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Ideas for what to do with a lackluster GPA & NCLEX Prep

Hello again, everyone,

I am Adonai, a current first year SRNA. I mentioned before that I would chime in as I thought of things that might be helpful to others. I have thought of two things to share: 1) NCLEX Prep and 2) Low GPA.

1) I am the type of test-taker that really needs to be prepared to do well. I will either really struggle and do poorly, or I'll be well prepared and really do great -- there just doesn't seem to middle ground for me. When I was thinking about the NCLEX during my last year nursing school, I decided that I would take a prep class even though they can expensive. Many companies host such classes Kaplan, The Hurst Review (which I used), and others. When I went to the annual convention for my state's student nursing association, there was a silent auction fundraiser. Several companies had donated vouchers for NCLEX prep classes for the auction. I stuck close to the auction room close to its finish time so that I could make certain that I was the highest bidder on one of those classes. I was able to get a $350 class for just $65!! The class was a huge help to me and I could take it as often as I wanted again for free until I passed the NCLEX. I took it between the semesters of my senior year and again right after I graduated, and it was very helpful for both my senior classes and for doing well on the NCLEX. I also bought a Saunder's Review book and did lots of practice questions out of it. If you are disciplined enough to review on your own, then I think you can do it on your own, but if you need some structure or direction for your studies, saving up and taking a class could be a big help.

2) I wanted to point out one reason why its important to look at applications for anesthesia programs now -- way before you plan on submitting them. The GPA these programs are looking for may be cumulative or they may be looking at the last 60 credit hours only, or they may be looking at a nursing degree GPA etc. For someone like me who did not do so great during my earlier time in college, but who really got my act together and did great during the latter part of college and during my undergrad nursing degree, looking at programs who were most interested in my last 60 credit hour of gpa was very important. My overall undergrad gpa was barely a 3.0, my last 60 credit hours was over a 3.5. That is a big difference! So if you have not done so well in the past. Do your absolute best coursework from here on out and strive to get the highest grades you can, especially in the last 60 credit hours of work. For programs that did look at the complete overall gpa, I did add an addendum to my applications pointing out how different my overall gpa was from my last 60 credit hours (my nursing coursework). I think that the programs did read this and consider it since I did get interviews at places that stated they were looking at overall gpa.

Remember, you can do it!

Next time I think I'll share a few thoughts about GRE prep. The GRE was another way I tried to make my applications to anesthesia programs stronger because I knew my overall gpa was weak. I did really great on the GRE and I'll share my study plan for that.

Gotta hit the books!

Adonai

Another tidbit I discussed with FocusedandDetermined: