Need study group suggestions

Nursing Students General Students

Published

I'm a 1st year nursing student and some friends and I have put together a little study group. There will be about 5-6 people in the group. We have a few ideas on what we want to do but not many. This is the first time any of us have participated in a study group. So, I'm looking for ideas on what to do during our study time. What kinds of things have you done in study groups that helped you? Any and all ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!

I am currently in a study group about the same size. This past week was our first week of class so we just went over our lecture.

Everyone came up with five application type questions from our lectures. They had to be questions they didn't think any of us knew.

We also went over dosage calculations. Actually we're still going over dosage calculations.

We basically try to break eveything down in one session. We study for 2-3 hours per session and if we have any questions about something we read or something that was said during our lecture we try to help eachother out with the answer before we go see the professor.

Just try to keep your time together organized. Stay on track and don't talk about what's going on outside of school until after your done studying.

Make sure eveyone stays on track with the assignments that must get done for school the next day.

Make sure no one is left behind or still lost with a problem.

Make sure eveyone is contributing to group discussion cause you don't want someone passing just by sitting there getting all the information from other people in the group. Eveyone needs to put in some time.

It's also good to plan your next meeting and what you will be discussing so that everyone knows what to bring.

This advice has worked for us so far. I've never got so much done in a group study as I have now. I hope these ideas help.

Good luck and Congradulations on your first semester.:balloons:

Specializes in CCRN.

My study group divides the reading. We each take a portion of the assigned reading and really focus on that section. Then when we get together to study we teach our section to the others. There is so much reading required and sometimes it is hard to digest it all. I personally read everything assigned myself but I know if for some reason I cannot devote my full attention to something, one of my group will teach me what I need to know. The average test grade of our group went up over 10% after we started this. As a matter of fact one of my study group came out of the last exam and stated "we were so over prepared for that exam." What a great feeling that is! The group helps us talk things out, and explain what we may not understand individually. We are getting together Sunday to prepare for finals in two weeks. Hope your group works as well as ours has!

It's a good idea to take the lectures from the week before your group meets, divide the material up between the people and have everyone produce a Word document covering all the info that might be covered in the exam. Then each person comes up with a practice quiz based on that material. 48 hours before the study group meets, email the Word document to the whole group to study. Then each person comes to the study with their quiz and quizzes the group (2-3 questions per person) aloud. This way, everyone gets to hear the questions, even if they don't know the answer to theirs...if they can't answer, then throw it out to the group.

If your group is really keen, you could set up a small yahoo group with everyone's email on it, and you could all send out short (5-10 questions) quizzes to the group. They can answer by email. I found that this is a GREAT way to get top marks on the exam - the more quizzes you make for others, the better you will do, because not only do you have to review as you are writing them, but you have to mark them for the others, going back over the material to check that you've marked correctly.

If you do the study group work, attend the study groups and do lots of quizzes for others, you will get to go over each part of the material probably up to a dozen times. This means that come exam day, those answers will be instantaneous to you!

Another little idea is having the group prepare around 5-6 flashcards on 3x5 cards to bring along to the group. You can test the group at study time, then swap cards with others for the week according to the bits you're having trouble memorizing. Then go over the cards when you're waiting in queues, watching TV in the commercials and having lunch out at uni. It's amazing the little associations you make with flashcards - you don't realise at the time, but just say you were eating a peanut butter sandwich when you looked at the "CSF circulation" card....when that question comes up in the exam, you'll remember "oh - peanut butter sandwich! Foramen or monro...etc". lol. sounds crazy but it does work!

Good luck in your group!

Wow, thank you all! You have given me some great suggestions! Thank you! I appreciate it more than you know! I love that yahoo group idea...I will definitely be trying that idea out as well as many of the other ideas. Thanks again!

+ Add a Comment