Mid-sleep panic

I spent many hours yesterday making my flashcards and reviewing lecture and reading material. Right up until bed time, in fact.. of course, I did listen to a book on tape of something entirely fictional and fluffy in between studying and really falling asleep, but I think the nursing material was still on my mind.

I remember waking up a couple of times in the middle of the night and feeling panicky with thoughts of, "I'm not going to be able to do this, I'm not good enough, I can't memorize it all, I won't get a job..."

I was able to tell myself that the middle of the night is not the right time to be considering these things, and fall back asleep. And I feel..well..pretty good about my path and future by the light of day.

I'm doing well in my classes, clinical is going very nicely this term, and I feel very supported and liked by my teachers and most of my classmates and the staff nurses I've worked with. I don't know why I'm filled with so much self doubt sometimes.

A study tool to share

This is not everyone's style of course, but I've found it works really well for me. I've been using an electronic flashcard app (I used gflash but there are many out there) to translate every factoid from my nursing school powerpoints into a question and answer.

I make a table up of all these Q&A's in google docs, then import into gflash, use that as my drill tool and before long I've got the lecture memorized. It's easier for me than making up index card flashcards because I'm a fast typist. Usually by the time I've typed up all my flashcards from a lecture (about 60-100 questions per 2 hour lecture) I know at least 50% of the material.

Gflash presents you with all the questions to get your baseline, then reshuffles and focuses on the ones you missed the first time around, mixing in a few that you already knew. It keeps doing that until you get them all right.

For me, the repitition, and the in-my-head recitation of drilling these electronic flashcards does the trick. And in order to write a meaningful question on my flashcard, I have to have understood the material.

In my program they give us weekly "objectives" that basically summarize what we are supposed to get out of the content from that week. Sometimes all of the objectives are addressed in lecture, and others you really have to dive into the books to get the full picture. I sometimes translate the content from these objectives into flashcards too, if it is really information dense.

This all takes time but it seems to be a guaranteed "A" unless the teacher is intentionally writing nasty questions (we had one of those teachers last spring).

The other plus is, when midterms or finals come around, you've got a whole database of flashcards to run through rather than going back and trying to piece together concepts from the start again.

There are other tools of course. Published study guides that go with the textbooks we use, and online references and practice tests made by the publisher. I've found these things only moderately helpful in actually doing well in the class.

In anatomy class, I found that making powerpoint quiz files (structure on first slide, labels on second slide) was a really effective tool.

This all may be obvious and natural to some, but the last time I was an undergrad none of these tools were around! Now I can have thousands of flashcards on my ipod and organization is a breeze.

I've also found that it is very soothing for me, the morning of a test, to have the feedback of an app that's telling me I know 100% of the material, rather than flipping back and forth between notes and thinking, "gosh, I hope I remember this all, I have no idea how much has stuck."

TEAS practice test 2....hrmph

So I'm 5 days out from the TEAS test now. I haven't studied nearly as much as I planned. I think one mistake I made was not focusing my studies more. I spent most of my time on English just because that was the first section I decided to work on and I never got to the rest sequentially; I should have started with science. Without further ado, here we go: a handy dandy comparison chart I made of my two practice tests:

And here's a breakdown of the sub-sections:

Sub-Scale Score	June %	September
TEAS: Reading - (42 Items)	90.5	88.1
Paragraph & Passage Comprehension	78.9	78.9
Informational Source Comprehension	100	95.7
TEAS: Mathematics - (30 Items)	93.3	96.7
Numbers and Operations	100	94.7
Algebraic Applications	100	100
Data Interpretation	100	100
Measurement	50	100
TEAS: Science - (48 Items)	83.3	68.8
Human Body Science	72.7	54.5
Life Science	93.3	80
Earth and Physical Science	78.6	71.4
Scientific Reasoning	87.5	62.5
TEAS: English and Language Usage - (30 Items)	76.7	90
Grammar and Word Meanings in Context	86.7	93.3
Spelling and Punctuation	66.7	88.9
Structure	66.7	83.3

So, in the little remaining time I've got, I'm going to learn from my mistakes and focus on the science, starting with human body science (!!) and then scientific reasoning, then physical science, then life science.

I can't believe I did so poorly on the human body section.

Although I was telling myself to take time, I was taking this test between 8-10 at night after a full work day...excuses, excuses...and I did rush on some.

For Reading...allowed 58 minutes...took 40.
For Math...allowed 51 minutes...took 31.
For Science...allowed 66 minutes...took 36.
For English...allowed 34 minutes...took 15.

Some specific things I noticed I need to review while taking the test are:

-picking the "main idea" of the passage; I got a lot of these wrong, WTH?
-Converting numbers written like CMXXIX to their Arabic equivalents
-embryonic germ layers and what they become
-brain parts and their functions, i.e. which part controls balance?
-bond types and melting points (ugh, chemistry!)
-"first ionization energy" whatever that is
-cell types that produce "soluble" antibodies
-nuclear reactions...I want to say there were like 3 of these on there
-their version of scientific reasoning and the terminology that goes with it
-the term "simple subject"

TEAS, Test of Essential Academic Skills, Preparation

I’ve begun studying for the TEAS test, the Test of Essential Academic Skills.

At first, I didn’t think this was something I really needed to study for. I mean, I’m well educated, I help other students with their writing, science, and math, and I haven’t been out of school for a long time. But I took an online practice test, just to see where I was, and although I did very well in some areas, there are still areas that could use some practice if I want to score maximum points when I take the real thing.

Here is where the practice test said I’m at right now:

TEAS: Reading - (42 Items) 90.5%
Paragraph and Passage Comprehension 78.9%
Informational Source Comprehension 100.0%
TEAS: Mathematics - (30 Items) 93.3%
Numbers and Operations 100.0%
Algebraic Applications 100.0%
Data Interpretation 100.0%
Measurement 50.0%
TEAS: Science - (48 Items) 83.3%
Human Body Science 72.7%
Life Science 93.3%
Earth and Physical Science 78.6%
Scientific Reasoning 87.5%
TEAS: English and Language Usage - (30 Items) 76.7%
Grammar and Word Meanings in Context 86.7%
Spelling and Punctuation 66.7%
Structure 66.7%
Individual Total Score: 86.0%

A couple of things to keep in mind looking at that, one: I know that for the last third or so of the practice test I was getting fairly impatient and perhaps moving more quickly than I should have; I need to remind myself to slow down and read the questions very carefully. It will also be important to be well rested and fresh on the day of the real test. The other thing is, I didn’t read up on what time requirements were for this test, or perhaps it is one of those adaptive exams like the GRE. If anything I think I was moving more quickly through the questions than I probably needed to. I should find out more about the format and time limits for the test before next fall when I’ll be taking the real deal.

I am surprised that I only got a 73% on the human body science, seeing as I just finished taking anatomy and physiology… I would be interested to go back and see which questions I missed if that were possible; I’m not sure if it is.

In any case, I got well over their 70% minimum in each large subject area, so passing won't be a problem; from here on out it's just studying to get a few more points on my admission criteria for nursing school. I can do that.

Physiology Exam 1

This is my last Pre-Nursing prerequisite class... so I feel like I really should do well. So far, from 2 homework assignments and a lab, I have a 96%. Our first exam (of 6 for the semester) is tomorrow. I feel like I really should be studying hard but I'm low on motivation.

I invited some classmates over to my house on Saturday to study with me but none of them ended up coming between childcare issues, transportation obstacles, picking friends up at the airport, etc.

I feel like I could do pretty well on this test whether or not I study...in fact I feel like I could have easily taught this first section of the class. Which is probably why I'm having trouble motivating myself to study more. But it would be great if I could get 100% and really keep my grade up there, especially at the beginning, because who knows how hard it might get later on.

The topics for the first exam are going to be: The cell, basic chemistry, and metabolism. As well as feedback loops, some concept mapping, etc. I haven't really read the assigned chapters. I think I read part of chapter 1, but that's it. Maybe if I do some of the concept checking questions at the end of the chapters that will help me get back into it.

Here's hoping!