What Am I Doing Wrong?

[hennezzy]

Currently, I am in my sixth week of nursing school and my test scores are slightly above average and not reflecting the time and energy spent in studying that I have been doing. I feel as though I'm not achieving the level of success that I should be able to.

I read the chapters before class, made use of the resources and supplemental materials we have for our classes, put any extra time in when I can and it still feels as though I'm not doing enough. I am wanting to run for SNA president of my class but I do not feel as though it can be one who cannot score in the top percentage. Neither should it be an individual who should attempt to elect a student who does not seem to stay on top of academics.

I'm not expecting a pity party but any realistic, honest criticism or experiences that would be relevant or relatable.

Any advice, tips or words of encouragement?

[AvaRose]

I have recently attempted to try more nclex-styled questions and it has helped tremendously. However, I do not like skimming because it seems to slow me down when I feel as though I grasped enough of what was to be known within the chapter.

Select all that apply are one of the hardest ones that I hate but I am beginning to familiarize myself with it. I currently use The Point and PrepU, do you recommend any resources or books?

ATI helped me so much more than anything else. Many schools are paying for the course as part of NCLEX prep but if not it is $75 and you get a tutor who will give you remediation after each subject test. You start with a comprehensive exam then 7 Mods (Fundamentals, Pharm, Med-Surg, OB, Peds, Mental Health and Community/Leadership) then you take another comprehensive exam and finally an NCLEX predictor which will show the likelyhood of passing NCLEX on the first try. In addition the book that comes with the online program helps a lot with content as it breaks down each topic and has charts and practice questions...oh and there's a pre-mod that is study strategies for typical nursing questions and that gives you great information on how to answer multiple choice, SATA (used to be the bane of my existence through the first half of nursing school), Exhibit questions, Picture questions, and even EKG strips (I was lucky and only had one on my NCLEX and it was A-fib which I had seen in several patients during clinical).

I think I learned more from ATI than I did from most of our textbooks.

[hennezzy]

I love how you have answered my questions so thoroughly. I am actually one of the youngest ones in my class as I am only 21 and going for my ADN at a community college and eventually getting my bachelors through a RN to BSN program.

There are not really any study groups but we have instructors and students who I have talked to that are successful and have said I am doing the right kind of studying by it might be that I could not be actually applying the work or knowledge that I know to my full extent. I absolutely know that I am not alone but it could be also that this is brand new to me and I have not had a chance to integrate my mindset around the nature of this work.

[hennezzy]

I agree with everything you are saying 100%. I do not expect to given anything less or more than the next student but it is our first semester and as for most of us or any of us, we do not know how to study or comprehend most of the information we are given due to the vagueness that is translated through the lectures and clinical setting.

It is possible that I am not digging deep enough, which if it is the case, I need to indulge myself further into the matter of my problem and find the root and source of it all.

[hennezzy]

Thank you so much for your detailed explanations of resources and use! I will be sure to check these out and see if it applies or supports the kind of work that we do in our first semester!

[Eschell2971, BSN]

First, take a deep breath! What you're describing has been experienced by 99.99% of all nurses who have SUCCESSFULLY graduated nursing school AND passed their NCLEX. There is hope.

Here are a few tips, strategies, and constructive feedback I learned and/or received during nursing school:

1. STOP second guessing yourself-usually, as a test strategy, your first answer is the right one

2. There is a Nurse educator on youtube.com, Megan McClintock, who hosts a series of videos on test strategies and common mistakes nursing students make on exams. THIS IS A MUST SEE. I found it on my own, after I failed one of my nursing exams in school. Here is the link:

3. Learn how you learn best. Maybe you're an auditory or kinesthetic learner, but, you have to sit through lecture. So, as part of your study time, DO or LISTEN to a different nursing source on the same subject. Another valuable resource I found on youtube was like a lifeline: Michael Linares

- YouTube

4. Study with a partner or small group (no more than 4). The best way to learn a subject is to teach it!

5. I was VP of my nursing school class and I did not have the absolute best grades. Grades flucuate and can be improved. But, when taken in context with your whole persona, character, etc, your classmates and advisors need to know you are trustworthy, safe, and confident to be able to help them with the needs of your class. I caution you to NOT take on a role if you are not organized, disciplined, and if you truly don't have the time to spare, while still maintaining and accomplishing your own goals, needs, and responsibilities.

6. Also, get some nursing study books, with lots of practice questions. I always saw my grades improve when I practiced questions as I was studying (even in a group), and as part of my final study before an exam.

So, calm down; refocus; restrategize. You can do it!

Let us know how you're doing in the future.

[hennezzy]

First, take a deep breath! What you're describing has been experienced by 99.99% of all nurses who have SUCCESSFULLY graduated nursing school AND passed their NCLEX. There is hope.

Here are a few tips, strategies, and constructive feedback I learned and/or received during nursing school:

1. STOP second guessing yourself-usually, as a test strategy, your first answer is the right one

2. There is a Nurse educator on youtube.com, Megan McClintock, who hosts a series of videos on test strategies and common mistakes nursing students make on exams. THIS IS A MUST SEE. I found it on my own, after I failed one of my nursing exams in school. Here is the link:

3. Learn how you learn best. Maybe you're an auditory or kinesthetic learner, but, you have to sit through lecture. So, as part of your study time, DO or LISTEN to a different nursing source on the same subject. Another valuable resource I found on youtube was like a lifeline: Michael Linares

- YouTube

4. Study with a partner or small group (no more than 4). The best way to learn a subject is to teach it!

5. I was VP of my nursing school class and I did not have the absolute best grades. Grades flucuate and can be improved. But, when taken in context with your whole persona, character, etc, your classmates and advisors need to know you are trustworthy, safe, and confident to be able to help them with the needs of your class. I caution you to NOT take on a role if you are not organized, disciplined, and if you truly don't have the time to spare, while still maintaining and accomplishing your own goals, needs, and responsibilities.

6. Also, get some nursing study books, with lots of practice questions. I always saw my grades improve when I practiced questions as I was studying (even in a group), and as part of my final study before an exam.

So, calm down; refocus; restrategize. You can do it!

Let us know how you're doing in the future.

For the past few weeks, I have been attempting to re-read and stay on top of everything! I currently do have two part time jobs which may have influenced the way my test scores have shown. Thank you so much for making a positive note out of a rough situation I am in!

[Nurse_Bell]

I struggled all the way through nursing school but when it came to NCLEX prep I surpassed all my classmates with ease. While they were good at binge and purge type of studying, I had actually learned the material. It sounds like from the amount of studying you are doing you may be the same. Don't underestimate yourself. Do like others here have recommended and talk to your teachers there are some tricks of the trade in answering nursing questions that will help you score better on the test. If you don't feel comfortable by the time you get there try taking the Kaplan course it helped me put things in perspective a lot

[hennezzy]

I had my third test and I bombed it completely, I am really contemplating whether this field is for me now. I do not know if I can do this because I am only one point away from failing and we still have three more tests but it is a risk as this point. I'm scared because I worked so hard to get to this point and now it feels as though I'm just giving up.

[Eschell2971, BSN]

What you need to do first is process your failure. Next, immediately go to the test review and then make a private appointment with your instructor. What class are you taking right now? I don't have anything to specifically say because I don't know what your class is and how you "bombed," your test. Keep me posted! Let me know how the meeting goes with your instructor.

[hennezzy]

What you need to do first is process your failure. Next, immediately go to the test review and then make a private appointment with your instructor. What class are you taking right now? I don't have anything to specifically say because I don't know what your class is and how you "bombed," your test. Keep me posted! Let me know how the meeting goes with your instructor.

I was so sad and kept beating myself up for how I did and today is a new day. I am currently taking Fundamentals of Nursing and Practicum Lab with clinical every Friday. I am passing practicum with flying colors and doing excellent in clinical but Fundamentals is not so hot.

By bombed, I mean like below a C. I understand that nursing school is going to be different from other academics and prerequisites but, I've never received lower than a B as a final grade in any class I have taken. Obviously it takes more than regurgitating the information but it makes me feel as though I am just stupid in all honesty.

[mercurysmom]

First, take a deep breath! What you're describing has been experienced by 99.99% of all nurses who have SUCCESSFULLY graduated nursing school AND passed their NCLEX. There is hope.

Here are a few tips, strategies, and constructive feedback I learned and/or received during nursing school:

1. STOP second guessing yourself-usually, as a test strategy, your first answer is the right one

2. There is a Nurse educator on youtube.com, Megan McClintock, who hosts a series of videos on test strategies and common mistakes nursing students make on exams. THIS IS A MUST SEE. I found it on my own, after I failed one of my nursing exams in school. Here is the link:

3. Learn how you learn best. Maybe you're an auditory or kinesthetic learner, but, you have to sit through lecture. So, as part of your study time, DO or LISTEN to a different nursing source on the same subject. Another valuable resource I found on youtube was like a lifeline: Michael Linares

- YouTube

4. Study with a partner or small group (no more than 4). The best way to learn a subject is to teach it!

5. I was VP of my nursing school class and I did not have the absolute best grades. Grades flucuate and can be improved. But, when taken in context with your whole persona, character, etc, your classmates and advisors need to know you are trustworthy, safe, and confident to be able to help them with the needs of your class. I caution you to NOT take on a role if you are not organized, disciplined, and if you truly don't have the time to spare, while still maintaining and accomplishing your own goals, needs, and responsibilities.

6. Also, get some nursing study books, with lots of practice questions. I always saw my grades improve when I practiced questions as I was studying (even in a group), and as part of my final study before an exam.

So, calm down; refocus; restrategize. You can do it!

Let us know how you're doing in the future.

LOVE these suggestions!

The other suggestion I would add is to set up a situation that requires you to "teach" the information. In order to teach a concept and explain how it relates to other concepts, the information must be firmly entrenched in long-term memory and connected with previously learned concepts. It simply can't really be done without accessing Bloom's higher order thinking skills. Teaching strategies could be accomplished by joining a study group and have each member dive deep into a specific topic while all of you study the outlines on your own, pairing up with a classmate who has trouble connecting the concepts learned in each chapter and combine them to form a realistic profile of a patient, or anyone else who will listen. (My kids were excellent listeners when they were infants. Now that they're grown, my dog has very patiently listened to my semi-private lectures about learning theory and second language acquisition...or perhaps he's too polite to tell me to stop. Ha!).

The other great thing about teaching the concepts is the opportunity to respond to questions and comments coming from different perspectives. In my experience, nurses think like nurses and answer questions like nurses. By including a non-nurse in your studies, you automatically need to frame the concept in a different, non-nurse perspective, which gives your own brain a chance to access additional schematic in your long term memory. The trickiest part is to find a willing victim...I mean surrogate student...I mean...aw heck, that's why babies and dogs make such great team members!

[AliNajaCat]

I just answered something like this on another thread. I said,

You can find many posts on AN that discuss this. The basic answer is that nursing school is not like any education you have had before, because it is cumulative (meaning you can't forget a course after you finish it) and the types of information you have to internalize and be able to work with are different from your former academic subjects.

Lots of people with As before nursing school are totally blown away by 1) the competition-- all your classmates had to be A students, or pretty close, to be there, and this is probably different from your previous school, and 2) the change in the type of education.

Remember that you do belong here. Make a very, very serious effort to get to know your faculty early on. Make appts to see them every week to make sure you're keeping up (missing key concepts at T (time)1 will translate into disaster at T5, because you will have had to use them at T2, 3, and 4). After every quiz or test, be right there for your standing appt to find out why other answers may have been better than the ones you agonized over and got wrong.

You never had to do this before? You have to do it now. Now you're learning to think like a nurse, and it's different. You can do it, and your faculty will want to help you succeed, they really will. But you have to come to the table in a different way than you're used to. Embrace it. It's an opportunity for growth!

The thing is, when students complain that the faculty doesn't tell them what to do or give them detailed plans of the materials, they're thinking like high schoolers. I see you're young, so you aren't that far removed from high school education. There are also a lot of JCs that teach a lot of their courses like that, in part because their students may not have full-blown college study skills.

But this is college. There are skills to be acquired that don't look like the ones you'll be doing in nursing labs, and they won't appear in the curriculum or syllabus, but they are necessary nevertheless to learn to think like a nurse and to be one. You can do this.

Looking at NCLEX-style study guides will only be useful if the one(s) you use include rationales for not only the correct answer but good info on why the distractors (the incorrect ones) are not the best choice. Learn to understand that while some choices may be factually true, they are not the best NURSING answer because of something you learned in another course or another semester-- you need to continually tie it all together as you go along.

There is some good help available here. Your first stop should always be your faculty; keep trying until you find one whose explanations really resonate with you. Also unlike high school, they will not seek you out if they perceive you as slipping. YOU have to reach out to them. This is not a bug, it's a feature. :)