This semester is giving me the smack down - failing another test

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2013

med-surg and pharm tips anyone?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2013

Tried reading the material out loud to yourself and recording it to listen back later? That will stimulate your auditory component.

randill8084 · Oct 10, 2013

Record the lectures, and then go back through them when your studying

priorities2 · Oct 11, 2013

Pharm tips:

You've truly got to explain the concepts. Explain them to anyone, just out loud to yourself. If you can't explain it, you won't know it for the test. Focus on practice questions. If they don't provide practice questions, make up your own and answer them. To go TA/office hours and ask questions, have a discussion with the instructor about the topics.

For drug names/terms, start memorizing early (like at least a week before the test).

Focus on understanding general systems (left heart receives blood from lungs, pushes blood into body, body's blood is filtered to right heart, right heart pushes blood to lungs...circular process) before trying to understand where drugs act. E.g. - what's an Na+/K+ ATPase? How does it impact calcium levels in the cell? So, how would a drug that blocks the Na+/K+ ATPase thus affect calcium levels?

Common pitfall is to just passively absorb lecture/readings instead of actively learning this material. I wouldn't waste much time at all on readings/lecture, except just enough to process the info. Then get active: Draw it out, explain it, answer questions, make connections and talk about it. And: practice problems, practice problems, practice problems. If you don't have access to enough practice problems, see if your school has a test bank. Best of luck!

A. Boogie, BSN, RN · Oct 11, 2013

Have you tried making drug cards for pharm? Get the really big ones and colored pens.. Put the class and drugs on the front... Place the MOA, adverse effects, contraindications, and nursing implications on the back... Really helped me. I made an A in pharm and a 1240 on my pharm HESI

Also, if you have access to Saunders, Prep-U or NCLEX 4000.. Practicing questions really helps...

Summer Days · Oct 11, 2013

I am a huge fan of rationales and I focus my learning around rationales. Because my pharmacology class was utter useless (I mean every word of it), I decided to go about learning medications a different way. After all, for a visual learner like myself and you, it is tough life trying to learning medications without diagrams and pictures. That's when I made the decision to buy the Saunder's comprehensive nclex book. The cd inside it contains 734 questions on pharmacology. I started working on the pharm questions, typing rationales for ALL questions, whether I missed them or got them right. It is these rationales that I study and boy have I made progress. I do not mind sharing the pharm file with you if it's going to help you. I am also in med-surg II this quarter. One thing I am doing differently this term than in med-surg one last quarter (I almost failed it) is not waste my time reading the long-winded chapters in the main text book. I use Saundrers and Review and Rationales comprehensive nclex books. I find that I retain more in less time and I practice the nclex questions.

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2013

. One thing I am doing differently this term than in med-surg one last quarter (I almost failed it) is not waste my time reading the long-winded chapters in the main text book. I use Saundrers and Review and Rationales comprehensive nclex books. I find that I retain more in less time and I practice the nclex questions.

I'm doing medsurg 1 and its all the long chapters thats getting to me and I don't know what to focus on. I really hate authors who talk about their who life story and talk about some crap not related to nursing just to say they can print a heavy,thick expensive book for students.

The main thing seems to be more on assessment and nursing management, but with the first test we had a bunch of pharm questions incorporated in our med surg test, and we just started learning pharm!!! arrhhh. I got the reviews and rationales for med-surg and its much more concise. Well back to studies...I'm exhausted.

MomaNurse · Oct 13, 2013

I'm sure you are exhausted! It's been a while, but I used to write one sentence translation for each paragraph read in those horrible, dry ego driven texts. I would write each sentence in a notebook and when I went to study for tests I would just read my notebook. Same for class notes. I would come home, pair it down and put pertinent stuff in the study notebook. The suggestion of recording yourself or class is good. I could never listen to myself, but I would listen to recorded material while in a very relaxed state, like I was meditating on it. That way I was able to rest and relax while studying.

You are just far enough on your journey that you can't see the beginning or end of it. Keep going, you can do it!!

Summer Days · Oct 13, 2013

I'm doing medsurg 1 and its all the long chapters thats getting to me...
The main thing seems to be more on assessment and nursing management, but with the first test we had a bunch of pharm questions incorporated in our med surg test, and we just started learning pharm!!! arrhhh. I got the reviews and rationales for med-surg and its much more concise. Well back to studies...I'm exhausted.

Great! Now get you a book that has nclex questions (you want one that has rationales, the Saunders one is great). You see the Reviews and Rationales one has only a few questions at the end of each chapter; these questions cannot possibly cover all material presented in one whole body system! On the contrary, the Saunders one has on average 100 questions per body system and by the time you finish tackling all of them, you will have encountered questions asked in many different ways. Expose your mind to these many questions and oh, READ ALL RATIONALES, then come back and tell me if your scores don't improve. All the best in med-surg I, cheers

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Oct 15, 2013

Great! Now get you a book that has nclex questions (you want one that has rationales, the Saunders one is great). You see the Reviews and Rationales one has only a few questions at the end of each chapter; these questions cannot possibly cover all material presented in one whole body system! On the contrary, the Saunders one has on average 100 questions per body system and by the time you finish tackling all of them, you will have encountered questions asked in many different ways. Expose your mind to these many questions and oh, READ ALL RATIONALES, then come back and tell me if your scores don't improve. All the best in med-surg I, cheers

Well sad news... I did not do good on my medsurg test again and literally spent hours studying I have a Saunders book but no time to read it. I was saving it for when I am ready to focus on the NCLEX test, but now I failed my medsurg test and if something don't change I might be done for in nursing school. I guess I will add the Saunders book to my reading then.

Its a month before my next medsurg test...I need to incorporate some nursing interventions like NOW!!! Well I started doing something this week called pencasting and its where I write stuff into the computer with a digital pen and I created mind maps with those. In addition it allows me to record my voice with the explanations.

I don't think my knowledge is the problem. We are getting a bunch of nclex style questions and I'm just not at that level yet. Its lots of judgement type questions.

Ok well I'm implementing my 1 month plan...amongst everything else I got to do.

My plan will be to:

Read chapters and takes concise notes via pencasting to recall concepts as I read.

Review Saunders book to get more familiar with the nclex questions I'm getting

Review ATI medsurge book because its required for my course

1 week prior to testing Review my pencast notes.

Here's an example of pencasting below of an instructor I follow on youtube, thanks to him I passed patho. I think it will work for me as a visual /auditory learner with medsurge concepts. Well I will update this thread on my struggles with medsurge 1 but keep the tips coming in.

I am also going to meet with my instructor to discuss where I am going wrong. For other reading this, It's super important to talk to your instructor when you fail a test, don't let it slide.

PedsHopeful · Oct 16, 2013

I too was having trouble with Pharm especially this semester. Failed the first two exams cause my usual way of studying by making flashcards just didnt seem to be working for me at all with pharm. The drug categories werent sticking, I couldnt remember the actions of each drug cause everything has like three names andslightly different actions and overlapping actions.

Finally for this exam I ended up making quizzes for myself using microsoft word. Make a two column chart with drugs listed in one and categories listed in the other, mixed up of course, and then I made a answer sheet for myself. I made another set with drug names in one column and drug actions in the other, and made a answer sheet, then I would do the quizzes over and over trying to match them correctly.

This worked much better for me in committing it to memory and I finally got a good grade on my midterm. Scored 10 points higher than the class average.

So try making quizzes. Ive attached a example of the quiz I made for myself to give you an idea. Try it with medsurg too, it may help better than flashcards.

Pharm exam 3 Quizzes.docx