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Discussion

What am I doing wrong?

I wasn't going to post but I feel like no one could understand me or know what I'm going through so here I am...

Long story short, I failed an exam. An exam that I studied every detail, every pathophysiology of every disease process, lab values, etc. I did practice questions. I watched youtube videos. I studied until the cows came home. I know that it is all about applying the facts, knowledge and putting it into one big picture. I am in my 3rd semester with Med-Surg. I thought I had this down pat by now. Yet here I am staring at my failing grade. Here I am wondering if I am good enough to be a nurse. How can I treat my patients safe when I can't seem to apply this knowledge?

Then I hear about how the class overall did really well and the test was really easy. In fact, my classmates talked about how they were out drinking, barely studied for the test, worked, hungover, took their kids to soccer, and seemed to be doing everything but studying for nursing school. Yet, they did extremely well on their exams with only 1 or 2 questions wrong. What am I doing wrong here?

I jotted down the questions I got wrong and a couple of them I simply did not know. And now looking back at it, how could I have been so stupid to make that mistake? They seemed like such common sense. Where were my critical thinking skills?

I'm scared that I don't have what it takes to be a nurse anymore. I'm scared I'll never get better at critical thinking. I'm scared that I only know facts, book knowledge and numbers. I can't seem to look at the big picture and apply this knowledge. I feel completely defeated and don't know if I have what it takes. I always get nice compliments at clinical from patients and always felt like I was doing a good job. I love helping people and making them feel good. I always thought had a connection with people. But now I'm not so sure and I haven't been able to stop crying.

Will this ever get better?

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    Did you "fail" a test buy nursing school standards or by "normal" standards? Nothing that it makes a difference to what you're experiencing, but you can know the material pretty well and still fail by nursing standards.

    Is this the first test you've failed? Is it the first test in this class? Do you understand why you missed when you missed? I try to look at getting questions wrong as an opportunity for me to REALLY understand the concepts, possibly even better than someone who got it right.

    Try not to beat yourself up. You've made it this far so I think it's obvious you can do this.

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    Go to your advisor or instructor, let him/her know that you had a hard time with the test. After all, your paying for the class anyway. I hate when I study my butt off and get a barley passing grade, whereas some students partied all night,etc. and got A's on the test. But remember, everyone learns different. Maybe you just have not gotten your learning style down? It's only one test, fix it now while you can. Don't wait until the last minute. Good luck and hang in there!

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    • Author

    I got a 70% so for nursing school standards for sure and for normal, it's still bad. No, it isn't the first test I failed since nursing school but the first test for this class this semester. Yes, I did write down the ones I got wrong and there were some that were meds that I did not know. Then there were ones that were simply critical thinking questions and wasn't in any of the textbook reading. Actually, many of them weren't in the "readings" and never mentioned in class. So the way I believe that I was to approach it was use my critical thinking skills. Apparently, I didn't do a good job which is making me feel so down because I think my critical thinking skills are lacking. I couldn't think myself out of the situation and answer the question correctly.

    Thank you for your positive response. I need to regroup....

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    I think (and I feel hypocritical for saying this, but it's true) you're being too hard on yourself.

    People screw up. They fail tests. You even said you've failed tests before, so you know how it goes. It happens.

    Don't get caught in the freak out cycle. You panic so much about one grade that it affects you and you screw up the next one. And the next one.

    If you knew the info, you did good. Nurses need to know their stuff. You feel like you know it. That's all that matters.

    So kill it the next time. :)

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