Since the nursing program started I’ve always felt like I wasn’t doing enough to pass these classes. The reason being I had no idea what to do, I didn’t know how to study for these classes, I’ve had to change how I take notes, I’ve had to change how I read the text, I’ve had to change how I think about learning all together. In orientation my teachers would tell us many of us would fail in our first round of exams. Hell, last semester the average for the first test in the skills lab was a 55% percent. I looked at this number and I figure, naaaaaaah, I totally got this. And now I’m hours away from taking that exact test and I’ve already scored 75% in the other classes and this one is not looking good either. The problem is I’ve been coasting on knowledge that I’ve learned long ago and was fortunate that every prerequisites was somehow tied to that old knowledge. The AP biology class in high school has basically been the backbone of my GPA these last two years. In those two years I basically just drew on that class to hold me over while still maintaining a respectable grade. But somewhere in the last summer my grasp on the knowledge has slipped and I feel like I’m back to square one.

In the past I could memorize information then let it slip away to “make room” for the new information. Here I can’t afford to do that, I need every bit of information from now till I retire from my career or change it altogether. Not to mention, I need all the information to pass each class cause they are interrelated to each other. If I don’t have a firm hold of the physiology I don’t understand the pharmacology. It’s like a very tricky balancing act of knowledge. If I understudy in one area, everything collapses. If I don’t understand one area, the dominoes fall.

I have two simple goals this semester, to pass all my nursing classes with an A/B average and get in better shape. If I can achieve both of them I will consider this semester one of my best ones at SJSU.

-Marcus

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