This has been the week from Hell. I like to think I've got my stuff together when it comes to being a good student. I got all A's and a couple B's in all my prereq. I got a 75 on my first test! I was devastated. I almost had a CVA. When I got back to school, it seemed to be the consensus that everyone made it by the skin of their teeth. It's just very disturbing because we know our stuff. The more I started dwelling on it I started to remember that everyone I've known has alluded to the fact that nursing school is a full time struggle. Not one person I've talked to said, "Oh it wasn't too bad". I was texting a buddy who is 3rd semester LPN who is struggling too and he replied to me, "75=RN". That kind of put it in perspective for me. It seems to be across the board at our school at least. Our instructor even told us at orientation that A's are very rare. I can't let not getting A's get me down. It's gonna be a struggle just to make it.
Anyway, I guess I would just like to get a general consensus of what everybody else thought before, and then after they started. Again, it's not that I'm a marginal student. It's just a rough proposition. Two lectures, two labs. Four different areas to read ahead for, and four different areas to study for tests. I know it is no comparison, but now I know how medical students feel.
I'm in the same boat...I started my first semester of an ADN program on 9/8.
As far as the coursework - we start w/ fundamentals, ethics, legal, etc. and I find that information pretty basic - along with the "history of nursing." So far, it seems to be easy, and our instructors agree that it starts that way - however, next week are our first exams so I might do well, or I might be totally off-the-ball....its difficult to not know exactly what we will be tested on...or what we should be learning from the first few weeks of lecture...
I really didn't think it would take this much time and that is what is killing me slowly, haha. I always have something to do, I'm always reading or taking notes and I feel like I constantly have my 1200-page "Fundamentals of Nursing" text with me...so now I know what people mean when they say its "intense."
Specializes in med/surg/tele/neuro/rehab/corrections.
Yeah I was surprised at how hard I thought it was. I guess I didn't believe everyone when they said it was very hard. I do have Saunders however and study each subject from that but that didn't help with nutrition. I also study the ATI books because the program makes us buy them and they are pretty good. I go by the rule of panic now not later so study now. That helps me
MBrickle
462 Posts
I'm in the same boat...I started my first semester of an ADN program on 9/8.
As far as the coursework - we start w/ fundamentals, ethics, legal, etc. and I find that information pretty basic - along with the "history of nursing." So far, it seems to be easy, and our instructors agree that it starts that way - however, next week are our first exams so I might do well, or I might be totally off-the-ball....its difficult to not know exactly what we will be tested on...or what we should be learning from the first few weeks of lecture...
I really didn't think it would take this much time and that is what is killing me slowly, haha. I always have something to do, I'm always reading or taking notes and I feel like I constantly have my 1200-page "Fundamentals of Nursing" text with me...so now I know what people mean when they say its "intense."