MerryBee

You'll take a lot of HESIs - at the end of each rotation, you take a subject-specific HESI (Fundamentals, Cardiac, Maternity, etc). It's not a big deal, 5% of your grade, and I've found them to be good practice. It's not a lot of extra studying, either, because it's the same material you're studying for the course exams (although some folks do find a way to stress out about it). At the end of the year, you take a comprehensive HESI to predict if you'll pass NCLEX or not - you can graduate without passing it, but you can't sit for your state boards without it, so you kind of have to pass it eventually.

I'm in the FACT program now (graduating in May!!), and I recommend you use an iphone or something similar. I got the HP Ipaq they recommended last year that is just a pda, no phone, and it's almost useless. I use it for Nursing Central, but that's it. If you're going to spend $200 on a new device, get one that lets you check email (because some of your professors will email you 24 hours a day) and get calls and messages (because some of your clinical sites will have you a bit scattered, and your instructor will call you to find you). Also, it's nice to be able to obsessively check if your exam grades have been posted. :)

I took A&P 1 & 2 in summer sessions - 7 weeks for each course. It was tough, but you can do it! I recommend "The Anatomy Coloring Book" by Kapit & Elson to help you visualize. I'm a visual learner, so that was big for me! It has more info in it than you need, but it does a great job of showing how things work. Also, make flash cards! As you read the chapters in your textbook, make the cards, and don't put too much info on each card. They'll be easy to study from, and you won't waste time reading the chapter and then re-reading it to make cards. Good luck! Make sure you really understand A&P 1, and that'll make 2 so much easier. Take each lecture as it comes, and the term will be over before you know it!

Niki told me about it at the end of my interview - I'm hoping there will be more information soon . What was it like last year?

Congrats to you too, AtomicWoman! Are you going to the "Accepted Students Day" on March 14th? I'm so excited to meet everyone.

I just had my interview on jan 15th & was accepted (yay!), and was told there were only 3 spots remaining, which would probably be filled this week. So you may have to wait for Aug. Sorry!