Math Nerveous

I am also beginning the program in Spring '10, and have just completed a Pharmacological Math precourse to help brush up on some old skills, and get a head start on first year nursing math. I asked the instuctor your same questions, and she said that calculators were allowed, but that we were required to know the conversions by memory.

A friend who just completed the program gave me a trick to learning the conversions. Memorize this as a phone number 532-8224.

5 mL = 1 t

3 t = 1 T

2 T = 1 oz

8 oz = 1 cup

2 cups = 1 pt

2 pts = 1 qt

4 qts = 1 gal

She said that this helped her tremendously throughout the program.

Good Luck! Jen:up:

That trick for memorizing conversions is great. Thanks for sharing!

The math is not that bad. It is generally 8th and 9th grade level stuff. I don't really like math and it has always been my weakest subject, but I knew I was going to have to buck up if I wanted to be a nurse. Just practice LOTS - that will help more than anything. I don't know how your NS teaches math, but in my school, they taught Dimensional Analysis. I resisted at first, because the name makes it sound so much more complicated than it is. But basically, with DA, you don't have to memorize any formulas, which is great! Look into it. I know there are lots of web sites and books on the subject. The book that we were required to use was "Nursing math Simplified (Math Magic)", fourth edition, by Susan Garner Moore. It is a small book, and easy to get through. the only bad thing is that there were a couple of answers in the back of the book that were wrong - our teachers had to point them out to us.

We got to use calculators. Also, our instructor gave us a couple of minutes before each test to write down any equivalents that we could remember, and use them as a sort of cheat sheet. I'm sure not everybody gets to do that, though. I make flash cards with the equivalents on them, and just go through those alot to try to memorize. It gets easier. good luck!

Thank you guys for such great feedback, although I've always tried to avoid math, I know that now is the time to polish up and bite the bullet!

I know. I always hated it, too, but knowing I would have to do it as a nurse, I decided to make myself like it. Quite the feat, I will admit. But I got to where I did enjoy it somewhat, and I made A's in all my math classes after that. It's like solving puzzles, and if you look at it like that, it's almost fun (I said ALMOST!lol) And now I have to pass a med math test every semester before I can pass meds, so I have to keep on liking it, basically.

Oh, and keep practicing when you have a chance, because if your program is like mine, you will see dosage problems on ALL of your tests - not just the dosage tests. I would hear people in my class say that they didn't even bother working the dosage problems on their tests. I think that's just dumb, because that was 6-8 points that they were just throwing away by guessing. And it's not like you won't have to be able to do those for the dosage tests we have every semester!

What semester of your program are you in? I don't know what to expect as far as math goes, but in lecture does the instructor go over dimentional problems with the students? or do they expect you to come in the program knowing all the med conversions. Now, i wish I would had prepared better, like taking a pharmacology course.

I'm in my third semester of a five-semester ADN program. We learned all of this - DA, equivalents, dosage calculations- in my pharmacology class last semester. I think most of us didn't know anything prior to that class.

The prep pharmacological math course I spoke of was optional, and I know that a lot of schools don't offer it. I was just looking for any extra help I could get. What I really got out of it was realizing that the math wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so relax. Also I highly recommend the Dimensional Analysis method. Once you get it, it's easy.

I will focus on the Dimentional Analysis, I freaked out after hearing that you can get kicked out the program if you score below the 90% on math test.

I am not a fan of DA...I am a ratio/proportion gal. I think this has to do much with my previous life working as a bench rat (bio research).

Yes, we had to memorize conversions. Yes, calculators were allowed. No, no tables with conversions we given.

Basically, just practice, practice, practice. You'll get the hang of it, I promise.

I will focus on the Dimentional Analysis, I freaked out after hearing that you can get kicked out the program if you score below the 90% on math test.

You have to score 100% on our exam and you have 3 chances. We had conversions we had to remember and we were provided a Calculator. If you understand how to calculate the pediatric dosage and how to do Dimensional Analysis you should be fine. I just finished my first semester and on top of this class we had to take a Dosage and Calculation class that lasted the semester. (covered a LOT more then what was on the actual D&C exam that we had to pass at the 100%) anyway, not 1 person failed the main D&C exam by the third try.

It depends on your school because all of them have different policies regarding math tests. To give you an idea at my school, it also varies within the class. We have to take a math test for every clinical nursing class that we have. For my very first Foundations of Nursing 1 class, it was very simple math - such as how many tablets/mg/mL you will give, etc. We were allowed to use calculators. For every test I have taken after that, we were not allowed to. The hardest test I took was an IV math calculation test, which in my opinion was very hard to not screw up because of all of the long division involved. I'll be honest, I failed that one twice and passed it on my third try. For my next nursing class, which is my adults med-surg class, we're allowed to use calculators. So again, it depends.

As for the number of tries you have to pass the math test, that also varies. For my Foundations classes, I believe we had an unlimited number of tries to take it as long as we had it completed and got the minimum required score by the due date. Same with other classes. Some classes say you only have two or three tries to pass them. As for the percentage, all of my classes have required an 80 or 90%.

I am TERRIBLE at math. I basically have to use a calculator for everything. I have some asian blood in me and trust me, the stereotype of asians being reeeeeeally good at math isn't necessarily true Your best bet is to practice, practice, practice! There is a book called Calculate with Confidence which is EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it.

I am an Adult student at TCC and yes you can use calculators on the test. They have to be basic ones though. As far as conversions go, in the sylabus for clinical it will tell you everything you need to know about what to memorize. The math for clinical was pretty easy and you will do lots of problems in clinical class before you hit the hocpitals. If you have any problems or have any questions feel free to pm me.

Good luck!!