Study tips for microbiology?

So I'm halfway through my microbiology course, and I am by no means a stellar A+ student. I have a tough time with school and getting motivated, as I am feeling like I've hit a rut in life and its definitely affecting my studies. I just wanted some advice on how I could improve my study habits, whats worked for other students when taking a microbiology course, and in general, how I can work towards getting at least a B in the course! I've taken an anatomy course in the summer (6 weeks, big mistake) and received a really bad looked upon 'C' in the course And then took physiology last fall and got a 'B', which I was happy about, but I BARELY scraped by with that grade. As most nursing programs here in California require at least a 2.5 gpa in the three sciences, this is my last course to really pull my head out of my butt and work towards getting another 'B' on my transcript. BUT, microbiology just isn't interesting to me as physiology was! I'm really struggling.

We have weekly lab quizzes, and I usually get 8/10s on those. We've had 5 so far. We also had our first lecture exam, and I received a 71/100 Most of the exam was on bergey's manual, and I'm no good at memorizing all of the weird genuses and species names, not to mention all of the diseases and origins etc. So that one was a big toughie for me... We also had our midterms. The lab practical I thought was fairly easy, yet I made little mistakes here and there that cost me my grade, like mistaking the acid fast stain with the gram stain. It was a 42/50, so roughly 84%. The lab lecture exam however... was a disappointment. My score was a 64.5/85, 75%. I definitely cannot afford to get a C in the course, or else I'm doomed and won't be able to apply into any nursing programs.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I do know that I get major test anxiety. Whenever I study at home, I drill myself over and over and know the answers really well. But when it comes to the test, I just completely blank, lose all confidence in myself, and end up tanking my score. The lecture exams are a mix of multiple choice and short answers. Our professor is extremely picky, one word missing and he docks off a point, etc. But the trouble with the multiple choice that I have is that he makes A. A and B, B. C and D C. C only D. None of the above; questions like those stump me all of the time, and they make me second guess too!

I'm not much of a social person, so its hard for me to form a study group with my classmates. Our class runs as a night class from 5:30pm to 10:15pm, two days a week, so its extremely long and tedious. The second lecture exam is this coming Monday, 3/28/16, so I'd very much like to get a much higher score this time around, at least 80% :) So, I'm still hopeful, but also a bit scared to get another low score.

Does anyone have any advice? Thank you in advance! I know from other students that nursing school is extremely tough and if I'm having a difficult time in the pre-requisites that I shouldn't even bother applying.... And though that may be very discouraging, i don't want to quit and say that I didn't at least try for it. So, this is me trying and hopefully pushing through.