How to (almost) Ace College

Most people I know thinks that taking up Nursing would be a smooth sail and a guarantee for future successes in life. They think we're "smart" and "diligent". Well, not for us or at least for me as a student nurse. There's a lot more than what you see from every student nurses you may know personally.

On my previous article (5 Things I Regret Not Knowing Before Entering Nursing School) I have stated that I am definitely not a straight A student, I almost had a failing grade at some point on my first year in nursing school, and I had my lowest rate from a (minor) subject which was 2.75 if I can still recall. I am just a regular student trying to dream big and survive nursing school but I do just fine at most of my major subjects so I wanted to share these ideas I've got from my own perspective and experiences on my first year in Nursing school.

• NURSING IS A CALLING.

Why would you want to take up Nursing? Why are you here anyway? Is this your calling? Are you sure this is what your heart wants? How motivated are you to finish this journey off? Those are (and many more) questions are what you're suppose to think of before finally deciding to take up Nursing.

Nursing is a calling from God and no one can answer your questions about what you really want except yourself. You will face so much more than what you think and it takes so much courage to enter this path, but once you finally decided to join as a Nightingale, you will discover a different world and you will definitely fall in love with the art of caring.

How you think about Nursing will affect your performance as a student nurse. Although some students (like me) has never been a hundred percent sure about why I took Nursing in the first place, days, weeks, months and semesters will pass by, you will definitely see changes on how you see Nursing as a whole.

• DON'T LET TIME CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN DO.

Time management is definitely hard, especially if you're used to taking up so much of your free time watching TikToks, scrolling on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or even just lying around and doing nothing. As soon as you get your schedule for the first semester, try to re-arrange it into a more appealing format and put it on note on your wall. This will be your first reminder that will slowly motivate you to sit down and do something about your school works.

As pandemic is still continuing, unfortunately, and classes are mostly online, try your best to at least start working on your assignments, long-ass worksheets and major paperworks as soon as your professor drops it. The earlier you start, the lesser you'll cram over deadlines. This will also prevent you to feel and half-heartedly go out with friends or family on vacations during random days. I've had a lot of friends from last year whom I saw hanging so much with their significant other, going on dates and even overnights on their Instagram My Days, but ended up asking for MY own worksheet answers during the online exam week that's its deadline was suppose to be 2 weeks before that same exam week. Is that even acceptable? No. You are responsible of how you handle your time and no one would help you fix that procrastination except you, yourself.

• LEARN TO ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHTS, WORKSPACE & WORKLOADS.

Nursing means A LOT of WORKLOADS. Trust me, the first semester, we've had a lot of worksheets that literally had 70 to more than a hundred points worth each and it was seriously tiring, especially when you are running late for the deadline, with a damn-ass slow internet connection and a stupid gadget that glitches because he's almost a century old. That's ridiculously hard. Those are kind of just exaggerations, okay? My iPad's just over three years old.

As I have mentioned earlier, aside from your class schedules, also take time to have some on-the-go pen and notepad in front of your workspace. It's convenient especially when you have online classes. Take note that most professors tend to relay important points that are not written on the presentation. This is a fact and most of professors are seriously trying to let us think critically by not putting everything on the presentation but spats every ideas out of their mouth in less than 3 hours (which is our maximum class hours as first year students), especially during RLE (Related Learning Experiences).

There are also a lot of ideas in studying you could research online. The most important thing is to know what kind of a student are you and what platform or kind of studying technique would you prefer, whether it may be out of printed materials, highlighting texts, listening to lecture replays or simply writing it down again and again. As for me, I do have a handwritten notes of (mostly) my major subjects like Health Assessment and Fundamentals in Nursing Practice. I easily understand the concept and ideas when I slowly read and rewrite them on my grid paper before compiling it to my binder, specifically for my major subjects.

Efforts will never betray you. Learning and digging deep down to the topic and researching and reading more about it and some other stuffs related to it can really put you on top of the game.

• PICK YOUR CIRCLE CAREFULLY.

Probably the trickiest part of being a college student is picking the right circle for you. You are not a high school student who can easily mess up your subjects and just compensate it with something like a small project or paperwork. College is very different. You fail most of your test and forgets to submit your major projects, you get low grades, or worst, fail. It's that simple. No questions ask. So it is very important to pick the right people you can hang out with and at the same time, are simply ready to be on the rough boat with you along your journey as a college student.

What I mean is, be with the people who can help you grow as you step and level up from college. People who are ready to help you out, remind you about certain projects, encourages you to get yourself together and study, and those people who have the same wavelength of interest just like you... to graduate from your course together. It's not just for Nursing, this applies to everyone. Of course, it's a give-and-take situation so don't be a prick. If they need your help, give them the best advice as possible and be there with them also when they're struggling with something academically.

• BE GENEROUSLY WISE.

Just like what I have written on the 2nd number, I've seen a lot of students putting so much of their time hanging around with friends and forgetting their academic responsibilities. That really infuriates me. I mean, I am not a very diligent person when it comes to studying but I am very strict when it comes to my outputs' deadline. I can never tolerate people whom I have seen having fun at first and crams about their overdue projects. Like... what the heck are you gonna do now? Ask for MY answers because you FORGOT that you are a college student and you are supposed to be prioritizing your assignment first more than having fun around? NO.

Be generously wise. As much as possible I never give out my answers especially when it needs your own opinion and understanding about the concept. I always tell them frankly that I will never give out my answers to them because I worked hard for it and they'll just suck up my ideas just like that so easily. I only tell them what to do and what stuffs they can possibly be able to put on their empty overdue papers.

Whether it might be your closest friends, never ever give out your answers especially if you worked hard for it and researched so much for you to be able to combine what you have read and learned. You better tell them to put their heads straight into the game they're in or else they'd be left out because they can't even focus on their academics as college students (which is what you are supposed to do at that age).

You should know better.

I apologize for being inactive for a while. I finally finished this article I left untouched last two weeks. I'm so disappointed about myself not being able to update my Read.cash account for over a week now when I had so much ideas coming inside and out of my head. I just finished my summer class over 3 weeks ago and I had so much things going on privately so I never had the time to think carefully of what to actually write.

P.S. I'd most probably be getting my COVID-19 vaccine tomorrow with my father and he said that it's from J&J, just one dose, so I am thinking of writing my experience and after-effects after getting vaccinated. Wish me for safety and luck!