How much time do you spend studying outside of nursing classes?

Nursing Students General Students

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I like being prepared and planning each individual hour of my life. As a working mother and student- it's essential to my success!

I start the nursing classes this fall and made up a mock schedule, where I scheduled about 45-50 hours of studying outside of classes/work.

Is this enough? Do you have any idea how much time you spend studying and doing homework outside of class?

I can respect what Apples&Oranges is saying, but it doesn't hold true for me. My prereqs were much more frustrating and difficult for me than actual nursing school is. Much of what we learn is either common sense or relates to a common sense idea, or to something we learned in A&P or whatever. It's no cake walk, don't get me wrong, and it is a lot of work, but I honestly find nursing school easier than my prereqs, and I have good grades.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

My study time is completely dependent upon how well I "get" the material. I usually do a quick review with my reading outline and see what I can answer correctly off the top of my head. Anything I get wrong or don't remember, I focus on studying. This has been a very successful method for me.

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That is A LOT of studying. It really depends on you and how you learn. I personally only study Wed- Thursday at work usually 6 solid hours a day and if I have a test coming up usually I will meet with my study group a few times that week in the evening from 7pm to about 10pm. But on average I study about 20 hours a week or so. I am nearing the end of my first semester and looks as though I will make it through, A in skills, and probably a B in both theory and clinical so I suppose it is working.

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That is A LOT of studying. It really depends on you and how you learn. I personally only study Wed- Thursday at work usually 6 solid hours a day and if I have a test coming up usually I will meet with my study group a few times that week in the evening from 7pm to about 10pm. But on average I study about 20 hours a week or so. I am nearing the end of my first semester and looks as though I will make it through, A in skills, and probably a B in both theory and clinical so I suppose it is working.

It IS a lot of studying - but I'm doing A&P 1 and microbiology right now and I easily spend over 25 hours a week studying for just these two classes. I'm not someone who is "naturally smart" I work really hard to know the material, and I'm an A-student. I get A's because I spend a lot of time studying. So yes, I expect full well that with nursing courses, I'll be studying more than I am now. I suppose for people who just "get it" right away, they don't need to study as much. Ever since high school, I've always felt I study more than the average person, only to get similar grades. I expect to have to input a lot of hours for nursing classes.

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I can respect what Apples&Oranges is saying, but it doesn't hold true for me. My prereqs were much more frustrating and difficult for me than actual nursing school is. Much of what we learn is either common sense or relates to a common sense idea, or to something we learned in A&P or whatever. It's no cake walk, don't get me wrong, and it is a lot of work, but I honestly find nursing school easier than my prereqs, and I have good grades.

I can only hope it's like this for me too! lol

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Specializes in ED.

I never studied that much. 5 hours a week at the most. I'm kind of a last minute gal though, probably why I'm an ER nurse.

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You have to do what works best for you. This is only what works for me. If you know it takes a lot longer for you to grasp the material than you will have to put in extra hours. In my opinion Nursing school so far has not been any harder than any other class EXCEPT that it is a new language. I tell anyone who asks me how to prepare to take a medical terminology course because it was not required by our school but I feel it is needed. The study load however is no different for me than any other class. Good luck!

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I was always told the class if your class is 1 hour long you should be studying 2 hours a day for it. This was a study tip given to us by evolve (ATI). But IMO it's not how long you study, but how you study. Finding out how you study is important and don't make the mistake of trying to change it. Also make sure you have time for yourself and get adequate enough sleep. I found that these factors made my grades 10xs better than when I studied 24/7 and got little sleep. :)

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I work a minimum of 20 hours a week (more if it's not a clinical week or test week), and I probably study 5 hours a week if there isn't a test. Studying a LOT in pre-reqs is smart and necessary, as you're basically required to regurgitate information verbatim on tests. In nursing school, tests are much less "how much nitpicky info do you know" and more "do you know how to prioritize care for this patient." I had classmates that could run circles around me spouting off facts from the book but couldn't answer questions that required critical thinking. They are now a semester behind me. At least 85% of nursing school test questions are critical thinking, so I would recommend getting a good NCLEX book/resource with LOTS of questions. Study your lecture notes about half the time, but make sure you give yourself ample time before tests to just practice test questions.

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I should also add that during my first semester of school I wasn't working at all, and studied probably more like 20 hours a week minimum, but now I understand the study methods that work best for me.

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Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

I probably studied about that much. It takes about that much time to keep up on all assignments and reading through the end. I found that leaving the house made it easier, because if I tried to do it at home, laundry, dishes, and my husband and son took precedence, or provided distraction. Starbucks has seen a lot of me over the last two years! It's much closer than the campus library.

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Yeah, I hear what a lot of people are saying about 20+/- a few hours a week being a lot of studying, and after I wrote what I did, I realized that a lot of that is the work I'm doing for my honors class and extra project. Without those 2, I could probably cut out one of those days a week. It absolutely IS about how you study, more than how much (at least for me.) Once I figured out how to take the critical thinking style exams, the way I studied changed considerably from my prereqs. I spend a lot more time with my group asking "why" questions and verbalizing concepts back to each other, rather than memorizing.

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