I think I've bounced back with A&P

[ThatPoshGirl]

I'm in fasttrack A&P and my first lecture and lab exams (histology) a few weeks did not go well. I got 8/15 on the lab exam and 84/100 on the lecture exam. Well, I think I've managed to make a pretty decent come back. Since then we have had one secture exam and two lab exams. On the lecture exam I got 94/100 (missed three), on one lab exam I got 14/15 and assuming that my spelling was good on today's lab exam it should be another 14/15.

There are 500 points total for this session, and we need at least 450 to get an A. So far I have lost 31 points. If I can avoid missing 19 more points over the next two lecture, and three lab exams I will be golden. If I continue to perform as I have been the last few exams... I would lose 12 points on lecture and 3 on lab, which means I have a bit of a cushion there.

The irony is, I think I tossed myself out of nursing. It turns out I really love math and science, something I did not know before the summer. I've been trying to keep myself motivated to stay on the nursing tract, but I am less and less excited about it. I mean, I could be sitting in a lab sequencing DNA, or in a workshop building circuits. It's all I think about. The thought of wiping someone's butt just totally turns me off. Even if the money isn't as good, I am thinking I would prefer genetics or electronics over nursing.

I guess I have a lot to think about!

[txnursingqt]

I hear ya on the struggle to make sure nursing is the right choice. I love science too and often thing of working in a lab. For now I am sticking to nursing but feel that going in the science direction, like maybe genetics is my backup plan.

Good luck and go with your heart. :heartbeat

[Lajimolala, BSN, RN, NP]

Congrats on those scores! I feel that I'm in the opposite situation. I did well on the my first lab exam and lecture exam, but as the material gets more and more intense, I can feel myself overwhelmed and unable to retain info. Can you explain how you studied? That would be really helpful! Thanks so much!

[ThatPoshGirl]

There were a couple of things I did this time that I didn't do before.

We follow the Marieb book, but our exams are based on the lectures. This time after most of the lectures I sat down and made flashcards. The cards I made had questions on the front and answers on the back. Like, "What type of bones are made during endochondrial growth?"

The other thing I did was the night before the test I read the summary at the back of the chapters. If something was mentioned that I couldn't remember or didn't feel clear on I flipped to that section in the chapter and read it and talked it out until it made sense. That helped a lot. There were a lot of questions on our lecture exam that I would not have gotten if I hadn't done that.

For the labs I utilized open lab time as much as possible (which wasn't as much as I would have liked due to me living 35 miles from the college). My Netter flash cards came in very handy. They didn't help me on the first lab exam because it was all histology. I also sketched and labeled some of the muscles and I think that helped, too.