Tell me how do YOU study.

Read before class, make flashcards and join study groups! Often other people will catch info maybe you missed and vice versa. Some concepts may click with some people and they can explain it to you and vice versa. Nursing, whether in school or on the floor, require team work. Good luck!

I have an M.A. in another field. I will tell you straight out, nursing school has the intensity of graduate level courses. Study groups are invaluable. My suggestion would be to find the smartest study group in your class and always study with them. You will learn a lot, they will make you a better student, and you will make good friends.

I always took a pocket recorder to lecture and listened to the recordings. I would add to my class notes information that was on the recorder that I missed in class. I found that the "old fashioned" micro cassette recorders were more reliable than the newer digital ones. I do not know why, but students seemed to be losing lectures on the digital recorders on a regular basis, but not so with the micro cassette recorder.

I always made flash cards from lecture notes. By the end of nursing school, I had several shoe boxes full of index cards for study.

When required to memorize charts (Krebs cycle anyone?), I would buy cheap note paper from the dollar store and practice writting that chart out over and over. I found that writting out charts was the quickest way to stuff lots of information into my head.

This is what worked for me.

Lock myself in my room, forget about ADHD and go at it.

- Type outlines of the chapters - on Sunday night on info that will be lectured for the week. Outlines include BASIC info such as: title, bold headings, vocab words. I do this to get an idea of what is going to be lectured.
- Read my outlines - before lecture
- Rewrite my notes onto flash cards - after lecture. This helps me to divide all the info. If I study for a test from an outline it won't help because everything is garbled together. Even though my handwriting is perfect and neat, transferring my notes helps immensley. This only takes me 1.5 hours at the most per lecture period. But if it helps me get a B rather than a C, I'll take the time to do it. I use different colored pens & flash cards.
- Read my flash cards then Read my text - as soon as I have the chance to. Because I have just previously read my flash cards I know what info is going to be important to read in the text. However, I do read the entire chapter. I highlight what I think is important.
- Review- at the end of the week. I read my flash cards then read what I highlighted in my text. When I read my flash cards I circle/highlight key words that will help me remember the info or new info that I have NEVER heard of. I review like 1 or 2 different times at the end of the week. Each time I review I always come across something new & often mark up my flash cards w/ stick figures, arrows, etc. I only review for 1.5 hours per class.
- Draw - pictures on 8X10 colored paper IF I'm quite unfamiliar w/ the topic, it's confusing material, or having difficulty remembering the infor.

Anybody has any advice for someone that has small children trying to go through nursing school??

I have 3 1/2 yr.-old-twins that sometimes present a challenge to getting studying done . Basically, they go to daycare all day, and so I spend every moment I have studying before, between, and after classes. After I pick them up I try not to do anything until they go to bed, and then I study some more, or do whatever I have to. On weekends I try to do a few fun things with them, but I still study. Luckily, they are very good about playing together when I am doing stuff. They watch alot of movies, too.

Sometimes I will study while they are in the bath. I will give them bath crayons and they will color until I MAKE them get out! And I will sit on the toilet next to the tub and go over flash cards while they play. I take them to the park to play and study, too, although that isn't too easy, because then I am looking up all the time to check on them.

Read ahead and sleep well in nursing school. Many people go through nursing school without much sleep and running on caffeine almost 24/7 to catch up with class. Budget your time. Read ahead of class using the book to skim through it, look at class notes provided by the professor in class or online, and rest. Eat balanced too.

Take care of yourself

Take a multivitamin EVERY DAY!!!! I started taking a Centrum vitamin within the first week of my first semester and while I have missed class once or twice it was never because I was sick!

Best advice I can give is to start reading fluid and electrolytes now. LOL! No but seriously read on that now. You will be happy you did.