What To Expect At National

So I’m sure you are all eager to know what to expect at National. From the class schedules to, the tests, and the grades you need in order to stay in your cohort! Wait, what? That’s right but before I scare you, lets ease into it!

Let’s start with your cohort, each class is about 50 students. The class splits into two sections there’s a portion of your classmates that have class in the morning and then the remainder of the students have class in the late afternoon. It seems that all the students that live in the southern part of San Diego County are scheduled in the morning classes and the students that live in the north county and further up, example me, Temecula/ Riverside County, are scheduled in the afternoon classes. Which I may add I loved that schedule! Why? Because I miss most of the traffic and it only takes me a little over an hour to get to school instead of the two hours if I were to have class in the morning! But, I will say I have a few classmates that live in the Hillcrest and were scheduled in the afternoon schedule, so it can vary.

Speaking of schedules let me break it down for you, so as you might have read in my previous blog your first nursing class is online. Health Assessment will be one of your first classes on campus. It is both a lab and lecture. Your lecture class consists of 5-6 hours of lecture, twice a week. As for your lab class, you are scheduled twice a week sometimes three times a week. This class is also 5-6 hours long. Now, I’m sure this seems like a long day but if your excited to learn the class will go by fast! Also, side note pack lots of snacks and have your electronics charged. This includes laptops, IPads, and phones, in lab there aren’t that many places to plug in in case you plan to take notes electronically or use an e-book!

Each class as I’m sure your aware is 4 weeks long. If you’ve been going to National you know how most of the classes go, but for the newbies be prepared! You are overwhelmed with lots of information for the first two weeks and then you’re scheduled to have a midterm at the end of the second week. After two weeks of retaining more information, you take you’re final and you’re done with your class! See how fast time flies by!!

Ok, let’s talk tests and grades! Tests are taken at the computer lab with your class. They are taken through Blackboard, you normally have one hour to take the test. You get to view the results as soon as you finish your test. As far as grades go while in the nursing program keep in mind that you can not score lower than 76% overall in a class! If you score lower than 76% you will be dropped from your cohort! You will then have to wait until the next cohort to begin so that you can retake the class you failed and pick up where the new cohort started. This means you will no longer continue with your cohort you started off with, and you will now take a bit longer to graduate.

Scary! Right?! Now, remember this, you are smart and you had to get good grades to be able to get into nursing school so you will do great! How does one get here you ask? Well, normally if you score low on your midterm your grade will drop of course but now you have to make sure that you aim high on your final. Don’t worry too much there are ATI’s, group projects, and in-class tests that help your grade! So make sure that you are on top of all your assignments because every point counts, especially if you scored low on your midterm. One more thing, if you were to score low on your midterm you are placed on something that’s called LSP. I forget what it stands for but, all it is is a contract between you and the professor stating you are aware that you are at risk of failure. You and the professor will discuss what caused you to score the way you did. Some professors will offer great advise and some professors really do care! Be sure to communicate with your professors they really do want to see you succeed!

I hope I didn’t scare you too much! But I wish someone had told me all this information before starting class! One I probably would have spent more time studying and two if you do get placed on an LSP, it’s not the end of the world. I have talked to many students new and old and they all have been placed on one of these at least once or twice or more than five times. Just remember you can make it in nursing school! And it really is not as bad as everyone says it is! As long as study and do the reading you will do fine, I promise you!