ADN students, how much do you study?

Nursing Students General Students

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outside of class and clinical, on average, how many hours per day or week do you study? do you find you have time for family? do you have days where you don't have to study or do you feel like you are always studying?

if i'm going into nursing school without having to work at all, can my kids expect me to be "around"?

do you read everything assigned or just skim or go off powerpoints?

you hear quite often that ns is difficult or challenging, but there is very little information out here on how much study time people put in. i know it is different for everyone but i just want to get a general idea.

Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

I probably averaged about 5 minutes per day this past semester, but I'm at the low end. There were others that spent probably 4 hours per day studying. The average is somewhere between 1 and 2 hours per day. The key to doing well is not memorizing things, but understanding concepts and applying them to nursing practice.

Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.

"outside of class and clinical, on average, how many hours per day or week do you study?"

i studied around 16-18 hours per week. maybe a little more during med surg, less during specialty rotations.

"do you find you have time for family?"

i had a lot less time for family, but still some time.

"do you have days where you don't have to study or do you feel like you are always studying?"

yes, it is important to take days off - but you have to plan for them. say, if you are not going to study at all on sunday, then you have to make sure you get your work done the rest of the week. i highly recommend picking one day out of the week to not study at all.

"if i'm going into nursing school without having to work at all, can my kids expect me to be "around"?"

yep, but you'll be pretty distracted. it is really important to plan your family and study time for each week to make sure you have both. if you blow off studying you will find yourself missing a lot of family time in order to catch up.

"do you read everything assigned or just skim or go off powerpoints?"

depends. do you want an a or a c? i read all the material for stuff like pathophys because i really wanted to know it, not just pass the test. a lot of my studying was not just reading, but reviewing material and doing practice questions from study guides in study groups. i spent far more time than usual helping out classmates with difficult concepts, but this helped me a lot.

"you hear quite often that ns is difficult or challenging, but there is very little information out here on how much study time people put in. i know it is different for everyone but i just want to get a general idea."

you are correct, it is different for everyone. some of my classmates just went off powerpoints and would rarely read the books at all. they would get a a on one exam, a d on the next and in the end it would wash out to a b or c. they were fine with this.

a lot of my classmates were in the same boat as you and got through it. their families are now very happy to have them back!

I went from studying to at least 5-8 hours per day down to about 1-2 hours per day. Over the course of three quarters, I learned to have confidence in what I do know, I learned how to apply theory into clinical practice, and I learned how I learn best.

During fundamentals, I read every chapter three times. I had a really difficult time juggling my study time and family time; there was no balance at all. I was anxious all of the time. But by the second week of med/surg, I decided to limit my study time and use lecture to my advantage, as I learn by listening and observing. Using this different approach, my scores went up, my confidence increased, my anxiety decreased, and my critical thinking skills improved quite dramatically.

From my experience, in the beginning, nursing school was hell me and my family. Now it's not so bad. My house is messy while I'm in school, but I spend more time with my family, compared to the beginning, when both my family and home were completely neglected. There are others whose experience was far different from mine--more positive. But even with my experience, nursing school is turning out the be one of the most interesting things to have ever happened in my life. Not only am I learning how to be a nurse, but I'm learning how to be better in all my relationships.

I apologize if my post is a bit rambling, but I wanted to share some of my own personal insights.

I don't study a lot actually. Maybe an average of an 30-60 minutes per day, and that includes reading and clinical prep. Obviously I do more reading before a test.

I'm a B student with a life, and I'm OK with that. ;)

This was my first quarter in the ADN program. But I would go to class about 2-4 hours early everyday i had class. so that was about 8-16 hours per week. multiply that by 11 weeks. So between 88 and 176 hours for the whole quarter. My fiancee gets a little irritated, but in the end he understands.

outside of class and clinical, on average, how many hours per day or week do you study?

for med-surg...i studied 9-10 hours on mondays (because we got out of class at 11:30 a.m.). tuesdays were devoted strictly to care plans (they were due on wednesday morning @ 7:45), and they took between 4 & 8 hours to get done, and we didn't get to start on them until usually 5 or 6 p.m. the rest of the week i studied between 1 & 3 hours a day.

for the specialty classes i didn't study as much at all, they seemed to be easy.

do you find you have time for family?

very little - usually long enough to sit down for a meal with them!!

do you have days where you don't have to study or do you feel like you are always studying?

i never studied on saturdays. saturday was my "free day".

if i'm going into nursing school without having to work at all, can my kids expect me to be "around"?

you'll be "around"... studying. they can expect to see less of you!

do you read everything assigned or just skim or go off powerpoints?

it depended what the teacher tested from! we had one instructor who only tested from her power points, so that's what i studied. one teacher tested only from the book - so i read the chapters thoroughly and made my own "chapter outlines" and studied those.

i am an a/high b student, but i still feel like i have a life outside of nursing school - but nursing school always comes first, no matter what!!

i'm also unemployed - so that helps!

Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

Of course, I just started but I don't study that much. I do most of my studying during school hours.

Why shoot the breeze when you can be looking over the material? I review between classes.

- Review during my three 10 minute breaks.

- Review for 20-30 minutes during my 1 hr to 1 hr30 min lunch break.

OPTIONAL:

When I get home. I skim everything for about 5-15 minutes.

Before I go to bed? I skim everything for about 5-15 minutes.

I mean, who can really study for 3 to 5 hours straight? I can work steadily...but, I can't study that way.

I really like to study when I'm out. The doc's office, DMV, the park...anywhere.

...but, preferably, when I have a plate of food in front of me.

*laugh*

- I usually stop at Chili's or IHOp and what have you, after class. I'll order some food, a drink and just put everything together there. Last week, I was at Red Lobster. I got through 3 books in one sitting. Diing spots are, like, a library with food. It's peaceful. Everyone's at work so it's fairly empty....and you get to try out new eating spots while learning. They just published a Reader's Choice Best of 2011. So, I plan to hit up some of these areas soon.

- I like to go to the gym and study. I'll get on the bike/treadmill and read. Those 30 minutes just fly by.

I sometimes do a lot of studying at home - but, that's only when I have a test. Music helps.

Specializes in LTC.

I study in spurts. 1-2 hours/day. I can't sit with a book in front of me and just study. My studying consist of NCLEX questions, reviewing book, reading ppts., and listening to lectures.

Specializes in Perinatal.

I've always been a "crammer" so I could spend about 6-8 hours the day before a test studying. I also spend about 1-2 hours prepping the night before clinical. Other than that, I don't study on a daily basis and I rarely read the texts. I'm an A/B student and I know my stuff, I just don't have to spend a long time studying. I have 4 kids and other than not being available during school hours, our lives haven't changed much. Same with my social life, I still spend the same amount of time with my friends and family :)

I should add that I'm an auditory learner. I will very seldom miss lecture because that's how I learn best. That's why I don't study so much; the reading and writing doesn't help nearly as much as just showing up to lecture.

Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

I study maybe 2 hours per day. Spend less time with the family between study, class and clinical, ya, you bet. But I think...working 40 hrs per week will be tougher than school!

Specializes in Infusion.

I "study" for tests about 4-8 hours every other week (the night before and morning of our tests). I read about 2 hours per week for lectures. Way more reading when classes started up because we needed to know how to do head-to-toe assessments. The day before clinicals, we wrote preps that took 3-4 hours/patient and the next day wrote care plans for each patient (1-2 hours each). Not all schools do the preps. We also had 4-5 papers to write. I would keep Saturdays for my family and still have a couple of week nights for family. The other nights they knew I would be a grouch if anyone bothered me.

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