Pathology

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · May 16, 2011

This is the advice I give to students (fellow or those I'm teaching) when it comes to courses that have LOTS of reading to do.

Read Ahead
Stay Ahead
Be in Class

There are few secrets to this... Howard Scott Warshaw wrote a book called Conquering College... and yes, it's a really thin book. I liken it to Strunk & White's The Element of Style for college success (a book I also recommend for new college students btw). What you get out of it are some very good study strategies for the adult learner.

The nuts & bolts are above... but it's full of little gems. Had I found this book back when I first started college... I'd have done a LOT better early on. You work your backside off for the first couple weeks then the "maintenance" mode starts and classes suddenly seem a LOT easier and you have more free time because you're studying better, not more.

escapebigd · May 17, 2011

Thank you for responding! The class is an online class M-F with a quiz each day for 3 weeks, but no other assignments or final. I took the same teacher for Pharmacology back in the winter semester and was somewhat placated into thinking this class would be like that one. Boy was I wrong! I'm going to read for the next two quizzes tonight...thank you for the advice!

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · May 17, 2011

You're welcome! Since this course is so highly compressed, get about 2-3 days ahead. Then each day, read one more day ahead and review the reading that's coming up. Basically, once you're done with the initial hard work, (in this case) you're going to stay about 3 days ahead of class, if you can. This way each day, you've read the material 2-3 times before you get it in class and you're reading/reviewing the next 2 days worth of material.

In longer courses, try to get about 2-3 weeks ahead if you can... but that's not possible with a course this short. You'd do well to just stay 2-3 days ahead.

JenWork · May 17, 2011

Patho is a pretty hard class! But i had an amazing professor! read, read and read! and you will do good!

escapebigd · May 21, 2011

Our online system will be down for three days this next week. That means this weekend I have to take 3 tests just to make sure I'm not late.

escapebigd · Jun 1, 2011

Just wanted to update on this class. I just finished my last quiz for the class and made it out of the class with a 92. I'm so glad it's over.

lovelyb26 · Jun 2, 2011

congrats!!!!!

OB-nurse2013, BSN, RN · Jun 2, 2011

Patho is an awesome class filled with information and it is difficult but so interesting. My advice is really learn the disease processes don't just memorize because my professor loved to put a twist in the short answers that we hadn't covered in class but if you really understand the process then you could still answer the question. Another bit of advice is to put the time in to do well in this class. This subject has benefitted me a lot in my nursing classes and I saved my notes and used them as reference in assessment and pharm. Good Luck!