Is Nursing School Hard to Pass?

Nursing school has a reputation for being challenging. You’ll hear stories about all-night study sessions, crying over papers, and strict professors, but there is a good side to nursing school so don’t think it’s all bad. If you are willing to put up with the stress of nursing school, you have a challenging, but immensely rewarding and well-respected career ahead of you.

Nursing is one of the most universally needed careers, meaning that your employment options are likely to be wide open. Yes, nursing school is hard, but it is nothing if not rewarding. In this article, we’ll talk about why nursing school is so challenging and give you some much-needed tips and tricks to help get through those challenging days.

Is Nursing for You?

Nursing school and nursing, in general, can seem challenging and stressful, but nursing is an incredibly rewarding profession that many people love. If you love working hard and helping others, then nursing might be the right path for you.

Nurses are an integral part of the medical field, so if you think that you might want to go into the medical field, perhaps nursing is the best way for you to do so. Nursing offers a much more cost-effective way to join the medical field since schooling doesn’t take as long as medical school and generally costs much less. For someone looking to go into medicine without going all the way through medical school, nursing may be the best path for them.

Nursing school is hard, but it does have to prepare you for a stressful job. Nurses are expected to know large amounts of information, so if you don’t feel like you want to learn all that information, maybe nursing isn’t for you. There is also a large amount of pressure and stress, as with a medical career, but many people say that it is all worth it, since it can be so rewarding to know that you are helping others.

How to Get Into Nursing School?

Getting into nursing school can be a challenge. Nursing school is generally hard to get into for a variety of reasons, the main one being that there is a shortage of nursing schools leading to tons of people applying for not a large number of schools. There are some ways that you can give yourself a better chance of getting into nursing school though.

In general, you should have a GPA of 3.0 or above to get into nursing school, although some nursing schools will take you with a lower GPA if you have amazing test scores. Some nursing schools require the SAT or ACT as an admissions test, but many require a nursing school-specific admissions test, such as the TEAS exam.

To make yourself stand out and to give yourself a better shot at getting into nursing school, there are a few things you can do. First, you can volunteer in a medical facility before you apply to nursing school. This is one of the biggest ways you can show previous experience and commitment to the field. You can also get any medical certifications, such as CPR before you apply. This will also help show your commitment to the medical field.

 How Do You Prepare for Nursing School?

The best way to be prepared for nursing school is by understanding what you are getting yourself into. You need to be fully aware of how much work will be expected of you in nursing school and have the skills necessary to complete that work. Making sure that you have these skills dialed before you even start to apply for nursing school, will help give you the best shot at thriving in nursing school

The skills you will need to get through nursing school are a good background in science, good study skills, and good time management skills. Making sure that you have all of these skills will give you the best possibility of passing your nursing school exams with ease.

 What is the Hardest Part of Nursing School?

The most challenging and potentially overwhelming part of nursing school is the sheer amount of information that you are expected to learn. Nursing school is a relatively short amount of time to learn and comprehend a large amount of material, so it can start to feel overwhelming pretty quickly.

To give yourself the best possibility of succeeding at nursing school, make sure that you have a solid background in the life sciences before going to nursing school. Not having to take time reviewing what your professors will assume to be base-level knowledge will save you lots of time and energy, especially during your first year or so in nursing school.

Although this can be the hardest thing about nursing, it is important to remember that this is something that everyone going through nursing school deals with. Every person in your classes is in the same boat as you, so learning to rely on one another for support and help through challenges can really help keep your spirits high.

 5 Study Tips to Pass Nursing School

Although getting through nursing school can be challenging, there are some tips and tricks to help get you through. Since the hardest part of nursing school is the rigorous academic schedule, these tips and tricks will focus on helping you get through the academics of nursing school.

1. Make good study guides

Making and utilizing study guides is a great way to study, especially for something as cumulative as nursing school. By taking the time to make great study guides, you will be able to use those guides for many tests down the road. When you eventually take your NCLEX exam, you will have a whole set of study guides for different concepts in nursing that you have made yourself and will allow you to start studying early.

If you want some help creating a study guide that works for you, feel free to check out our article on creating a study guide. We can’t stress enough how helpful it can be to create your own study guide, so please take the time to learn how to create a useful study guide.

2. Make and follow a study schedule

Similar to making a study guide, it is super important to make a study schedule. A study schedule can help you stay on top of all of your assignments and exams for every class in nursing school. We know that nursing school can seem hard to pass, but with a good study schedule that works well for you, you can get through anything.

Creating a study schedule that works effectively for you and one that you will stick to can take some practice and effort, but it really is worth it in the end. We have an article that can help you get started creating the perfect study schedule for you. Please check this article out if you want any help creating your next study schedule.

3. Mix up how you study

Making your studying feel monotonous and boring is a great way to get burnt out fast, so keep your studying interesting by mixing up how you study. Mixing up the locations that you study in and the styles of studying that you do can help keep you more engaged with the material that you are studying.

We recommend studying alone sometimes, but make sure that you spend some time studying with others as well. Studying with others is a great way to make connections across the material and see how others are thinking about the material. You may find that studying with others allows you more insights into the material than you could find on your own. Just make sure the people you choose to study with are all able to stay on track, even when working and studying together.

4. Take regular breaks

Taking regular breaks while you are studying is super important to help your brain process and store the information that you are learning. You should aim to study for about 45 minutes and then take a 15-minute break. You could also try studying for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break if you find it too hard to focus for 45 minutes straight.

During your break, you should make sure that you are taking care of your brain. If your brain needs some fresh air, go for a walk outside. This is also a great time to get a snack, go to the bathroom, or get a drink of water. Breaks are your brain’s time to refuel, so make sure you give your brain the supplies it needs to refuel and keep studying.

5. Don’t cram, study every day

It can seem boring to study every day, but by reviewing the material every day for a short amount of time as opposed to cramming right before a test, you give your brain a much better chance at actually remembering all the material. Your brain can’t process and store too much information at once so by studying a little bit every day, you are giving it the best shot possible to remember all the information you are expected to learn during nursing school.

We know that saying to study every day seems like it’s not going to work, but you just have to trust us. One of the biggest and most useful study tips that any student can apply is to study every day.

Cramming before a big test or finishing your project the night before its due, won’t get you all the way, so getting used to studying every day early on in your academic career, is a great way to give yourself a leg-up later on down the line.

Wrapping Things Up: Is Nursing School Hard to Pass?

Nursing school might seem overwhelming, but just remember that it is that way so it can prepare you for the stressful career that follows it. Making sure that you stay on top of your work during nursing school will make your NCLEX preparation so much easier at the end of nursing school. Just being good at studying and developing good time management skills will make it so much easier to combat the challenges that nursing school will throw at you.

Check out our ultimate guide to becoming a nurse here.