I will be starting my prerequisites this August (starting with Anatomy & Physiology I). I'm 37, working full time (and will until I actually being nursing school), and it's been a long time since I was a student.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can spend these next few months doing to 1) help me prepare for going back to school and/or 2) upping my chances of getting accepted into the only school within driving distance?
It took me 10 years to decide to take this plunge and I'm a little anxious to get started! Something to focus on while I wait for fall classes to start would help pass the time!
hegster has great advice. In addition, read https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/how-get-any-846733.html and try to follow it. It has helped me for every single class. I found treating all science with lab classes as two separate three credit classes (rather than a single four credit class) beneficial in so far as allocating study time.
Last year I started my prerequisites, and I found taking human biology in the summer to be extremely helpful for AP1, AP2, and Microbiology. So the advance to take a biology science that fits prior to AP1 is sound advice.
Also, a number of colleges have free workshops for how to study, how to take notes, etc. I recommend taking them. As someone who was out of school for almost 30 years, those workshops came in handy once classes started.
... but you can start studying up on body region names, quadrants, bone markings (this was a fairly tough area for me for some reason), cranial nerves, the carpal and tarsal bones, major muscles names and types and even the major bones of the axial, cranial, facial and appendicular bones (or even all of them if you choose, in my class we had to know the names of every bone, but not every muscle), you want to at least go over the name breakdown terms of the muscles just to get a head start.
DEFINITELY get those cranial nerves down -- what they are, what they do, what they cover. I just finished the first year of my program, and we use that information quite a bit.
I agree with pink rain, I took ap for non majors to see if this was for me, I was working close to 50 hours a week and failed the class. Now I work 3days a week, and go to school full time. Study study study, don't let up because once you do it's near impossible to catch up. I make sure I'm in school year around, full time, I study during breaks. I don't let up at all. I'm studying ap now on my own, terminology and documentation. I'm starting a tech job at a hospital and work and school is life right now. All I can say is be serious about school, it's your second job. You can do it, I'm 52 and finishing my pre reqs, if I can do it you can too!
Totally agree. I have two bio classes with two labs and a chem class with the lab this summer, each class is it's own and will get the study time. Plus I bought the workbooks for the textbooks, which I do for every class now, working in the workbook while studying helps a ton, at least for me. Also textbooks normally have companion sites, there are study aids there. Also printing power points before class, 3 slides to a sheet while following the textbook during lecture helps a ton too. Also stay organized, separate notebook for each class, etc.
hegster has great advice. In addition, read https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/how-get-any-846733.html and try to follow it. It has helped me for every single class. I found treating all science with lab classes as two separate three credit classes (rather than a single four credit class) beneficial in so far as allocating study time.
Last year I started my prerequisites, and I found taking human biology in the summer to be extremely helpful for AP1, AP2, and Microbiology. So the advance to take a biology science that fits prior to AP1 is sound advice.
Also, a number of colleges have free workshops for how to study, how to take notes, etc. I recommend taking them. As someone who was out of school for almost 30 years, those workshops came in handy once classes started.
Yes, getting the book or even online for preparing for A&P1, will help. There is alot of information to remember, you are just 37, I was 47, i made it through all my pre-requisites averageing a 3.1 in total not bad for a 51 year old, in a nursing program. I had a family to raise, so this was my chance to complete the goal i wanted to 30 years ago. I do have 2 other degrees under my belt, but this is one that i always wanted to do, and your never to old, to become a nurse,so with that said you should be fine, just study, study, study and focus, stay determined.
pmabraham, BSN, RN
1 Article; 2,568 Posts
Good day, hmowry:
hegster has great advice. In addition, read https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/how-get-any-846733.html and try to follow it. It has helped me for every single class. I found treating all science with lab classes as two separate three credit classes (rather than a single four credit class) beneficial in so far as allocating study time.
Last year I started my prerequisites, and I found taking human biology in the summer to be extremely helpful for AP1, AP2, and Microbiology. So the advance to take a biology science that fits prior to AP1 is sound advice.
Also, a number of colleges have free workshops for how to study, how to take notes, etc. I recommend taking them. As someone who was out of school for almost 30 years, those workshops came in handy once classes started.
Thank you.