Confession time: I know you guys probably thought I abandoned my blog and fell further into obscurity, introversion, and senility, as nursing school trampled me to death. 🤪 Although those things are technically not NOT true, 👀 the truth is, I didn’t post about my last exam because it was an embarrassment to me, my class, and the nursing community, as a whole. 😱 Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but it was pretty ugly. 🙈 Was it the worst grade ever? No. But it was MY worst. 😩 And don’t give me any of that “You’ll get ‘em next time. It’s only a single test. That was a learning opportunity.” crap. 😒

I appreciate the sentiment, honestly I do. 😘 But you have to understand how devastating it feels to devote so much energy and time to studying, only to find yourself rubbing your temples, drawing blank after blank, and guessing at numerous answers, while simultaneously contemplating whether some nursing credits might have any impact on the starting salary of a circus clown in today’s economy. 🤡 {Clowns really freak me out, so this is possibly the truest sign of desperation.😱}

Now, I can already hear you guys. “But if you studied, why all the guessing?” 🤔 Well, it turns out that I focused on ALL the wrong details. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Details our instructor explicitly cautioned against. 🤨 {Why am I like this?🤓} #TrustIssues

Today, I took another exam. 😬 And it was like night and day. 😲 I knew the material. No guesswork, no temple rubbing, no ‘eenie meenie miney mo,’ I actually KNEW stuff. 🤩 The things I got wrong were weird judgment calls that were right, but “not the most right” ☝🏻 and careless errors when I misread the question. 🤪 #ReadingIsFundamentalKids

While I didn’t ace it, my score drastically improved over the last exam… by aLmOsT an entire letter grade. 😃 Since I didn’t ace the exam, this might not seem especially impressive, but I feel pretty good about it. 😌

I attribute improvement to a few things. Number one: (This is a pro tip; write it down) 👉🏻 FIRST EXAMS SUCK! 😂 Seriously. 😏 You don’t know what to expect, how to prepare, or where to focus your efforts. 😳 And if you’ve had strange experience with former instructors in previous semesters, 👀 you may or may not even be sure you can trust your current instructors’ study tips, advice, or exam blueprints. 🙃

So, the first thing that helped {sometimes the ONLY thing that can help} was just taking the exam, finding out all the unknowns and learning that these instructors are actually incredibly helpful, supportive, and trustworthy. 🙌🏻 🥳

The only other thing I’ve done, and I don’t want to get all sales pitchy, but a friend turned me onto the first website I’ve found that my mushy brain really gravitates toward. 🧠 Yay for quirky mnemonics corny videos, and super vibrant study guides. 🥰

Now, if I can just stop getting things right, but not the most right ☝🏻 and actually READ THE QUESTIONS, I’ll be unstoppable! 😝