Be honest - do you do all your required reading?

Truly_Blessed · Aug 29, 2004

well, no...I haven't been doing any of the required reading, because like you mentioned, lecture seems to be a recap of what's in the book. I think not reading was a little bit of a mistake. I have A&P and med/surg. exams tomorrow and I am having to skim the book with a highlighter. I am also using the study guides that came along w/the books. Those summarize the chapters pretty well. I am at least going to read the chapter summaries and the implication boxes in the books from now on.

Berta · Aug 29, 2004

I gave up on doing all the assigned reading, it was just way too much. I just skim over the chapter and focus on what was covered in lectures.

janetrette · Aug 29, 2004

i learned that usually our school gives a list of readings to do while we're on our summer vacation and i try to read everything. however, that's not a very smart way. now, i would look at the chapters and ask myself do i need to read this? usually the 1st few chapters of the book - i skim through it.

all the readings that i had done - i don't read from the 1st page. usually at the end of the chapter there's a summary of the whole chapter. read that 1st and then skim through the chapter. look at the headings and subtitles then i would start reading.

:balloons:

Saved_by_Grace · Aug 29, 2004

I've been reading all of it, but not before the lecture like they want us to. It's too much. I'm lucky if I get it read before the test. But I try to by then. I've been making note cards from it, then going back and reviewing the power points that the instructors give out during lecture. But that still doesn't seem to be enough. Our school is doing mostly fill in the blank on the tests, they say the nclex is going to go to this format so they are preparing us for it. But with all this critical thinking and they ask the most minute details, no matter how much I study I'm still not doing as well as I'd like to be. Now I'm finding that I just don't want to study period, coz it's not doing any good. So if anyone has any "nursing school" study tips I'd be thrilled to hear them!

Paleobug · Aug 29, 2004

I try to read the assigned chapters if I have time, but in general, I just read the main points. If the instructor points out a particular page or diagram out of the book, I take note of that. This past summer I took a 4 week soc. class and just read the study guide that went over the main points and not the text. I got an A in the class.

RN2Bin05 · Aug 29, 2004

okay...so maybe I'm just anal, but yes, I read everything. I highlight quite a lot and make notes of the highlighted stuff later. I also make notes from the info boxes within the chapters. There are practice q's at the end of the chapter, a disc with q's, a study guide with q's and a companion website with still more q's. It's guaranteed that at least 2 or 3 q's on the exam will come from these sources, so they're easy points.

#1rnstudent · Aug 29, 2004

I do all of my reading before class and then attend all of my classes, however boring they may be. That is how I manage to maintain 4.0. It's a lot of reading sometimes, but it has to be done. I'd hate to think that someone looking after me didn't do the reading they were assigned.

klone, MSN, RN · Aug 29, 2004

I'd hate to think that someone looking after me didn't do the reading they were assigned.

Obviously if they do well in their clinicals, and they get good grades in spite of not reading every single page of their assigned readings, they're not particularly at risk of killing anyone. :rolleyes:

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Aug 30, 2004

Reading? Oh yeah. I preview everything by reading the first sentence in every paragraph and skim the rest for important points that pop out that I highlight. I read all the tables and everything in boxes starting with the objectives and ending with the key concepts. I also make notes of material that's outlined in my syllabus objectives. It is a pain but it really helps keep the grades up.

klone, MSN, RN · Aug 30, 2004

Reading? Oh yeah. I preview everything by reading the first sentence in every paragraph and skim the rest for important points that pop out that I highlight. I read all the tables and everything in boxes starting with the objectives and ending with the key concepts. I also make notes of material that's outlined in my syllabus objectives. It is a pain but it really helps keep the grades up.

So you're not actually sitting down and reading every single word on the page as you would with a novel? It sounds like you know what to look for as far as main ideas and important points? That's kind of what I was looking for as far as how I should be approaching the assigned reading.

anney1981 · Aug 30, 2004

It seems like our lectures are just sort of repeats/recaps of what we were supposed to read. Between lecture and skills lab, there are often 100-150 pages to read a day. During a prereq course that was taught by one of our nursing instructors, we were asking her questions about nursing school, and we asked if we had to bring our books to school every day. Her response is "Hey, we'll be glad if you actually just do the READING." - implying that many students don't.
Anyway, just wondering what YOU do. Do you read every page? Skim the pages and try to pick out the main points so you have an idea of what's going on? Rely solely on the lecture? I think I need to find a happy medium in there somewhere.

The only negative thing about not doing the reading is that you never know what's going to be on the test. My professors love putting the little line at the bottom of the page that no one read. It really just depends on your teachers. Figure out what works for you because everyone is different.