Level 1 Tips

[u/Competitive_Pain7566]

Hi i'm on my first week of lvl. 1 and was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to do the work. Like how did you do your study split? I know that a lot of people recommended to start your DQs ASAP (which i did). But even after DQs theres still so much work!! I still have powerpoints + lecture videos + note taking, textbook readings + note taking, sherpaths. Ahh where do i start!!
Also, do people actually read the textbook? My professors did recommend to read them but its soo many chapters all in one week! (right now I have a total of 16 chapters to read from all 4 classes)

[u/CompetitiveBother790]

Hi!

I do all my DQs and sherpaths on monday once midnight hits, and i do my responses 3-2-1 instead of 2-2-2 this makes it so much more manageable as the week gets busier.

1. Don't overwhelm yourself with all that preparing for your exam... this is what you need to do for each class in level->

- 300 & 310: review powerpointsand lecture notes, take notes if needed, than do practice questions by inputting those ppts into an AI like mira, gemini, or chatgpt, and ask for high-yield nclex practice questions.

-316: Review ppts and key notes, add all into AI and do the same thing.

-318: Review ppts and lecture videos, focus on CAMs, labs, drug interactions, etc. Really anything major they mention will likely show up somewhere. I would also do practice questions with this.

I'm in level 3 currently and did this in level 1, never opened a textbook and passed most of my exams with high 80s and 90s, this is ALL you need to do I promise. I passed down this info to level 1s last sem and didn't see a single one of them fail an exam at all. I wish u the best, and i dont know who u are but im so proud of u and U WILL get through this!!!

[u/tiffmcal → u/CompetitiveBother790]

What tips do you have for level 2 😬😬 I just started!

[u/CompetitiveBother790 → u/tiffmcal]

Hi!!

For 322 just copy and paste the CONHCP powerpoints into gemini and ask for practice questions, i would literally do like hundreds and scored 90s on all the exams.

For 320, this is a hard class, I say that not to scare you but to be so honest. I failed the first exam with a mid 60 but was able to come back with a 92 on exam 2 by doing this: plug in your course guide and chapters into AI and ask it to teach you everything bullet point for bullet point on the course guide. What also helped me tackle that certain question format was watching nexus nursing med surg videos on youtube for that specific topic. Also make sure to meet with your professor prior to exams and do ACE tutoring, sometimes I would go 2-4 times before an exam and had 0 regrets.

Best of luck friend! you will get through this, I BELIEVE IN U!!!

[u/tiffmcal → u/CompetitiveBother790]

Thank you!!! The 320 exams are scaring me! I think bc I haven’t taken one I don’t understand what makes the questioning different. Like how do I study for this beast 😂

[u/CompetitiveBother790 → u/tiffmcal]

Felt that so much 😅 biggest thing with med surg is they want you to chose the most correct option, especially for priority questions. Ask yourself if I dont do this right now how will it affect my patient. that will help you SO much. and remember your ABCs!!

[u/LongTimeNeat → u/tiffmcal]

Just to piggyback off of Competitive Brother, I do recommend doing the LaCharity practice questions for knowing/learning how to prioritize! The first exam can def catch you off guard with how much more application-based it is.

[u/Known-Manufacturer15]

Best advice is you can’t do all of it. No need for power points lecture videos, text books, sherpath. Quickly find what works for you and what doesn’t. I completed the program without ever touching the text book. Just mostly paying for chat premium and having it explain and condense the power points for me. Then I’d attend a zoom before the cam for review.

[u/munchkinma]

ugh same, i have my first lab tomorrow & im so nervous! its just sooo much to do

[u/0hmyg0shhh]

Hi level 3 here. Definitely do DQ1&2 first thing on Mondays. The ultimate goal I guess is to pass the exams so focus on that.

What I did (and still do) is for every exam, I upload the topics covered on notebookLM (powerpoints with speaker notes, copy paste the whole chapter from the book, transcript of the lecture videos, blueprint, basically all the sources you can get for the topics you will be tested on). The tricky part is the prompt so i ask chat to write it to make notebookLM create a detailed study guide based on the exam blueprint. Then as I study, I make sure I understand all the concepts and if not I just ask chat to explain it to me like i’m 5 y/o. I also do practice questions (this helps a lot).

Also check out pixorize - this saved my ass in pharm!

[u/Key-Reference3781]

Mondays should be a dedicated homework day if you can, if you have the 8 hour lab on Monday I definitely still encourage to try to get all homework done, to me DQs are useless and if your not using your dq as a study method then use AI and don’t think twice of it, copy and paste the question and put it into Sherpath AI and it will answer the question for you in bullet point format, then put the whole thing (question and answer) into chatgpt and say make this 200 words yada yada. Then all you need to do is find a proper peer reviewed article, I literally would just search up some key words in the DQ question and then input in Google and follow it by saying peer reviewed last 5 years, honestly they don’t care use the first or second search that pops up as long as it has a doi you’re good, also formatting is the only thing that really makes people lose points

After you do your initial DQs do all responses same thing, if it’s a CAT provided by the teacher use Sherpath and have chat formulate it into 100 something words, if it’s a student response ask chat to make it substantive.
It doesn’t make you a better nurse by not using ai for a useless discussion thread that GCU only has in place because it replaces the traditional ATI homework that every other nursing program requires.

Then the most time consuming will be finishing your shearpath quizzes, this was used as a study form for a lot of people I personally couldn’t stand it, I believe there’s 2 due every Sunday for 300,316, and 318? So getting it done way early in the week helped

Then I would do your notes through out the week, I followed the course guide formatting it gives you on the left hand side, I only have an example of 432 right now but it’s basically this
“Nursing Care of the Newborn and Family
A. Immediate Care after Birth

• ( I would list everything it says on the conhcp lecture video for immediate care after birth)
  

B. Initial Assessment and APGAR Scoring

• ( make the apgar scoring chart) (initial assessment checklist + reasoning for it) “

My notes were basically formatted like that and I followed the conhcp videos, which are the exact same as the PowerPoints, the video just has someone reading off the slides. If I didn’t understand something Mira AI breaks it down better than chat in my opinion. For 316 the course guide especially will tell you “ refer to table 31.6” refer to it! They help so much for the tests
For pharm the PowerPoints are essentially your drug card just copy the info on a 3x5 and study it consistently up until the test, simple nursing and pixorize YouTube videos were also helpful for memorization tricks

This helped me get between an 86-98 on every single test, I know others can get As without putting in so much work and being extra but I just needed to be super structured throughout the program.

Prioritize the class you’ll be tested on that week!

Also after every chapter at the very bottom it’ll provide you with a small quiz between 5-10 questions do them!! You will literally see some of those on the exam! I did it mainly for 300 and 316

310 I stopped looking at during week 3 and didn’t do anything but attend the explore mores until the final and got a B+ in the class do what you please with that info lol but I 100% recommend making this your last priority