Surviving nursing school

[b747girl5]

I need to vent. I am 43 years old, married with two young kids. I am in my 3rd semester (advanced med surg) and feel like I am falling off a cliff. I feel like all my classmates are "putting it all together" and I seem to be spiraling down hill. I failed my last exam (by 2 question) and it really shook my confidence. My clinical experience last week was horrific. My instructor makes me so nervous and incompetent. Lets not talk about my careplan writing. I just handed one in and she hated it. I cry everyday! I don't know how to get out of this rut. I am passing the class, but by the skin of my teeth. I hate being the weakest one in the class. Can anyone give me any advice on how to change this. I want so badly to be a nurse but I am doubting if I am capable of getting through this. This class actually makes me feel stupid.

[Sudorul40]

@b747girl5 I have three kids, too. The youngest is only 2. By the time I was accepted in the program He was almost one year and I was still nursing him. I always been a serious student, my grades were high, thanks to science, but failed the first semester in nursing. Not to mention English is my third language learned, so my vocabulary is far behind of a native speaker. But I was in your shoes: 40 years old by the time in the program. From my experience, doing questions, thousands of questions in advance is much, much smarter than readings, because you learn a lot from rationals as well as it really boosts the " test taker" skills. I used to spend too much time in readings and ended up a failure. And I just hate to hear/ read the same annoying sentence:" you have to understand the material". I would like to see how those genies are defining the "understanding". Most of them even do not admit they are working a lot doing questions, just to seem " so smart". I even do not waist my time to read such "advices" and posts, because they have as a consequence even putting you more down. I would sincerely advise you to do as many questions as possible, because after that you process different the information and they pump up easily, without hours and hours of readings( which they like so much to make you read hundreds of pages, from the books they force you to buy!)