Insane Course Load ?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

Published

My semester just started and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. I am currently enrolled in A&P 2, Microbiology, and Inorganic Chemistry. These are my last pre-reqs before applying to nursing school.All the classes meet three hours a week and have three hour labs, and obviously require many hours of studying and homework outside of class. I'm just wondering if anyone who has experience with these courses thinks that this is unrealistic?

I had the same schedule (physiology, 2nd semester of organic chemistry, and micro) plus Fundamentals and two days a week of clinical in the first year of my nursing program years ago, which did not have any "prerequisities" but had all the science and other courses built in to the curriculum. We didn't have any choice about it, the curriculum was what it was. We all did fine. I don't see what the big deal is.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

I personally wouldn't take three sciences at the same time. I always scheduled my classes so that I had, at the most, two sciences per semester. I would pair the classes that I knew would be intense with an elective or a humanities class. I am not afraid of science, as some have suggested - I simply wanted to set myself up for success in my pre-reqs. so that my GPA would be competitive when it came time to apply to the nursing program.

My semester just started and I'm already feeling overwhelmed. I am currently enrolled in A&P 2 Microbiology, and Inorganic Chemistry. These are my last pre-reqs before applying to nursing school.All the classes meet three hours a week and have three hour labs, and obviously require many hours of studying and homework outside of class. I'm just wondering if anyone who has experience with these courses thinks that this is unrealistic?[/quote']

You can do it if you have no other obligations and sane instructors which can be hard with microbiology and chem. I disagree with the post that says this will help you be ready for the tough course load of nursing school because its a totally different way of learning and application of what you have learned; many "smart" people have flunked out.

With that being said; do it only if you can do well in them because you would be doing a disservice to yourself

I dont know if this is helpful or not but last semester I took AP2, Micro, and Human Growth and Dev. (which was easy but time consuming). I did well in all of my classes and had a 14 month old, had my second son (born in November), and a husband to tend to. I dont think its impossible at all. Good Luck!!!!!!!!

Specializes in L&D.

Your course load? wow...............that's tough. D:

Honestly, I took one science course at a time before nursing school.

Wow! What's your average week like?

Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

It all depends on the person. If you're a good study and like studying it's doable. What I see on this site lately are people freaking out about about taking these types of classes.

If you did well with chem and bio in school you shouldn't have a problem, but if you struggled and were average get ready for the load. You don't have to have all your prereqs done before but I know it gets you a higher entry score.

Be honest with yourself. Obviously you know what you can handle...what do you think?

How many credit hours are you taking?

I am having a similar problem. I plan to withdraw from a class and will take the W on my transcript.

It's tough but you can do it. I took charm and a&p I with other classes last semester. I knew it would be hard but I knew if I didn't take them I'd be delayed another year. You can do it as long as you want and are dedicated to finish, I had 14 hrs, 4 kids & worked 50 hrs a week

Specializes in LTC.

Don't be scared of science! You can do it! It wasn't until this week I discovered a passion for science!

Specializes in Forensic Psych.
It's not insane to take 3 sciences at the same time. Science majors do this + some all the time. A lot of people on this site have become afraid of science so they believe the hype about taking one science at a time, but wonder why they are straight C students in nursing school. Honestly, plenty of student handle this kind of course load or worse, so it's up to you whether you can handle it.

This, though, is your chance of proving your worthiness for nursing school. Taking studying, focusing, and organization seriously and don't give into burnout. If you barely pass in nursing school, you barely pass. I you barely pass these courses, you can severely hurt your chance of getting into nursing school.

Pre-med student do it all the time though. They take 3 or 4 sciences most semesters and do well at it.

I would like to like this at least a dozen times.

Nursing school is just like taking multiple sciences at one time. Might as well get used to it before you're fighting for survival.

18 year olds all over the world are taking bio and chem at the same time. We can too! It's not a matter of science being super scary and hard. At about the amount of time you have to dedicate to school (studying anything.) If you have 10 kids under 10, you may not want to take 12 credits at once, but then good luck in nursing school when you have no choice. It doesn't matter if those 12 credits are 3 science courses or 4 History courses. Unless, of course, you are truly terrible at science. But then I'd be concerned about your entry into nursing school, anyway.

+ Add a Comment