What to do...

[RemnantKing]

I've never been the kind of person to vent online regarding my position in school, because one way or another I was able to push past it. However, this time around, it doesn't seem to be the case. I am in my third of four semesters in the ADN program for Nursing and I am having an extremely horrible time in it.

When it came time for the first test I know for a fact that I didn't study nearly as much as I should have which I understood. Passing in our school is an 80%, what did I get on this one? 63%, horrible, but it's the first test, it's usually harder and I didn't study enough. No biggie it's the beginning of the semester I know what I need to do and I can definitely do better. So I quit my job so that I have a lot more time to study, and began waking very early to read, study, do whatever I needed to do.

Second test comes along, this was all about Cardiac, I had the disease process down, the patho, I truly felt I had a perfect understanding of the heart and I needed to know about it for this test. I put in effort and time and sweat, I did practice questions and it was those practice questions that helped me feel ready. I score a 59%...even lower than the first test, the test I KNEW I didn't put effort in. Completely broke down after finding out my grade. Crying, crying, and more crying throughout the weekend, and being angry with myself and angry at everything around me. I couldn't fathom it, and even now I am having a hard time fathoming it. I put in so much time and effort only to do even worse than the first test.

I haven't reviewed this test yet, but there were plenty of pharm questions, and I knew there was going to be pharm questions, but I was not expecting the questions to go in such detail and to include so much drugs. It felt more like a pharm test than a MedSurg test.

I still have a chance to pass the class, as there's still two HW assignments, the HESI which is part of our grade and a test and one final but I don't feel motivated. I was never an A student outside of Nursing school, and obviously I am not an A student in Nursing school, but to dedicate so much time and effort into making sure I do well and not having those results really demotivated me. Especially now with the constant thought of having to retake this medsurg class. I want to pass this semester, I want to graduate with my cohorts, I can't stand the idea of having to retake this MedSurg class.

Because I am sitting under an 80% in the class, I have to fill out a progress report, this is essentially telling me that I am under an 89% in that class and currently failing. It asks me to sign it and to list the actions I will take in order to get myself to pass the class. But the problem is that I am already doing all I can, I already stopped work for the sake of focusing on school and recovering from the first test, I am already forcing myself to wake up every morning, essentially in the middle of the night to make sure I get the reading and studying done, but none of it seemed to show.

What do I do? How do I stay motivated?

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

You say this is your third semester. How did the first two go? Did you perform well on tests? Was there something different about your study habits or techniques?

Without more information, I'm guessing that these are your first nursing tests that have NCLEX-style questions. That is, questions that ask you to read a scenario, apply your knowledge, and choose the best response. These types of questions- "thinking like a nurse" are difficult for a lot of students to adjust to because it's no longer all about memorizing facts and spitting them back out. There isn't one correct and three incorrect answers on these tests. It's about assessing (reading the questions), diagnosing (deciding what the question is asking), and making the best choice from the options given. You may have a question with several "right" answers, but only one is the "best", most appropriate choice for the situation you are given.

Your first step should be to sit down with your nursing instructor and go over your test. Identify areas where you are struggling and see if you can come up with a plan to either study or take the test more effectively. Maybe it's a matter of studying the wrong content. Maybe you're having trouble applying the pathophysiology to the nursing process. Your instructor has definitely seen these problems before and is best suited to advise you on how to be successful in his/her class.

[RemnantKing]

The first one was the easiest of the three so far, it was only chaotic because it was the first semester of the new curriculum and getting used to how everything worked. Second semester was harder, and required me to stop working for the last month and a half of school to focus on the MedSurg 1 class, but was in good standing by the end of it.

Most of the practice questions I've done are "supposed" to be NCLEX styled, but I'd have to look at the test itself and see exactly what I got wrong before I can answer that I suppose. It MIGHT be that there are more pharm based NCLEX styled questions in this specific semester which I admit I need to do a lot more brushing on.

Meeting with the instructor is the best course of action right now, and until our meeting I just have to keep my head up and doing what I've been doing.