You can get through nursing school even if you failed...

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Hey guys, so I want to share what worked for me and what didn't work me in terms of the first semester of the RN program. Six years ago I took my RN courses with Microbiology and failed two of my nursing courses. So I was taking 4 nursing classes with Microbiology lecture and lab so that's 6 classes put together. The two nursing courses I did get through years ago had to be repeated since it was now expired but it worked in my favor. I replaced a "C" and "C+" with two "B"s. I was reading to get through my exams which I think is wrong. I don't think reading to memorize nursing content is a way to get through nursing courses. I failed most of my exams trying to do this. Even people in my class who are doing this are doing poorly. In my opinion, I think reading should be a way to get familiar with the content I never found the time to do it and I've tried it out this semester too. By the time, you copy your big textbook and highlight everything you need to know, it will be test day before you know it.

What I did differently was writing out my notes. The faster you write out your notes the faster you can memorize them. The faster you memorize the content, the faster you can learn to apply the information. I actually don't use flashcards like some people, just tons of handwritten notes. I'm pretty sure I spent more time writing out my notes than studying. Also, one thing I should of done was keep all my notes from the beginning of the semester because I had to rewrite a lot of my notes for cumulative finals and it was a big time waster. Anyways, I think this method works because I passed all my nursing exams and didn't fail anything this semester. I also did questions at the end of the "required readings" that pretty much covers the content in the readings as well as the material in class. I would write out the rationales with a topic, highlight it and put the principles of the topic in bullet form. So in other words, I'm just converting the rationale's paragraphs into an easier to read format. I hate writing sometimes and it's time consuming but it works so I hope this can help someone out there. I've even had my classmates comment positive things about my notes and I've had one person tell me that they would pay for my notes lol.

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I think everyone definitely studies differently, but what worked for me was (also) writing out notes. I made a word document with tables for each module, listing the subjects we studied in one side and details on the other. I made these for each exam so in the end I had four documents. Then in time for final exam I could just put them all together. I have never been very good at taking notes in class, but I listen to the lectures, read the Powerpoints, read the books and make my own guides to everything.

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Specializes in Nursing Student w/ ED Level II Trauma Experience.
On 12/16/2019 at 6:09 PM, Nursing pursuit said:

Hey guys, so I want to share what worked for me and what didn't work me in terms of the first semester of the RN program. Six years ago I took my RN courses with Microbiology and failed two of my nursing courses. So I was taking 4 nursing classes with Microbiology lecture and lab so that's 6 classes put together. The two nursing courses I did get through years ago had to be repeated since it was now expired but it worked in my favor. I replaced a "C" and "C+" with two "B"s. I was reading to get through my exams which I think is wrong. I don't think reading to memorize nursing content is a way to get through nursing courses. I failed most of my exams trying to do this. Even people in my class who are doing this are doing poorly. In my opinion, I think reading should be a way to get familiar with the content I never found the time to do it and I've tried it out this semester too. By the time, you copy your big textbook and highlight everything you need to know, it will be test day before you know it.

What I did differently was writing out my notes. The faster you write out your notes the faster you can memorize them. The faster you memorize the content, the faster you can learn to apply the information. I actually don't use flashcards like some people, just tons of handwritten notes. I'm pretty sure I spent more time writing out my notes than studying. Also, one thing I should of done was keep all my notes from the beginning of the semester because I had to rewrite a lot of my notes for cumulative finals and it was a big time waster. Anyways, I think this method works because I passed all my nursing exams and didn't fail anything this semester. I also did questions at the end of the "required readings" that pretty much covers the content in the readings as well as the material in class. I would write out the rationales with a topic, highlight it and put the principles of the topic in bullet form. So in other words, I'm just converting the rationale's paragraphs into an easier to read format. I hate writing sometimes and it's time consuming but it works so I hope this can help someone out there. I've even had my classmates comment positive things about my notes and I've had one person tell me that they would pay for my notes lol.

Thanks for the advice!!!!

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