2nd week in Nursing school and freaking out

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I need help!! I have always been a 4.0 student. My reading and studying(even in my pre-nursing courses) has always gone fairly quickly. Now, second week into Pathophysiology, I find that it is taking me hours upon hours to read(and really understand) one chapter of Patho. What happened? What am I doing wrong?:eek:

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You are not doing anything wrong, that's just the way it is. Accept it, work hard and reap the rewards of your effort :)

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Talk to your instructor and find out how much is actually tested from the book versus lecture materials and inclass assignments. If it is not much, only use the book as a reference and focus on quality note taking and study guides. At my school the instructor said first day that her study guides are the ruling document and the lectures support those. So I am not going to read the book unless I have to.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

Patho is very hard but very interesting. I don't know how to help because I'm sure everyones course is set up different. Hope it gets better but just so you know you're not alone I spent a lot of time studying for patho.

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I would get another book like Pathophysiology Made Ridiculously Simply by Berkowitz. There's also one in the Made Incredibly Easy series that doesn't look too bad. It will explain things on a more basic level, then you can understand your textbook!

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I love pathophysiology, why? because it's difficult lol... suck it up!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Flight.

nothing is wrong. you are learning a different type of subject material and its just taking you a wee bit longer to synthesis the information. its ok. it'll get better over time

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You are 100% normal. I too was a 4.0 student, Nursing school changed that to 3.6!!

Nursing school is unlike anything else.

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I doubt there is anything wrong. Just take a look at how you study.If your simply reading, maybe you should find other ways of studying...such as taking notes as you are going along to keep you focused, highlighting etc. Parts of the nursing course are hard, just keep striving :)

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Does your instructor give you objectives to know for each chapter? It's a requirement for a lot of schools, just so that teaching is more organized and you know what you are being held accountable for. One of my instructors told me at the begining of school...NEVER TRY TO READY THE WHOLE CHAPTER. It's a waste of time, especially in patho. You'll never retain it. Here's what to do (and it worked for me, I graduated Magna Cum Laude in April): Skim through the chapter just to get an idea of what it's abut and what the bigger sections are on. Then go to your objectives and copy and paste them into a word doc, use those to "guide" your reading. Go to the sections that teach/answer those objectives. READ it and then summarize it/outline it on the word doc below the obj. Use different colors/fonts, it will help when you go back and study your notes. Highilight in your book too. If your teacher uses powerpoint, use your powerpoint slides after you have used the book to compare to what you put down on your study guide. The only class ever read entire chapters for was L&D. It seemed to be an easy read to me. DOn't get me wrong....there are some chapters you might just HAVE to read the whole thing. But not every one. Use any other supplemental materials that go along with the book. AND DO PRACTICE QUESTIONS. Most text books have cds with them on it. All my friends and I swapped obj all the time so we could compare and on the long chapters when we were swamped with work we even split them up. OBJECTIVES ARE YOUR FRIEND. vene if your teacher doesn;t give them to you, you should ask about them. If you go to a university they are a req. They are also at the begining of you chapters too in your textbook. Another hint; you can copy and paste tables and charts from your text book (if you have online ones) into your obj study guides. They really help when you are studying before tests...then you aren't carrying your books around everywhere. I copy and pasted pics into mine for health assessment too :-)

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Thank you so much everyone for all of the helpful advice. I got objectives from my professor and learned that all test/quizzes/assessments come from the textbook. It was just really helpful to know that this should not be quick or easy for me. I will let you know how it goes!!

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many people's gpas drop in nursing school. at my school a 93 is an A, a 79 is an F. the grading scale is tougher, the questions are trickier, and the content is more in depth. don't stress out about not getting straight A's. you can know the material very well and still not ace a test because of the way they word the question. you'll be fine :redbeathe

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