to study group or not..

TexasCCRN · Jul 23, 2006

i am just wondering what current students are choosing how to study. i have never been good at large study groups, more of an independent person i guess. i have spoken with a couple of students, and ideas are split. how can one make progress in a large group? do you just sit and read, and ask questions when u don't understand something? bounce questions back and forth all the time?
anyway, just looking for some thoughts on what works for others. i do realize it is all individual. and i am not sold on study groups being necessary for passing.
thanks in advance - -

I have always been pretty independent as well, however with this material you will come to see that sometimes you need to discuss it with someone. So, this is how i have done it. I have a good friend in my class and we study seperate. When one of us has a question about something we make a phone call. If you are going to get together with a group i feel like you pretty much have to already know the stuff to be able to discuss it. It works well for me and my friend because i think we would both be too distracted to study in a group. Trust me...someone always starts jabbing about something else or monopolizing a lot of time. You will learn that time is precious and you must make the most of it. I hope this helps.

dfk, RN, CRNA · Jul 23, 2006

thanks texas..

your words are exactly how my study habits have been, and will probably continue..

i can't wait to endure the stress and hard work (umm, yea) - :uhoh21:

sandman1914 · Jul 25, 2006

Study groups are as effective as you design them to be. When preparing to have one, you have to make a plan and stick to it. First off you have to bring something to the group. You cannot just show up unprepared. Studying on your own beforehand is expected. Somedays are simply a review of the material helping each other in our weak areas. When someone is weak in an area someone will explain the concept in their own words or with a memory technique that helps you grasp the idea. Other times it's strictly covering the information and if you find you are weaker in an area than you thought , you make a note in that area and you study on your own. We always cover the material in a question format which forces you to be able to draw from your own pool of knowledge versus just restating what is in the notes. We have 3-5 people in our group when we study. When you start getting larger it tends to not be affective. This process has been working for us so far:smokin:

Nitecap · Jul 26, 2006

One golden peice of advice i can give to all new didactic SRNA's is to not worry to death about what or how your class mates are studying. Of course always keep the eye out for old materials that may assist you but realize that you may study differently than your best buds in the class. DOnt get freaked out that they like to stay caught up while you tend to stay a little behind. Go at your pace and not theirs. Maybe every so often talk about things you are studying but many times group study turns into group gossip and clowning around and really is not productive.

As long as you know your shiat it doesnt matter what pneumonic debby is using or cute little pink graph suzie made or nifty little song jane made to remember something.IF these silly things help then so be it use it. But dont worry about what others are doing. WOrry about what you are getting done and how productive you are whether caught up or not.

I was always a week behind the ones in the class that went home every night and studied what we did in class that day. I however took a little more time and really learned in the first time i looked at it.

For instance I am only going to read a pack of noted 3 times tops. It may take me 8hrs to get thru the same notes others read in 1.5hrs but they read the notes 20times before the test compared to my 3 times.

The key thing is to really learn and understand in debt KEY CONCEPTS. By understand these concepts well enough to converse about them with just about anyone. you can fill in via memorization any amount of detail you need at any time. Believe me you are never going to remember every detail about every thing you study. But if you understand and can visualize and verbalize the main CONCEPT then you can fill in all those little details quickly and easily to bring things togther again. Im my observations those who are great memorizers and dont really learn concepts dont do as well. This is not undergrad folks. You have to really understand the how this works and why with everything you learn. Thats the difference b/t RN's and CRNA's. RN's know if I give this drug this effect will happen. CRNA's know that plus why and how it happens at the chemical/molecular/receptor/ion channel/charge level.

I can not stress enough to turn to your text books for assistance in learning these KEY CONCEPTS. Usually the people the write texts are experts in their field. Perhaps they may have way more expertise than your professor. This helps to bring things together. Your prof may teach something one way which you may or may not understand. The author of your text may explain it slightly different that all of a sudden causes that little light to come on and you say I totally understand now. You will realize that there are tons of different ways to teach the same concepts. Its up to you to decide which way helps you to see the big picture the clearest. Limiting your self to one professors skimpy asssssssss power point presentation is a mistake, esp if its over an impt concept.

Its all about you and what study strategy (yes I said strategy) gets you the most productivity you can get. You must have a game plan going into every semester/block/course/test/day. You really have to manage your own time and work around whatever obstacles you have personally which will vary from person to person. You just gotta get the job done no matter how you do it. Its your time to shine. Its time to step up to the plate and see how smart you really are. I look at it as a challenge every day. Them against me, lets see how I can beat them today or this block. Lets see if they can get the best of me. sadly this competitive mindset is highly ineffective once you start in the OR, but it worked well for me in didactic. Good luck everyone, study hard.

dfk, RN, CRNA · Jul 26, 2006

great post nitecap.. thanks to everyone for the thoughts and suggestions !

japaho41 · Jul 26, 2006

Thanks nitecap, this was inspiring to me as I am gearing up for this challenge.

crnateach · Jul 26, 2006

Limiting your self to one professors skimpy asssssssss power point presentation is a mistake, esp if its over an impt concept.
Professionalism would be appreciated. Many hours of work are often put into those "skimpy asssssss powerpoints"

Nitecap · Jul 28, 2006

Limiting your self to one professors skimpy asssssssss power point presentation is a mistake, esp if its over an impt concept.
Professionalism would be appreciated. Many hours of work are often put into those "skimpy asssssss powerpoints"
Professionalism? Please dont judge my professionalism over 1 opinion that I stated. The proper way to do things is to hand out a more detailed word document if all you are going to come to the table with is a presentation with a title and 5-6 short fragmented bulleted statements per slide. The word doc should flow with the presentation but be in greater detail. Sadly many profs(not just CRNA's but MD/PhD) fail to do this. Then what you have is a student that a day or so later is trying to make heads or tails out of fragmented, incomplete sentences with a bunch of pictures that have no detailed explainations.
You are the prof. A little constructive crit can only make you more effective in teaching and getting your point across. After all im paying 20k a year for my education. Believe me I put it in evals and have already seen a change. Thats how the system is supposed to work. Listen I give my profs mucho props. Love all of them. I WAS JUST trying to explain that students shouldnt try to learn BIG TICKET CONCEPTS by relying soley on the notes of one professor. They should turn to at least 1 if not 2 texts and see how the authors explain it. Many times it may be the same way. But many times it may be presented slightly different which may help you to grasp the CONCEPT much tighter and chew on it and spit it right back out when you are getting PIMPED in the OR. Thats all. SO Teach dont take things personally. Believe me I have learned that that can be your worst mistake in forum posting. Have a great weekend.

dfk, RN, CRNA · Jul 28, 2006

Professionalism? Please dont judge my professionalism over 1 opinion that I stated. The proper way to do things is to hand out a more detailed word document if all you are going to come to the table with is a presentation with a title and 5-6 short fragmented bulleted statements per slide. The word doc should flow with the presentation but be in greater detail. Sadly many profs(not just CRNA's but MD/PhD) fail to do this. Then what you have is a student that a day or so later is trying to make heads or tails out of fragmented, incomplete sentences with a bunch of pictures that have no detailed explainations.
You are the prof. A little constructive crit can only make you more effective in teaching and getting your point across. After all im paying 20k a year for my education. Believe me I put it in evals and have already seen a change. Thats how the system is supposed to work. Listen I give my profs mucho props. Love all of them. I WAS JUST trying to explain that students shouldnt try to learn BIG TICKET CONCEPTS by relying soley on the notes of one professor. They should turn to at least 1 if not 2 texts and see how the authors explain it. Many times it may be the same way. But many times it may be presented slightly different which may help you to grasp the CONCEPT much tighter and chew on it and spit it right back out when you are getting PIMPED in the OR. Thats all. SO Teach dont take things personally. Believe me I have learned that that can be your worst mistake in forum posting. Have a great weekend.
(ahem ((quietly))..... :yeahthat: )
thanx nitecap