Preparing for nursing school in Upstate NY

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I am preparing to head back to nursing school and I have a few questions.

Does anyone here have experience with Portage Learning's A&P courses? Does anyone have a great TEAS study guide that they can recommend? Are 12 credits per semester (9 nursing credits, 3 liberal arts credits) manageable? What are the most credits someone has taken in a semester, and how terrible was it?

Quick bit of background - I have an Associate's Degree in humanities. Nursing has been a dream of mine for many years, but life and fear of failure has gotten in my way. I've finally decided to just go for it. I figure if I could pull out straight A's through my associate's degree despite the fact that I had a baby three weeks before finals my freshman year, then ended up working 2 part-time jobs, fighting for custody of the baby, and taking care of her while still getting straight A's, I can probably handle nursing school - especially since my personal life is much, much calmer and less stressful (and the baby is now 6!)

Last week, I met with an adviser at the nursing school I want to go through. She took one look at my college and high school transcripts and immediately told me I was an excellent candidate for admission. We had a really good talk and it turns out that she's on the panel that interviews prospective students. I think I made a great impression on her and she gave me some solid advice - she told me to get A&P out of the way as soon as possible and said that the college accepts online credits from Portage Learning. As long as I get A's in those courses, she thinks I'm in a really good position to be accepted. She also told me that I should start volunteering at a nursing home ASAP in order to work on my bedside manner and to see if this field is really "right" for me before I quit my job and commit to school full-time. If I've learned one thing in life so far, it's that I should take the advice of people who know what they're talking about very seriously, so I'm already in the volunteer approval process at a local nursing home and my goal is to be finished with A&P by September or October of this year. The application deadline for the nursing school sessions beginning Fall of 2016 is January 1st, so I think those goals are very reasonable. I plan to start studying for the TEAS test once I'm done with A&P and to do an independent review of Algebra, Chem, and Bio in preparation for that. If anyone has a great TEAS study resource, I would love to hear from you so that I can focus my studying a bit more.

I'm nervous but also quite excited for this process! I will appreciate any input I'm offered and will consider it carefully :)

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Buuuuumping this.

Still wondering about my first few questions, but I have an update!! I'm accepted to volunteer at a local nursing home/rehabilitation center - I get my physical and shot updates next week and then I'll be all set to start. I'm really excited. I'm hoping I can get into the swing of things pretty easily. I'm a bit nervous about making connections with people who don't know me and who could be sick/in pain... I'm pretty good at sitting down and connecting with elderly people, but I always freeze up when someone's feeling sick or hurting, I don't really know what to do. Obviously, this is something I need to work on handling if I'm going to be a nurse though :p

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Bumping this again!! I found the ATI TEAS study guide my sister used back in '12 when she was getting into nursing school, I'm going to assume that it will be a sufficient resource because I can't imagine they've changed the format of the test very much. So, I guess that settles the TEAS study resource I was asking about!

I'm registering for and starting my A&P 1 today.... This is my first big step towards school! I'm investing over $700 in this course, so it's all becoming more real. I have always been a great student but I haven't taken courses for 5 years or so, I'm quite nervous about getting back into the swing of things. I'm especially nervous because I feel that my admission to the school is riding on me getting A's in A&P, seeing as I already have A's in everything else that matters (current cumulative GPA is 3.8).

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Hi! I live in Central NY, and I've been applying to some schools in Upstate NY as well. I have taken a couple courses on Portage, (Chem I, lifespan psychology, nutrition) and as long as you put in the effort, they're really good. You can finish a class as quickly or as slowly as you need to, and the instructors I was assigned to get back to you with questions very fast!

I bought the TEAS V exam cram and an exam book that has 5 practice tests on it.

I'm not sure how the TEAS V works, however, this website has a ton of information if you delve deep into the forums. There's a whole TEAS forum in the Student's section, that has some good info on doing well and how to study.

3 nursing courses and one liberal arts course per semester is probably doable, obviously you have a good work ethic so I'm sure you can handle it. Nursing courses are just very intense, so I'd try to even it out with a lighter lib-arts class.

It sounds like you have things pretty well figured out! If you have any more questions or wanna talk, feel free to message me!

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Specializes in Critical Care.
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I have the ATI guide as well, I'm going to be focusing on that once I finish both of my A&P's. It sounds like we have similar study strategies, too :) Good luck to you, are you hoping to start in Spring 2016?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Weekend/evening program that starts in July... sounds familiar :p I wish I had the balls to do evening/weekend but I'm afraid of how intense it'll be. I know myself and how I learn - if I don't get summer off, I lose my mind. Plus, I'm discovering that I need a bit more time for stuff to sink in than I needed back in my college days, so I think the more traditional format of semesters will work better for me.

I'm putting all my eggs in one basket because the school I want to go to has such a good reputation, and none of the other schools in my area have clicked with me. I might apply to one other school just in case (depending on how badly I freak out come application time), but I'm fairly certain I'm a strong candidate for admission at my #1 and I don't want to spend the money applying elsewhere :D

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Hi I am considering taking A and P on line through Portage Learning. Tell me your thoughts, if you thought it was difficult, are the test hard and did you get a good final grade.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Hi I am considering taking A and P on line through Portage Learning. Tell me your thoughts, if you thought it was difficult, are the test hard and did you get a good final grade.

I did not find it difficult, I pulled A's in both classes. Tests are multiple choice, maybe a few short answers to very obvious questions, and some labelling that is very easy if you memorize the figures in the modules. The reading is a bit dense but doable. You get out of the course what you put into it, for sure. If you take your time and put all the pieces together the way you should, you will have a great A&P foundation for school.

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