RCS -- Frustrated

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Hi,
I am going to school for Respiratory Therapy and I love it. I like the education that I am getting and enjoying everything about the profession and looking forward to practicing. My dilema is that I can not seem to perform well on exams or quizzes. I understand everything that is going on around me when I read the text but yet struggle with recalling it on exams. I study for maybe 5 hours per exam but yet when I go to take it I struggle with it because the information he asks us to recall is not what i have prepared for.

The other dilema is that this semester is going to be the last one before professional phase. To enter that phase of the program you need to have a 2.5 and currently my gpa is at a 2.1. My grades are not looking to be stellar this semester and was wondering on your opinion on whether or not you think I would be continuing or whether or not GPA even matters. If it more about bedside manner.

One other thing is that the one thing i am struggling with this semester is medical terminlogy. 307 terms in a single week is hard with all the other work that i have to do and trying to maintain a social life. Is it really supposed to be axe everything and die to the books. URGH.. lol.. very frustrated at this point.

 

[Luxian]

Hmm, this is probably the wrong forum for you, since this is the section for career-changers doing pre-med, but I'll try to answer your question anyway.

I study for maybe 5 hours per exam but yet when I go to take it I struggle with it because the information he asks us to recall is not what i have prepared for.

This is the crux of the problem. In any class there's a large amount of material presented, most of which is NOT important and some of which IS. You need to get better at determining which is which. First of all, talk to your professor. Let them know you are working hard, but need a little guidance in terms of what to focus on for exams. Then, go back over the tests thus far for the year. What patterns can you find? What areas did you struggle with and why? How can you change your study habits to better prepare for hte next exam? Finally, get into a study group. This may be difficult this late in the game, but you will benefit by studying in a group and finding out what other people (who are succeeding) are focusing on.

 

[DrMidlife]

I'm wondering if "studying 5 hours for each exam" means you only study right before the exam. I doubt that's sufficient. In college science classes, typically you need to study 2-3 hours per hour of lecture.

There's probably a student learning center of some kind which teaches study skills. I've gone to these and benefited.

Best of luck to you.

 

[puchi]

Studying 5 hours for an exam may work, but it depends on your study habits and how early you start studying. I usually study a minimum of 4 days before a test date and a week minimum before a final. It could also be how you are studying: are you just memorizing or applying the concepts along with what you need to know? I assure you the latter method of studying will benefit you greatly. Don't just try to stuff information in your mind, find unique ways to learn the material so that it will stick in your mind. Good luck.

 

[njbmd]

Hmm, this is probably the wrong forum for you, since this is the section for career-changers doing pre-med, but I'll try to answer your question anyway.

This forum is for any student who seeks to enter any health care profession via a non-traditional route. We welcome pre-nursing, pre-PA, pre-respiratory as well as pre-med students.

To the OP: Welcome and you are definitely free to post here.

Hi,
I am going to school for Respiratory Therapy and I love it. I like the education that I am getting and enjoying everything about the profession and looking forward to practicing. My dilema is that I can not seem to perform well on exams or quizzes. I understand everything that is going on around me when I read the text but yet struggle with recalling it on exams. I study for maybe 5 hours per exam but yet when I go to take it I struggle with it because the information he asks us to recall is not what i have prepared for.

The other dilema is that this semester is going to be the last one before professional phase. To enter that phase of the program you need to have a 2.5 and currently my gpa is at a 2.1. My grades are not looking to be stellar this semester and was wondering on your opinion on whether or not you think I would be continuing or whether or not GPA even matters. If it more about bedside manner.

One other thing is that the one thing i am struggling with this semester is medical terminlogy. 307 terms in a single week is hard with all the other work that i have to do and trying to maintain a social life. Is it really supposed to be axe everything and die to the books. URGH.. lol.. very frustrated at this point.

You are likely a person who needs to break up your study time into chunks. For example, I have a 50-minute attention span when it comes to study. I would set a kitchen timer for 50 minutes and study while the timer was ticking. At the end of those 50-minutes, I would take a 10-minute study break. On that break, I would refresh myself, get something to drink and then go back to my studies with a fresh mind that was ready to hone in.

Most people start to have wandering concentration after about 45 to 50 minutes. You may be sitting there staring at the material that you have to learn but you are not as efficient.

The other thing to try is making a check off sheet of what you need to study after you have divided the material into manageable chunks. Somehow, when you see that you are making progress, that helps to keep you going.

My specific techniques for learning lists of materials is to divide the material into chunks and learn each chunk. As you complete one section, review it and move onto the next section. Soon, you will have everything mastered with a nice list of check marks.

Also try pacing and reviewing. Sometimes walking around helps you to master material and keeps your mind refreshed. Above all, don't get discouraged. See your professors and get assistance if you need to do that. Form a study group and quiz each other. In short, change what you are doing so that you can get your GPA where it needs to be so that you can move into clinicals. Good luck!

 

[Adx]

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the feed-back.
This program is not a pre-respiratory therapy degree this is a degree to start practicing rc. the reason i came to this forum was because i am an adult learner trying to find my way back into school.
Now to the current issue this is more of a list of terms and definitions and what would be the fastest way to learn that do you think. I have heard notecards work good but with other class work going on and finals it is kinda hard to do that. One distraction is finaly gone so that is a good thing. 🙂
When they say they want a 2.5gpa and you are only at a 2.1 is it really that big of a difference.. my professor that i was talking to today made it seem as thought it was not going to be an issue but we shall see.

 

[nlax30]

How much material is on each exam? (1 chapter, multiple chapters, etc...)

There's a difference between the material making sense to you while reading it, and then being able to go back and actually apply that information to problems.

I don't know what amount of material you're having to look at, but I would probably guess that 5 hours studying for an exam is not enough time spent with the material. You'll probably need to at least read through the material a couple of times, and then depending on how you learn, do something like take notes, make an outline, answer sample questions, etc... So after reading the information a few times you also need to apply it somehow so you get more of an idea of what you do and don't know.

I think you'll always run into the problem of not knowing what exactly the professor finds more important for testing purposes, especially if he doesn't give you some sort of outline or syllabus with "learning objectives". One thing that helps there is just developing good study habits and being more knowledgeable about the material. If you spend a good amount of time reviewing the material and applying it then (a) just through that process you may get more of an idea of what is important from seeing what is stressed in the text/notes and (b) if you come across a test question that covers something you are a little hazy on then hopefully you'll have a better chance of answering it by taking an educated "guess" since you may be more familiar with other areas and thus can eliminate certain answers.

It's something I've had to struggle with as well and really change how I study. Because of our specific curriculum here each of our tests are ~190 questions that covers about 30-40 chapters of material (in all basic sciences, biochem, physio, path, neuro, etc...). So there is just a MASSIVE amount of material and it is just impossible to know it all, especially if they ask about a very specific detail. When a question like that comes up I just have to rely on my other knowledge to hopefully be able to narrow down the choices and usually can come to a logically answer even if I didn't remember that specific item.

 

[Adx]

hi guys sorry to bump this after so long..
I am now in the professional phase of the program and have gotten back into the swing of things i think.. I am still having a hard time grasping the material but i think that might have to do with a lack of studytime.. I don't think that i preformed that well on the last clinical.. I hope that i can bring things up in time.. I just talked to my mom to buy an egg timer so i am hoping that helps as well if i can measure my study time..