Micro Help! What can I do to help myself?

[lilgop]

Hi all,

I'm taking micro this semester, and I seem to be having a few problems.

First, a little background. This is my last semester of pre-reqs. I have all A's in my other pre-reqs (A&P 1&2, ect). I have already applied to my first choice of nursing schools, and taken the TEAS. My grade in micro will not be considered for acceptance into the nursing program as this program allows students to take certain courses with the nursing classes. In other words, I don't have to have micro to get accepted, but I do have to take it before I can graduate.

If I get accepted, I will start nursing classes in Jan.

Here is the problem: I'm failing micro right now -along with every single person in the class- and I'm not sure what to do. I've been studying like crazy, and I understand the material when I read the book, but when I take the test it all looks like greek. I've gone to my professor to ask for help; he says I'm doing fine and to just keep studying, and I'll get it. He said I can bring the two really bad test grades up with the remaining tests.

I'm not afraid of hard work, and I'm going to try my best, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Does anyone have an experience like this? Any ideas?

Like I said, this won't affect my acceptance into nursing school, but I hate to think what failing this class (or even scraping by with a C) would do to my GPA.

Any help would be great!

Thanks!

[bryan_del, ADN, MSN]

if you got an A in physio then how can you be failing micro? For me micro is easier than physio but then afaik people are different. What helped me in micro was the fact that my professor would email us his notes and what I basically had to do was read the book to understand the notes, after that it was just pretty much memorizing the notes.

[lilgop]

That's what I'm trying to figure out. I mean, how can I do really well in everything else, but fail my last science class?

The only consolation is that I'm not alone. Eveyone in this class is failing.

[INN_777, BSN, RN]

Hi there, I am taking Micro now too. Did you try quizlet? They have lots of practice questions/problems that helped me in the first exam.

[Idiosyncratic, BSN, RN]

Honestly, I'm not really sure what you can do. It is concerning that your entire class is failing the class, because that means there's something wrong with the instructor. I'm currently in Micro, and normally when you understand the info - the test is the same.

I would suggest possibly talking to a counselor. Is there something you're missing? Are you not studying right? Does he have powerpoints that he tests on, and not the book?

Good luck!!

[swansonplace]

Go over your exam and try and see what points you are missing.

If you can find questions similar to the questions the professor gives, it will give you practice before the exam. Sometimes the class book, offers quizzes online that you can pretest yourself on.

Ask another student that is passing, how they study. Use the same method.

Get a private tutor. You professor may be able to recommend one.

[missind33]

A couple years ago I had a class with a professor that gave a similar experience. At the time a lot of students were graduating, some even with acceptances to grad programs (this was a nonnursing class.) Our teacher was new and didn't know what she was doing. After her first test she messed up the scantrons twice. Kids who thought they were passing were failing and the vice versa. A lot of students went to the dean at the time and complained as well as express concerns. Eventually the dean starting writing the exams, and everyone passed the class. The teacher wasn't invited to teach again.

Additionally I'm in a micro class now, the averages are horrible, but the teacher curves a lot at the end to compensate for the horrendous averages (40-60%). Everyone knows not to drop the class because of this. Maybe something will happen like these experiences.

[gcc8]

Make an appointment with the dean and tell him exactly what is going on. I was in a Precalc class that was just like this as far as evey one failing, and enough people complained to the dean. At the end of the course I ended up with a 3.8 in the class, and I wasn't even sure I would get a 2.0 in class. I believe our teacher just ended up curving the grades substantially.

[swansonplace]

After speaking with my professor, he let me sit in on his other classes of the same lecture. It helped a lot.

[lilgop]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I've already done some of the things y'all suggested. I take my next test tomorrow. Hopefully, I do better on this one. :) Thanks so much!