in the syllabus (it had errors up the wazoo in it) so I did not really care too much about what was in it. My replacement teacher mentioned the syllabus half a dozen times during our first class, so you can bet that every single thing the syllabus said to do, I did, or if it didnt seem to coincide with our classwork, I asked about it, and he would guide me. Our first teacher would give us partial credit any way he could, if we showed work, so the work was the most important part. Our second teacher only cared about the answers, so I knew I had to be extra careful on that. Our first teacher would take extra time to discuss anything we were stuck on, so we would all be trying to firmly understand the concepts before we walked out of class. Our second teacher would rush through the end if we stopped him or get short if we continued to not understand after 1-2 minutes on the same issue (to stick to his syllabus plan!) so I found it easier to just take as many notes as possible, even if I did not always understand what I was writing, and then figure it out on my own time either with the book or with other students/math tutors/online research.

I guess it really just comes down to reading your teachers, and trying to figure out their focus. Mirror their expectations. And don't forget, remember and jot down ANYTHING they say twice (and if its more than twice burn it to memory).