If you barely pass A&P, should you continue with nursing?

prudence09 · Mar 20, 2009

Just because you barely pass A&P doesn't mean you shouldn't continue with nursing. You do need to find out if the program you are applying for will accept you with a 70. The program I am in will not accept anyone with pre-req grades below a C. Your pre-req classes I believe will not determine how you will do in nursing school. Whether you do well or not nursing school is hard and everyone struggles. I wish you the best of luck.

BellasMommyOBRN · Mar 20, 2009

whereas i do believe that your pre-req classes will help your nursing studies, i don't believe that your grades in those classes always reflect how well you know the material. let's face it, some professors are flat out hard on us students! we just have to take it in stride and realize that the most important thing is that we have learned something.

just because you "barely passed with a 70", doesn't mean that you won't do well in nursing school. talk with your professor, fellow classmates, your academic help center, who ever you have available! ask them for tutoring or study group options. i bet the real problem is not knowing how to study the wealth of material that a&p has. this is also something to talk to other classmates or even allnurses.com a&p students about!

simply, don't give up. do what ever you need to do to succeed. try to find your "niche" in a&p.

good luck!!

Stratiotes · Mar 20, 2009

Don't be discouraged just because of bad AP grades, but try to identify issues you may be having. Are you having trouble understanding the material? Do you do well on end of chapter study questions? If so, you may just have a teacher that makes hard tests.

I've been told that nursing classes require tremendous amounts of reading and memorization--similar to AP. So if you are having problems in AP, you may have these same problems in nursing school. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try--but you should probably try to identify your weakness now and work on it so you can do better in nursing classes.

Cilantrophobe · Mar 20, 2009

I completely agree with the above post, and have some things to add.

If your final grade for both classes is barely passing you don't necessarily need to reconsider nursing, but you should definitely answer the questions that the above poster asked. And if you don't already know the grading scale for nursing school is much harder than normal.

If you do have a hard time understanding the material you may just need to spend A LOT more time studying. There is also the possibility that once it finally clicks, everything will come together and it all starts making sense. Some nursing students here have said that doesn't happen until their 3rd semester of nursing school!

The problems with that is that there are far too many terrible instructors, even throughout nursing school. But you have to learn how to work around that. Do what you have to do, even if it means extensive internet research, to learn and truly understand each system and various concepts learned. I had to find videos on YouTube just to visualize and understand cellular respiration. Be creative and resourceful. Clearly you are very smart considering your educational background.

One thing I did to help myself fall asleep at night was repeat to myself things I knew and remembered about what I was memorizing, studying, or had learned that day. Eat sleep and breath this stuff, trust me, it helps!

Don't let your grades get you down. They are important but not nearly as important as understanding and learning what you need to get you through this long battle!

sunray12 · Mar 20, 2009

No - it doesn't mean you should give up on nursing. IMO A&P grades have a lot to do with how the course is taught. Sometimes it's the instructor sometimes it's the curriculum. Sometimes both. A lot of people retake A&P if they're not happy with their grades. If you decide to retake it make sure you know what your areas of weakness were before and how you plan to fix them.

caliotter3 · Mar 20, 2009

Retaking the course is not a bad idea, you will pick up on what you missed the first time. Make certain you take it with a different instructor.

CanonRock · Mar 20, 2009

The only reasons I passed my A&P classes with a C & B were because I found a study partner and I had regular study sessions with her (at least twice a week). I also cut my hours at work down to 20 a week, so if you can do that, it makes it that much easier to have study time. Find a study partner or study group because it DOES help! Nursing definitely isn't the easiest profession, so don't get discouraged.

Am_Byth · Mar 21, 2009

All I know is I went from getting an A in Anatomy and a B in Phys (my 1st B in my pre reqs) and now in Nursing School I average B's at the end of the semester. (I do get some C's on tests)

BTW, 79% is failing in Nursing.

seasoned hopeful · Mar 22, 2009

have you heard the pre-req for nursing? its called "c" for continue.

what do you call the person with the lowest grade in medical school?

doctor

good luck, hang in there. :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

Cilantrophobe · Mar 23, 2009

have you heard the pre-req for nursing? its called "c" for continue.
what do you call the person with the lowest grade in medical school?
doctor
good luck, hang in there.:yeah:

sorry, but that is not a very valid point considering both doctors and nurses have to jump through hoops before they are licensed professionals. tests, boards, etc. and passing those does depend on your level of knowledgeable and expertise, both of which are learned through school. many people don't pass the nclex and while i am sure it includes people from every end of the grade spectrum, i am sure the people with higher grades in school have a higher chance of passing.

so, no, grades don;t mean everything, but they are somewhat important. i think people should accept their passing grades even if they are cs but not shoot for them.

Atheos · Mar 23, 2009

C = Continue = BLAH

Why not consider retaking A&P?

This time you'll go in with a good base of knowledge and can glean even MORE information that you may have missed the first time around.