Nursing school Vs. Nursing Prereqs

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Hello Everyone. I am currently a prenursing student and I was just curious as to how all of you nursing students would compare your nursing classes to to your prereqs (chemistry, microbiology, anatomy and phys, etc) in terms of difficulty. I've heard some people say if you can get through chem, math, micro, etc that you will do fine in nursing school and then it also seems I've heard people say it is the other way around, that you can get straight A's on the science classes and still have a very difficult time when it comes to the nursing classes. Im sure this will be different for everyone but I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Thanks!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

Most of us take pre-reqs at our own pace, based on what we can handle. You get in NS, and it's at a full-time workload pace. Plus, you have clinicals and labs. The comparison is with time, not difficulty, really.

If you're just in pre-reqs, take the time to learn all you can in A&P and micro, especially. If you know that stuff when you have the time to absorb it, it makes a lot of the nursing courses easier because they build off it.

Good luck!

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In general ... people who get straight As in prerequisite already have good study habits that carry through nursing school. They just get use to the nursing test that are quite different and adjust accordingly. The latter situation where the C student doing infinitely better in nursing school is not a norm unless they "get with it" and start studying.

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Specializes in Psych.
Most of us take pre-reqs at our own pace, based on what we can handle. You get in NS, and it's at a full-time workload pace. Plus, you have clinicals and labs. The comparison is with time, not difficulty, really.

If you're just in pre-reqs, take the time to learn all you can in A&P and micro, especially. If you know that stuff when you have the time to absorb it, it makes a lot of the nursing courses easier because they build off it.

Good luck!

I agree with all of this. There is nothing that can prepare you pre-req wise for clinical if you have no healthcare experience. Nothing. Also, you will find that you have to learn to think differently in nursing school than you did with prereq's. Gotta love that critical thinking LOL! For example, in A&P you learn to study for test questions like, "Which one of the following is not one of the bones that makes up the skull" You know, your basic reguritation/memorization. You have to learn a LOT of info very fast and know it well enough to APPLY it to real (or theoretical, in the case of exams) situations.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
For example, in A&P you learn to study for test questions like, "Which one of the following is not one of the bones that makes up the skull" You know, your basic reguritation/memorization. You have to learn a LOT of info very fast and know it well enough to APPLY it to real (or theoretical, in the case of exams) situations.

Agreed. The application part is what is missing from many pre-reqs. Although, I had a fantastic micro teacher whose testing was a lot of critical thinking and application because he knew that so many of us were going into the healthcare fields. His grading system--actually the entire science department at that particular comm. coll.--also had the exact same cut-off percentages as the nursing school I'm in. I was well-prepared with classes from that school...eternally grateful for that!

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No comparison. Nursing school is way, way tougher than any other classes I've had to take in college. Maybe not so much in terms of material, but definitely in terms of performance standards.

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Specializes in acute care.

pre reqs were pure memorization for me, and nursing school is about understanding and applying concepts (NS does include memorization, though).

I like nursing school much better than pre reqs. I hated having to memorize massive amounts of info.

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Nursing school is SO much better than prereqs! I had a very difficult time memorizing everything for chemistry...formulas made me miserable. The great thing with nursing school is that there is very little memorization (not my strong suit) and lots of application and communications-type questions on tests (definitely my strong suit).

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pre reqs were pure memorization for me, and nursing school is about understanding and applying concepts (NS does include memorization, though).

I like nursing school much better than pre reqs. I hated having to memorize massive amounts of info.

this,

pre reqs were literally a walk in the park for me. nursing school on the other hand is like walking through fire barefoot (lots of pain, but the good kind of pain).

nursing school you learn to understand so much more things, and i like it. and you actually get to do stuff to your patients, hehehehehhehe

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I guess it depends on your school, and what you believe is hard. I was also told that the prereqs is harder, and nursing courses are a piece of cake. To me, that wasn't the case. And because someone told me that, i decided to get pregnant...and have twins before I went into nursing school. There were students at my school with 3.50 or better GPAs in their prereqs, and when they went into nursing courses, they were barely passing...:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Operating Room.

Pre-reqs are pure memorization. Anyone can do that, some better than others obviously.

Nursing school is all about application and no one can tell you the change is hard or not. For some it just "clicks." But some must work hard for to understand it. Nursing test questions are not straightforward, black and white stuff; it incorporates a lot of different knowledge and skills. That is the tough part IMO. My class feels very frustrated with this . . . we were 3.5+ GPA students, now failing a test isn't that farfetched.

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To the original poster, did you have any difficulties getting through your pre reqs? Next semester I plan on taking Anatomy, Physiology, and microbiology in the same time because I decided very late in my college to career to pursue nursing. I hope I will be able to do it!!

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