Hound dog
Nana's are Beautiful
Nope. Not just me. After those first 2 tests.....that were "easy" relatively speaking, of course........The entire class has bombed out. And while knowing my friends are just as worried about passing this course as I am doesn't make me feel better, knowing that I'm not the only one studying my fanny off and still failing DOES! Whew!
In fact, people, as a class we bombed the exam on endocrine so badly she was afraid to post the grades for fear we wouldn't come back. (or maybe that we'd report her to the dean....hmmm) We got to class last week worried to near frantic over the endocrine grades, plus over the exam for last week....and suddenly she groups us together to take the exam. That did it, we knew before she told us that we'd all failed the endocrine exam.
Granted. Insulin is hard because there is just so darn much to remember with them all...... I scored a 70...which in our classes is failing. Seriously, you would not believe me if I told you how many hours of study I put into that exam....or heck, all of them. My friend who sits next to me got a 38. And I know she knew it because she was part of my study group. We all knew them awfully well. But we weren't strong on it. And boy does that make a difference! Too easy to be tripped up on something you know but aren't strong on.
So we had a Come to Jesus Meetin'. lol This really upset the instructor and she admitted the problem must be with the way she's teaching. (gee ya think?) And she had us take a piece of paper and write out for each question we missed why we happened to chose the answer we did.....so she could maybe see where the problem is. And she gave us 10 pts added to our scores for doing it. Which helped bump my grade to a passing 80 percent.
For one question we already know she's going to throw it out and give us the points. The answers were just too close together to really differentiate between them. (the 2 right ones that is)
So there is a new plan.
1. Each week before the test she will be going over the material and answering questions for an hour.
2. She will be teaching us Math that we were supposed to get last quarter, but didn't. (which is really hurting us now)
Concerning the math......it was taught by the instructor that is retiring right after we graduate. It was a joke to put it mildly. She taught the class the formula for drug calculations. Told them it was ALL they needed to know, that once they had the formula down they could do it all. Tested us on that formula with the easiest math problems I've ever seen. When we passed with 100 percent we didn't have to come back to class.
Now to nursing students the lure of getting out of a class early is paradise, gives you more time to study for the other classes. So of course we went for it hook line and sinker. We had less (I kid you not) than a month of class folks before all of us passed that easy test.
What we didn't know.......because once we finished math we put that book away and didn't bother to pick it up again........was that there was TONS of other info she was also supposed to be teaching from it.
So pharm instructor, who assumes we know the TONS of other stuff in the book because we all passed the math class, throws in questions with info we'd get from the math book. Like IVs and such. And we didn't know where she was coming up with those questions because that stuff wasn't in our pharm book.....so of course we were getting them wrong.
So when pharm instructor asked us about Math we were up front and honest. I think I saw steam coming from her ears. Not directed at us either, but at the retiring instructor who dropped the ball big time. And while we were at it.....we let her know we're getting the same sort of teaching for medication Surg with the retiring instructor as well. It's mid quarter and we've just finished unit 1 in medication surg and it was a TAKE HOME TEST!!! medication surg is now 2 units behind fundementals and pharm and they're all supposed to be coordinated together to teach on the same topics.
So now along with pharm I have to work my Math book and do math for pharm class as she is requiring us to bring our Math books in. And that I'm NOT complaining about at all!!! And she will work with us on that as well as pharm. And she is contacting the fundementals instructor and letting her know retiring instructor has dropped the ball big time in medication surg so she can pick up the slack there.
Nothing will be done to retiring instructor. She not only is tenure, but she used to run the program not long ago for years and years.
I just got an email from the pharm instructor. The exam this week is cancelled. (which means we also all flunked last week's exam......and man I thought I really knew that one!) And she wants us to all bring in all our notes, note cards and such so she can see HOW we are studying to see if she can suggest ways to help make it easier.
So..........No, it's most certainly not just me. Which makes me feel a bit less stupid. sigh Cuz I keep thinking if we had just a little more time that 1 week to learn 3 chapters full of stuff I might be able to remember it all.......
And I've put into place an old "tried and true" method I learned 30 years ago the 1st time I went thru nursing school. I'm doing my own Outline form of notes for each chapter. It of course takes forever. But it makes certain I don't "glance" over something important and gets all the information into my notes. It makes me not just read the material, but really read the material Know what I mean??
And I've ordered flash cards my friend found online that have all the info on each drug set up pretty much like our books. Not cheap. But she says they're really helping her.
If that doesn't work, and the instructor can't come up with something to learn so darn many different drugs in just a week.......I'm out of ideas. Drilling me doesn't work. Both husband and easy child have tried. Plus I do it with my friends at school so we can drill each other.
If I can pass this quarter and next quarters pharm it's an easy slide into graduation. Forth quarter is a breeze compared to this (according to the forth quarter students we've talked to)
Lordy pharm makes chemistry seem easy.
In fact, people, as a class we bombed the exam on endocrine so badly she was afraid to post the grades for fear we wouldn't come back. (or maybe that we'd report her to the dean....hmmm) We got to class last week worried to near frantic over the endocrine grades, plus over the exam for last week....and suddenly she groups us together to take the exam. That did it, we knew before she told us that we'd all failed the endocrine exam.
Granted. Insulin is hard because there is just so darn much to remember with them all...... I scored a 70...which in our classes is failing. Seriously, you would not believe me if I told you how many hours of study I put into that exam....or heck, all of them. My friend who sits next to me got a 38. And I know she knew it because she was part of my study group. We all knew them awfully well. But we weren't strong on it. And boy does that make a difference! Too easy to be tripped up on something you know but aren't strong on.
So we had a Come to Jesus Meetin'. lol This really upset the instructor and she admitted the problem must be with the way she's teaching. (gee ya think?) And she had us take a piece of paper and write out for each question we missed why we happened to chose the answer we did.....so she could maybe see where the problem is. And she gave us 10 pts added to our scores for doing it. Which helped bump my grade to a passing 80 percent.
For one question we already know she's going to throw it out and give us the points. The answers were just too close together to really differentiate between them. (the 2 right ones that is)
So there is a new plan.
1. Each week before the test she will be going over the material and answering questions for an hour.
2. She will be teaching us Math that we were supposed to get last quarter, but didn't. (which is really hurting us now)
Concerning the math......it was taught by the instructor that is retiring right after we graduate. It was a joke to put it mildly. She taught the class the formula for drug calculations. Told them it was ALL they needed to know, that once they had the formula down they could do it all. Tested us on that formula with the easiest math problems I've ever seen. When we passed with 100 percent we didn't have to come back to class.
Now to nursing students the lure of getting out of a class early is paradise, gives you more time to study for the other classes. So of course we went for it hook line and sinker. We had less (I kid you not) than a month of class folks before all of us passed that easy test.
What we didn't know.......because once we finished math we put that book away and didn't bother to pick it up again........was that there was TONS of other info she was also supposed to be teaching from it.
So pharm instructor, who assumes we know the TONS of other stuff in the book because we all passed the math class, throws in questions with info we'd get from the math book. Like IVs and such. And we didn't know where she was coming up with those questions because that stuff wasn't in our pharm book.....so of course we were getting them wrong.
So when pharm instructor asked us about Math we were up front and honest. I think I saw steam coming from her ears. Not directed at us either, but at the retiring instructor who dropped the ball big time. And while we were at it.....we let her know we're getting the same sort of teaching for medication Surg with the retiring instructor as well. It's mid quarter and we've just finished unit 1 in medication surg and it was a TAKE HOME TEST!!! medication surg is now 2 units behind fundementals and pharm and they're all supposed to be coordinated together to teach on the same topics.
So now along with pharm I have to work my Math book and do math for pharm class as she is requiring us to bring our Math books in. And that I'm NOT complaining about at all!!! And she will work with us on that as well as pharm. And she is contacting the fundementals instructor and letting her know retiring instructor has dropped the ball big time in medication surg so she can pick up the slack there.
Nothing will be done to retiring instructor. She not only is tenure, but she used to run the program not long ago for years and years.
I just got an email from the pharm instructor. The exam this week is cancelled. (which means we also all flunked last week's exam......and man I thought I really knew that one!) And she wants us to all bring in all our notes, note cards and such so she can see HOW we are studying to see if she can suggest ways to help make it easier.
So..........No, it's most certainly not just me. Which makes me feel a bit less stupid. sigh Cuz I keep thinking if we had just a little more time that 1 week to learn 3 chapters full of stuff I might be able to remember it all.......
And I've put into place an old "tried and true" method I learned 30 years ago the 1st time I went thru nursing school. I'm doing my own Outline form of notes for each chapter. It of course takes forever. But it makes certain I don't "glance" over something important and gets all the information into my notes. It makes me not just read the material, but really read the material Know what I mean??
And I've ordered flash cards my friend found online that have all the info on each drug set up pretty much like our books. Not cheap. But she says they're really helping her.
If that doesn't work, and the instructor can't come up with something to learn so darn many different drugs in just a week.......I'm out of ideas. Drilling me doesn't work. Both husband and easy child have tried. Plus I do it with my friends at school so we can drill each other.
If I can pass this quarter and next quarters pharm it's an easy slide into graduation. Forth quarter is a breeze compared to this (according to the forth quarter students we've talked to)
Lordy pharm makes chemistry seem easy.