Study Groups: Their structure & benefits

[caffeineRx]

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[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I think a study group is only as good as those who attend. Meaning, someone has to arrange up front that it is not only okay to get things back on track when they digress, but that it is expected that someone should and will.

My advice: Keep it small. Three to four people max. Each person takes a chapter and is responsible for knowing it inside and out and providing activities and/or review etc to the others. Meet regularly - at least once a week. Be accountable to one another for establishing meeting times and acceptable reasons for missing a meeting. The study group can only be as beneficial as the members are serious about it.

[kathy313]

I wasn't a fan of study groups. It was more of a social hour than anything else. I preferred studying on my own. I hd already been in health care for awhile at that point (an e.d.tech/stna) so I had a little more experience than many of my classmates. In fact, two of the instructors were RN's I worked with daily. And they were hard on me....both at work and school. It also sucked because many of the clinicals were also at the hospital I was employed at. Mostly, I tried to keep to myself because of those things, I didn't want to be seen as a know-it-all, 'cause Lord knows....once you think you know something, 172 different things come into play...that you didn't know! Lol! I also know that I had learned certain shortcuts (bad habits) that I had to unlearn. I didn't want to share those with my classmates.

[allthaticanbe]

I have been part of plenty of study groups, most are a waste of time but some can be extermely productive. Here are some tips I have gathered through the years.

1- Study before hand!

2- Get everyone to write out topics that they have issues with

3- Go through the course syllabus and separate the topics. Get each person to create at least ten multiple choice question for their section. Emphasis that the question must be difficult. And each person must write at least one short answer/essay type question from the topics! They should provide a copy for each member of the group but they keep the answer key.

4- If for a course with a lot of key words. Get people to write definitions which must include source such as textbook page number, journal article, or website.

A friend once created a crossword from the keyword definitions.

6- No more than four people!! Nice for sitting at a table and actually getting work done.

Most Important:

5- Don't meet for a long time, that way if you find its a waste of time you can leave to study on your own!! One-Two hours for the first session at most.

Goodluck!

[netglow, ASN, RN]

I was not a study group person. I felt they were a huge waste of my time. I think very few in my glass actually did that kind of thing. We were a loose bunch. However, we did pass around notes that were generated and revised over time from our school's past grads. These were usually originated by some soul who felt the need to reconstruct the universe on their computer in order to understand the info. Their version of Cliff notes. Some of it good, some of it not. You could be reading along and realize that person had the concept all wrong, LOL.

I also am not an index card person. I prefer to use lined paper pads, and write some stuff with my own explanation of how it works. I did this for drugs too -- by the class. But then as school went on, and life happens.... I didn't have time to do much of this either. So, I got my NCLEX books and looked up the areas of concentration there, and in my pathophysiology book and did well on the exams. Of course, our actual required reading didn't get done, and I used books of my own. Nursing books are full of a lot of filler . You just have to find really good content books to study. Spend some time borrowing other's versions, go to a Borders, etc. flip thru, see what sits right with you.

[surgarbearronda]

i think that a study group will work well when it comes down to the nursing program esp getting in because something that i do not know the other person might and what the other person don't know i might

[loriangel14, RN]

I was part of a study group while I was in school and I found it very beneficial. We were an informal group.We added members from time to time if we felt someone would fit in. Attendance was not manditory,if we had as meeting and you were busy it was no big deal. We reviewed the chapters we were working on and discussed the parts we didn't understand. We took turns hosting the meetings and our homes and as we were mostly all moms the kids played while we studied.Of course food/tea and gossip made the meeting last quite a while. I made good friends that I am still in touch with.

[newnurse66]

I am a loner as well and didn't really want to be part of a huge study group. So what I used to do was study on my own and then meet up with one or two other people, and study a couple of days before tests. Then we could answer each others questions. Especially if there was a concept one of us wasn't clear about, then the other person would explain and it really helped. It also made it easier to remember even if you were the one explaining. Hope that helps.

[monkeyadale]

I also did not find study groups useful. Most of the time I ended up teaching other students the material, which was fine until test time and I heard "but remember you said this so that is why I picked answer A how come I got it wrong when you got it right, I was going off of what you told me." UGH! Not to mention the fact that it does usually turn into a gossip/gripe fest.

It works for some people, you can always try it and if you don't like it go back to studying on your own.

[husker_rn, RN]

My entire class { 17 } was my study group. One thing we did was to give everyone an equal number of syllabus questions. Then we would cover the questions and answers very thoroughly. Finally, we made copies of our Q & A for the rest of our class members. That way we had plenty of info to study and yet the research time was much less than had we all gone solo. And of course we all met to discuss the questions as the material was presented in class. Worked well for us.

[CeilingCat, ASN, RN]

Find one person with similar goals as you, i.e. if you're hoping for A's don't pair up with the disinterested C student.

A study group doesn't have to be 4-5 people... and sometimes smaller works better. I'm an introvert who aims for an A average, so I'd rather work with just one other person, an A student as well.

Review the notes together. See if what you think is important matches what they did.

Do the NCLEX review books together. Share books and resources. Some people like to make up practice exam questions for each other.

I did really well working with another woman for A&P classes. I got the concepts. She helped me with her memorization and focusing techniques. We'd review everything. Sometimes it was good I got more than her because in the course of explaining stuff to her, I figured out the tiny missing pieces I needed.

Basically just figure out what it is you're really lacking and try to seek out the person who complements you.

[dura_mater]

I was never much into study groups for the first year of nursing school, I thought they were a waste of time... I was so unsure as to whether or not they would actually be productive (as a nursing student, time is so very precious), also I was never quite sure I could count on the info that was being discused to be correct.

that being said, I couldn't have made it through my second year of nursing school without 'my girls' (my study group).

nursing school is very hard, and as you progress, the concepts can become even harder. I found this to be true, and I discovered 2 other students in my class that shared the same drive and passion that I did for mastering (as best we could) the subjects at hand.

my advice for study groups is:

1. keep it small, no more than 4

2. make sure everyone in the group has the same goals (this is not meant to be social hour) :)

3. on that same note, don't get discouraged with a small bit of digression during the group study sessions. This can actually help to clear your mind from the ICP, ARF, CAD, COPD, etc....

4. read the material before you meet with your group, so that you have some sort of a basis to go into it with

5. use the group time to actually speak/say the topics aloud. Come up with funny or unique ways to remember things, listen to your group members when they say these funny things to help differentiate between conditions, etc.

I can still hear one of my group members saying: "Somagyi is Sooooo hungry & Dawn needs Drugs (while studying diabetes). Or Ulcerative Colitis: UC blood (when studying GI)

I never thought the whole study group was right for me, until I found a small core group of students that had similar study goals as I did.

Good luck