How many hours did you honesty spend studying in nursing school?

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Hello,

I've been wanting to ask those who graduated nursing school, how many hours did you honestly spend studying? I heard people studying for about 5-6 hours a day which to me sounds like too much. But then I also heard people studying about 1-2 hours a day which sounds fair. And also, when clinicals start, do you study less or more than you did in the beginning of nursing school?

Thanks

It's ***honestly***. This misspelling tells me you do not pay attention to detail. That will be a big problem for you.

I studied as much as it took to learn the objectives. During OB I did nothing BUT study, it was a tough rotation. I am a smart chick with a great memory, but I knew I could never study enough.

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I am in second semester of nursing program (BSN) and I never studied until the day before exams and just crammed... I did this in prereq's and in level one (pharm, comp, health assessment) as well and now I don't know a thing.. I realized all this now and its far too late I think to get even close to catching up... is there anything I can do at this point? I am in the program already... I don't understand the meds or even the a+p I don't know how I got this far without knowing so much...

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Telemetry RN.
I am in second semester of nursing program (BSN) and I never studied until the day before exams and just crammed... I did this in prereq's and in level one (pharm, comp, health assessment) as well and now I don't know a thing.. I realized all this now and its far too late I think to get even close to catching up... is there anything I can do at this point? I am in the program already... I don't understand the meds or even the a+p I don't know how I got this far without knowing so much...

Make a study schedule and break up your studying into days. Studying 2-3 sections a day. Or study intermittently if your more of a person who likes to learn better on the fly during your breaks. Refer to my post above.

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The amount of study time required depends on the individual and on the school.

Personally, some classes were easy for me and I didn't have to study much for them. Other classes, like pharm and patho, definitely required more study time. I averaged 2-3 hours a day during the week and 4 to 6 hours a day on weekends. One of the most satisfying experiences I had was in our research class. I studied hard for this class, as it included statistics and math is not my strong suit. Other students talked openly about how stupid the class was and that they only spent one hour on the individual paper required and essentially no time studying for the class itself. I felt really dumb. Boy were they upset when they got crappy grades! (I got an A)

It also depends on your goals. I was aiming for straight As because I knew I was going to grad school to become an NP. If you are happy with Bs and Cs then you can study less.

Schools vary on level of rigor. In my program, you could definitely get a C and probably a B if you only reviewed Powerpoints. But if you wanted an A, you had to read the book and study hard.

Nursing school should be hard - nurses have a lot of responsibility and are dealing with life and death. That said, I'm sure there are some individuals who are so brilliant that nursing school is easy to them, but they are few and far between.

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If including prep work (making flow charts, organizing material, rewriting powerpoints etc) into "studying" then on average 4 hours a day. 2 hrs on average Mon, Tues, Wed, increased to 4 hrs on Thurs and Friday and 6 hrs on the weekend. Now I am not saying my head is buried in the book for 4 hours straight, but with everything included. Then again this was my process during all my bio pre-reqs, so its not new to me, I just need more time to prepare than probably the average person.

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Make a study schedule and break up your studying into days. Studying 2-3 sections a day. Or study intermittently if your more of a person who likes to learn better on the fly during your breaks. Refer to my post above.

thanks for your response! My issue is that I don't know a lot of information because I mainly read night before and did practice questions... im totally at a loss for figuring out things like medications and neurotransmitters, pre req courses, etc... now that I know for a fact how negatively this affected me, the question is that is it too late to catch up while already in the program?

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical/Telemetry RN.
thanks for your response! My issue is that I don't know a lot of information because I mainly read night before and did practice questions... im totally at a loss for figuring out things like medications and neurotransmitters, pre req courses, etc... now that I know for a fact how negatively this affected me, the question is that is it too late to catch up while already in the program?

You can definitely catch up. Just study the things that you need to work on the most. You have to discipline yourself to take the time to study and learn this stuff. Patients lives are in your hands. Study hard!

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I think posts like these gather many skewed opinions. When you start reading about people "barely studying" or just breezing through nursing school, people who DO have to study a lot are less likely to reply.

It depends on a lot of factors. If I just wanted to get an A on the test, I would likely just need to go through the lecture slides periodically throughout the week and then a little more purposively before an exam. I can generally pick out the correct answer on exams, but this doesn't mean I have a solid hold on the information.

I tend to study intensely about three days a week. I am talking 6-8 hours a day of studying, reading, applying the material, and then being able to explain it back to another person. It would be a little different if I was able to spread my studying out better, but I have three days a week that are 12 hour days...so my brain cannot handle any more study time after that! This method has helped a lot when it comes to my practice NCLEX because I find that I am getting a lot of that material from the book rather than my time in lecture. Nursing will be so much more than getting an A on a test. I will need to be able to educate my patients on the things I am doing, why I am doing them, and why they should implement whatever care routines have been set in place.

There is no one size fits all to studying! You will have to find what works for you.

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edited

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I'm scoring level 3s on my ATI and i have a 99% change of passing my NCLEX as of now.

So I've seen you mentioning that a few other times, and I really wouldn't put much stock into that 99% ATI thing...I also have a "99%" and I definitely don't know nearly as much as you based on your previous posts!! (I disagree with the poster saying you're arrogant, etc. I really appreciate your desire to help others in your posts! I just feel like the 99% ATI thing is kinda bogus/not really indicative of anything)

I really don't think having an ATI based "99%" chance of passing the NCLEX means you are in the 99th percentile of nursing students nationwide, or "top 1%" as it's been phrased elsewhere. I don't even know how ATI would know that?! Not every school uses ATI. But eh...maybe you researched it more than I did and now I'm just rambling. :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

So far, it's been manageable. I've been holding down mostly B's and some A's. I spend at least a 3-4 hours a day (I like to study in chunks, I can't sit for long periods of time it drives me nuts). I also work 24-28 hours a week (Not healthcare related) in addition to school and I like to take time to run/work out. I haven't been able to have much of a social life (Not that I had much of one to begin with). But so far, it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as other people have stated. Clinical care plans have been getting easier too. The material is relatively easy for me to absorb though, I've always been a bit of a medical/biology nerd. I shouldn't speak too soon though, I'm only a first semester student, hah. The first month was probably the hardest. I feel like things are getting a little easier and falling into place.

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I personally did not spend a lot of time studying in nursing school (and as for the naysayers, yes, I passed my NCLEX in 75 questions). That being said, I think that if you pay attention in class and do your assignments, you might not have to study much, so long as you test well, write well, and have a solid clinical presence. Everyone is different. Some people need to study a lot and some don't.

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