How time consuming is it?

Nursing Students General Students

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I'm starting the nursing portion of my BSN this fall. I do not have a job, kids, etc, and will be able to put all my energy into school. How much time should I expect to put in a day for NS, especially if I want to keep my GOA high?

I didnt study very much in nursing school. 4-5 hours the day before the test (interspersed with various TV and food breaks of course). I also didnt read my textbooks at all.

What will really get you is the paperwork and prep for clinicals. We did alot of pre-clinical prep in my program and the care plans were a nightmare....we're talking 15+ solid hours working on a care plan. Our instructors required VERY detailed care plans and alot of them wouldnt allow us to use care plan books at all so we would have to go looking for journal articles and stuff and that takes FOREVER. That may not sound too bad but it will get you when you have 3 different classes/clinicals going at once.

Of course, we can all tell you what our experience was but this all depends on how much study time you need, your program, and your instructors. The instructor and how picky they are really makes all the difference.

I was able to work a little...like 4 days a month which I scheduled according to when assignments were due and when I had tests. I also planned an out of town wedding and got married during nursing school.

Specializes in Cardiology, LTC, SANE.

I just finished my first semester of nursing school. I thought that it was more time-consuming than my other classes due to the fact that you have to start "thinking like a nurse." I also think that it depends on the person and what their study habits are. How you study has a lot to do with it; you just have to find what works for you. I don't have any kids but I have a fiancee and a job and I found out that you need to make some time for yourself so you don't drive yourself crazy. :bugeyes: Good luck! ;)

I don't believe those who say that they really study for 50-60 hours. If you are, then you really need to learn to study more efficiently. Efficient studying is the key, not the amount of studying. I think most people also like to embelish just how "hard" it all is. I doubt people have accurately kept track of how much they actually spend on quality no BS/distracted/half studying. I wouldn't get worked up. Once you get to the hard stuff, just bear down, focus, and do it.

Hi all, question, everyone keeps talking about studying smart. I'm not quite in nursing school yet, but was wondering, since you have to do more than just memorize, how exactly do you study?

I know there is a lot of information, reading, assignment etc. Do you just follow along with the syllabus, do you define words, answer questions at the end of the chapters, what exactly do you have to do.

Now, I understand that you have to apply the information, but like what, any examples would be helpful, thanks. Lord knows, I don't want to spend 40/50 hours studying.

In response to Agrippa

You can believe what you want to believe about how much time a person says they spend on studying. I spend at LEAST 40 a week on studying and no I don't need to manage my time more effectively since I have managed to maintain the best scores in the class and have been asked to address the class about my study habits by the professors it must be effective. Maybe you don't need that much time to study, but that's you and you can't assume what's good for you is good for everyone else. No reason to lie about something as silly as how much study time you put in. Each individual person knows how much study time is needed for them to grasp the concepts or in some cases make sure that the concepts are grasped.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I spend 5 hours the day before every test, and usually 4-6 hours the day of every test. Thats it. This isnt rocket science. I have a 4.0 and I destroyed the HESI.

Go to every class and take good notes. My classes are full of overstudyers and those who claim to overstudy, they are dropping like flies. I have a couple friends in med school, and they rarely break 30hrs of studying outside of class. I have NO idea what people are doing studying 40-60hrs.

Well just to clarify my post, our instructors said 40-50 hours a week for everything, class time, studying, and clinicals, prep and driving.

I could not imagine spending that long studying. Man after 30 mins I lose focus and get bored :stone

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Hi all, question, everyone keeps talking about studying smart. I'm not quite in nursing school yet, but was wondering, since you have to do more than just memorize, how exactly do you study?

I know there is a lot of information, reading, assignment etc. Do you just follow along with the syllabus, do you define words, answer questions at the end of the chapters, what exactly do you have to do.

Now, I understand that you have to apply the information, but like what, any examples would be helpful, thanks. Lord knows, I don't want to spend 40/50 hours studying.

I start nursing school this fall, I just took two co req classes though that a lot of the kids at my school usually take during NS. Anyway, I have no idea how to study, I never had to study before College Science Classes. I was the kid that never did HW and managed to still get a's and b's in school. Well Science in College hasn't come so easy.

Anyway, my school and I would assume many others, has a testing center or we call ours the learning oppertunity center. They can give us assesments that show what study techniques would be most benifical for us. This is what I plan to do. I just get so bored when I try to study. I am more of a visual and auditory learner, I plan on Recording lectures and putting them on my Ipod so I can listen to them while I work out. I can't read while working out. But anyway, I would look into what you school has, that way you can form a plan that you get the best use out of your study time rather than study endlessly for hours taking twice as long to grasp it.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
:yeah: God, I could not agree with you more... After 5-6 hours of studying, I don't know what else to study. 40-60hrs??? Jeez, what the heck are you studying? Careplans taking people 4-10 hours?! Seriously? Just dig into your nursing diagnosis book, pick a diagnosis, and copy down interventions. This should take 30 minutes. Seriously, to the OP, do not listen to most of these people, NS is not hard. If you have any sense, studying a day or two before tests should suffice. There is absolutely no point in reading through most of these nursing books, most of it is complete BS anyways.[/quote]

That is just wonderful advice :stone

BTW although I do agree that 40-60 hours a week seems very high and extreme, just copying down stuff and not reading your books is not the answer. You need to UNDERSTAND. Any person can look up and copy down answers, you have to actually "GET" what you are copying though.

To HumptyDumpty: I wish I could have just thrown something together out of the ND book. We had to include a pathophys with 3 sources; look up every lab that was off and determine why; look up every med the patient takes and write its action, indication, side effects and all nursing considerations; do a summary on the patient; and do a half page+ data analysis where we researched what would like to have done for our patient. The research alone took almost 10 hours.

To RN2b2011: I just graduated with honors. Here is how I did it: I reveiwed the material and made notes covering what I thought the instructors would focus on using tables, charts and any illustrations I could find. Then I answered as many NCLEX style questions related to the material as I could get my hands on. Any areas that I was still having difficulty on, I went back and reveiwed and refined my charts and notes of the info and went to the NCLEX reveiw books. Then more questions just on those areas. If I was still struggling, I made flash cards, silly pictures, song lyrics or anything else that would help me remember. Some folks tried to do all that to all the information. They studied 6-8 hours on class days and 12+ on the weekends. I studied 3-4 on the weekday refining notes to mesh with lecture and 5-6 in each day of our three day weekends. Of course that time included snacking, answering the phone, breaks, responding to emails, etc.

my advisor told me to expect to spend between 20-25 hours a week studying. So with 2 8 hour clinical days and 2 2 hour class days, that makes sense. She also said (and these are her words not mine) that if you spend much more than that studying then you should re-evaluate your study habits.

I start nursing school this fall, I just took two co req classes though that a lot of the kids at my school usually take during NS. Anyway, I have no idea how to study, I never had to study before College Science Classes. I was the kid that never did HW and managed to still get a's and b's in school. Well Science in College hasn't come so easy.

Anyway, my school and I would assume many others, has a testing center or we call ours the learning oppertunity center. They can give us assesments that show what study techniques would be most benifical for us. This is what I plan to do. I just get so bored when I try to study. I am more of a visual and auditory learner, I plan on Recording lectures and putting them on my Ipod so I can listen to them while I work out. I can't read while working out. But anyway, I would look into what you school has, that way you can form a plan that you get the best use out of your study time rather than study endlessly for hours taking twice as long to grasp it.

Thanks for reminding me about the school resources, we are in the same boat, as I am definately a visual and auditory learner. I will be doing the exact same as you, recording lectures and listening to them as often as I can. I did that for A&P, it must have worked because I received an A.

Also gillytook, I will definately be taking your advice as well. Congrads on making it thru with high honors I might add. I'm really nervous about it and need as many tips I could possibly get. This may sound weird but I enjoy studying, I just want to make sure that I study smart!

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