how to study for a cumulative final?

[IHeartPeds87]

Hi everybody. I am starting the second year of my ADN program, and I have always had difficulty with cumulative final exams.

I had an 88% going into the class before the final...and had done fairly well on all the exams (27/30, 26/30, 26/30) and ended up with a 73% on the final . I did end up passing the course so I am thankful for that, but am sad that I did so poorly on the final exam.

Final exams have never helped my grade. In every course that I've had so far in nursing school they have brought my grade down.

How do you study for finals? I did the same thing I do for all the exams with a few tweaks. Normally, before exams I go through and relisten to the lectures and retake notes...this time going super slow so I catch everything the instructor says. I supplement these notes with extra information I find relevant from the text. I meet with a study group where we take turns teaching each other material/talking through it/clarifying things.

For the final, I met up with the same study group and we went over the material. I also read through all my notes before the study group and highlight with a different color things I don't know very well/wanna look over again and write those out again.

What am I doing wrong? How do you alter your study methods for the final? it is frustrating because I felt like I knew the material- I always do, and then I go into the final and it just seems so random (not every time, but this time and in another course it felt like that).

Any suggestions?

[SopranoKris, MSN, RN, NP]

Best way to study for a cumulative final: study what you DON'T know! All too often, we waste hours of time studying material we already know. Go through the objectives for your exam, try to articulate each objective, use key definitions, etc. If there are areas where you struggle to recall info, that is what you focus on when you study. If you can recall other topics well, then you don't need to waste energy studying them. Trying to cram the ENTIRE course into your head before an exam just causes more confusion.

The other thing you can do is look at the final as a positive thing: you've already passed each exam, so you're relatively good with the material. If you use words like "dread" or "hate" or "difficult", then you inadvertently start psyching yourself out.

Good luck on your next final! You CAN do it

[AlwaysLearning247, BSN]

For each exam I keep my powerpoints, notes on the chapters, and any handouts together in a binder. I take them out of my binder after each exam and put binder clips on them and leave them in my desk. So say I have 4 exams, I will have 4 separate stacks of paper to use as study material for the final. I usually just review all the notes and stuff before the final. It helps a lot. I ended up getting an 88 on my med surg final last semester using this technique. I'm doing the same for maternity and pedi now so I hope it works again!

[IHeartPeds87]

thanks everyone!! the finals went well :)

[NewGrad2015]

The one thing that helps me the most is going through my notes IMMEDIATELY after the exam (as soon as I walk out the door) and highlighting the information that was in the test questions. I do this again after the test review. True, there may be different or new material on the final, but by knowing what was important the first time around definitely helps me predict what will be on the final.