Opinions Wanted, 1st sem in college.

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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Its been 2 months since classes started and things have been going okay. Not being modest but, i've been told by some that because i was going into Junior college after HS that i should take no more than 12 units or 3 classes, i ignored those people cause i felf confident and i registered for 15 units, intro bio, intro chem, english 1a, rock history(hate this class, like classic rock but not literally 40's-60's classic).

Anyways, the transition of coming from HS with a 2.4 gpa into college all motivated has been a rather noticeable one. In HS, i never or rarely studied for tests and never completed a whole book. Now in college i'm studying like never before, not complaining BTW, am reading more pages in a week in college than in a year in HS, Literally!

With that being said, we've had three tests already in chemisty, got an A- on the first which made me happy, got a disturbing wake up call by a 69% d+ on the 2nd test, had the third yesterday, expecting a high B or low A.

Now in bio, i came in the first test all confident like i was gonna get an A, broke my heart when the scantron said 78%. Now i got another coming next week.

Now one fact i don't like is that in those first few tests i've taken, i should've gotten a beter grade, A- should've really been an A+, that D+ an A (this one sucks. Teacher stresses all week that she's gonna give us one type of particular problem .redox btw. for the exam, exam day comes and whats with all these other types of problems i didn't care to study for), that 78 in bio should've been a B+. I felt the grades didn't reflect my knowledge on the material, almost all the problems i get wrong are the ones i misread, i forget the units or write the wrong ones, you know what i mean, those stupid mistakes. I hate that.

My point is, what do you guys think about my situation? Is it that "1st sem in college" thing that's giving me a hard time? Is it the new system?

Will i be fine?

Does this kind of thing happen to everybody? I'm just worried because what if i don't do good in my prereqs and don't get accepted into a bsn program, and not get to fulfill my ultimate dream and goal of becoming a CRNA, or a NP :)

I am also a 1st semester pre nursing student! Now I don't know if many people do this or if it's common, but I try sticking to 1 science + lab per semester, only because along with the lectures and labs, we also have 3 hours a week of testing periods so it can be pretty time consuming. Now if it were just the lecture and testing period I could deal with but the lab is scheduled as much as the class so it is really adds up. I don't know if my school is unique with doing this (setting the curriculum up so where it only has 1 science/semester) or not. I guess people do it when they can choose their own classes, but my university requires us to take history, english, etc. From your post it seems like yours does too, eng 1a and rock history?

I can relate to the test thing, too. I study for HOURS for my history test in the beginning of the semester and I got a 78%. I was so upset. It was partly because it was the first test and I really had no idea what to expect. After that I understood the prof's style more and did so much better on the next one.

High school was SO easy for me. The teachers in my school were more focused on getting everyone to stay in school and pass, that if you showed up everyday and made any effort you would magically get an A or B. I barely studied outside of school. I KNEW college was NO WHERE near like that, so I really prepared myself on studying outside of school and everything. I think all of the horror stories I've heard (about college being SOOO hard, etc.) made me really prepare myself for college and spend practically all my time here doing my work.

Does your school have a academic center or anything? I know for my english papers we have an english center that the english prof's revise your paper or help you get started on your paper, and I practically live there. I haven't had to go to the academic center yet but trust me I have no shame and will go as soon as I need it. You could also try talking to the prof. and seeing what you did wrong, and what you can do to improve your grade. I know this helps because it shows you are trying to bring up your grade so your prof will most likely help you out and tell you what you can improve on.

Sorry I'm probably not much of a help, I haven't even completed my first semester either! Good luck :)

While some people can take 2 lab sciences and do fine, I wouldnt do that simply because in order to get into the program, your gpa has to be just under a 4.0 in most schools.

If you want to take 15 hours, it would probably be much easier to take maybe other classes with lab sciences, but you know your limitations.

Just my oppinion, in order to get the gpa you need, I would try one lab science at a time. It is extremely hard to raise a gpa sometimes.

Good luck to you.

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

Welcome to college! Yes, traditionally, the first semester is usually the lowest in GPA that most students experience (for the ones that try), because the types of tests that you are given and the courses are completely different from high school.

In high school, all the information is spoon fed with multiple homework assignments and more tests. In college, you have almost no homework assignments and very few tests covering large amounts of material.

The other big difference in high school and college is in college you are expected to know the material thoroughly to where ANYTHING can be tested on and professors feel that if it is in the book regardless of whether or not it is covered in lecture it is fair game for exams.

If you keep that in mind and study accordingly you should be fine.

The question that I have about your course load is how the classes add up to 15 hours. If Chemistry is 4 hours, Bio is 4 hours, English is 3 hours, and Rock History is 3 hours, that seems like 14 hours.

I would also advise you, that if you are planning to get your BSN, that you check with the local University to see how many of those courses will transfer to general ed. Junior colleges are very different from community colleges and classes like "Rock History" you might be taking for nothing.

Its been 2 months since classes started and things have been going okay. Not being modest but, i've been told by some that because i was going into Junior college after HS that i should take no more than 12 units or 3 classes, i ignored those people cause i felf confident and i registered for 15 units, intro bio, intro chem, english 1a, rock history(hate this class, like classic rock but not literally 40's-60's classic).

Anyways, the transition of coming from HS with a 2.4 gpa into college all motivated has been a rather noticeable one. In HS, i never or rarely studied for tests and never completed a whole book. Now in college i'm studying like never before, not complaining BTW, am reading more pages in a week in college than in a year in HS, Literally!

With that being said, we've had three tests already in chemisty, got an A- on the first which made me happy, got a disturbing wake up call by a 69% d+ on the 2nd test, had the third yesterday, expecting a high B or low A.

Now in bio, i came in the first test all confident like i was gonna get an A, broke my heart when the scantron said 78%. Now i got another coming next week.

Now one fact i don't like is that in those first few tests i've taken, i should've gotten a beter grade, A- should've really been an A+, that D+ an A (this one sucks. Teacher stresses all week that she's gonna give us one type of particular problem .redox btw. for the exam, exam day comes and whats with all these other types of problems i didn't care to study for), that 78 in bio should've been a B+. I felt the grades didn't reflect my knowledge on the material, almost all the problems i get wrong are the ones i misread, i forget the units or write the wrong ones, you know what i mean, those stupid mistakes. I hate that.

My point is, what do you guys think about my situation? Is it that "1st sem in college" thing that's giving me a hard time? Is it the new system?

Will i be fine?

Does this kind of thing happen to everybody? I'm just worried because what if i don't do good in my prereqs and don't get accepted into a bsn program, and not get to fulfill my ultimate dream and goal of becoming a CRNA, or a NP :)

Well let me start off with saying you are very young, which will work to your advantage. You need to take the time as was suggested to you and get a good patterno of study habits going. It sounds like you still need to learn how to study, sometimes its not about reading the material and you will need to really understand it in order to get better grades and you might need to learn it "all".

You can't look back on your grades and think I should have gotten a better grade or deserved a better grade but they didn't give the test in the right way. You will always have instructors who like to play games or who make errors or aren't clear, the key is to learn that teachers style, learn your style. I have had several instructors whom did not teach anything at all I had to learn the material on my own, I am taking one now in Chem, however these instructors have taught me some fantastic study skills and how to really learn the material.

Your 18 I am 38 I am still working on my ultimate dream. You have plenty of time take it easy you don't have to barrel in full steam head you will burn out, take fewer classes next semester and put all that energy into learning how to study and increase your load as you go.

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The question that I have about your course load is how the classes add up to 15 hours. If Chemistry is 4 hours, Bio is 4 hours, English is 3 hours, and Rock History is 3 hours, that seems like 14 hours.

I am not the OP but I think I know why they add up to 15 at our school our lab sciences and harder courses are a 5credit hour course. My AP, Algebra and Chem classes have all been 5 credit hours.

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The question that I have about your course load is how the classes add up to 15 hours. If Chemistry is 4 hours, Bio is 4 hours, English is 3 hours, and Rock History is 3 hours, that seems like 14 hours.

I am not the OP but I think I know why they add up to 15 at our school our lab sciences and harder courses are a 5credit hour course. My AP, Algebra and Chem classes have all been 5 credit hours.

My english course is actually 4 units, i looked around and most universities around here in california have it 3 units.

And yes, all my courses are transferable for university credit, rock history is just general ed otherwise i'd never take it.

I want to transfer in two years so i don't know if i can have less than 15 units a semester, i need to talk to a counseler about that.

The remaining science courses i'll have are chemB, micro, a&p1, a&p2. I thought the same thing too that i should take one science at a time but to do that i'll have to take a&p over the summer.

Specializes in Looking for a career in NICU.

Well, just know that transferrable for college credit, and filling general education requirements are not the same thing. That is why you need to contact the school that you are thinking about getting your BSN from, each and every semester, before you register for classes at your Junior College.

Since you are a freshman, I would not advise making that determination yourself. If the JC is close to the 4-year that you want to attend, then the registrar at the 4-year school should be very familiar with the Junior College and they are usually more than happy to tell you if something will fill the general education requirement at the 4-year school.

After your first semester you will start to know what study habits are working for you and which aren't. It sounds like you have the ability to do well you just have to figure out what is going to work for you. I always do the worst on my first test of every semester because it takes a little time to learn the format of the tests and what the teacher is going to ask...after that it's easier to know what to study. I'm sure it is kind of like that for first semester. If you can't do well taking all those classes then maybe cut back a little next semester, it's better to have good grades and take longer than vice versa..good luck!

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