Studying Technique Recommendations

[BiscuitStripes, BSN, RN]

I'm in an ABSN program and we meet three times a week for lecture, lab, and clinical. Throughout school, including my first bachelors degree and my prerequisite classes, I would read all of the material, make flashcards, and study my flashcards. The method worked very well for me and I got mainly A's with a few B's.

Now in nursing school, the method doesn't seem to be working too well for me. We regularly have 20-30 chapters assigned each week. I spend 12+ hours a day on all four of my days off sitting at my desk reading, with not much time to study the flashcards I make. I also make several hundred flashcards on the reading material because there is so much to cover. I then end up with too many flashcards to make studying them feasible.

Does anyone have any recommendations on studying techniques? I feel like sitting in lecture and just taking notes doesn't give me nearly the level of understanding as if I had read the textbooks.

Thanks!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I would say read and possibly ditch the flashcards. If you learn well from reading- use it. Your best study technique form the previous degree may not work well with nursing. It's ok to change.

[EmDash]

I think there's a number of options:

-Read the chapters and then try to complete clear and concise explanations after each topic/section. Essentially, notes that would explain that topic succinctly so it's not too dense. That way, you still have something you can come back to study.

-Find already made Quizlet sets on the topics you are covering. You could cut down on the time you spend making flashcards. (But you also have to find good sets, which may be hard.)

-Team up with a fellow student or two who also really enjoy flashcards. If you use an online source like Quizlet, you can split the work and all be able to study them.

-Try Youtube videos. I've always been a reader myself as well (and I still try to read most of the chapters), but I also have found videos to be incredibly helpful in learning and retaining the information. RegisteredNurseRN, Khan Academy, Armando Hasudungan, etc all have informative videos on their channels, and they are good at really narrowing down the key information. You can also listen to videos on your commute, depending on how long it is.

-Take notes and just study those.

With any of these though, make sure you are taking the time to understand the information and how the different systems are interacting. If you can understand the patho of congestive heart failure, you don't really have to memorize how it will affect the body and how that effect will then be displayed via signs and symptoms.

[EmDash]

Oh! And I thought about this one earlier but it slipped my mind when I was typing everything up. If you have the money, you can buy books that have NCLEX practice questions separated by topics/body systems like the Success series or Saunder's NCLEX review (or any one of the multiple other NCLEX review ones honestly). The Success series have ones that are more course-specific while the NCLEX review books seem to be a bit more broad. I'm using Med-Surg Success right now, and it's a good way to test the information I know, review and learn what I don't, and practice answering NCLEX-style questions. That might save you a bit of time ultimately because they highlight what the NCLEX views as the most important information.

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

your notes in lecture should primarily be what you need to study. And more of a note of "study this topic." Try to limit your flashcards to key points and things that you actually need to study. After learning about hip replacements, do you REALLY need to study the idea of trying to avoid excessive bending for any other joint replacement? Do you really need to study that cooling should be part of how to treat almost every infection that can cause a fever after learning the basics of how to treat a fever?

You need to trust your knowledge and ability to learn. You're gonna wear yourself out.

[BiscuitStripes, BSN, RN]

I think there's a number of options:

-Read the chapters and then try to complete clear and concise explanations after each topic/section. Essentially, notes that would explain that topic succinctly so it's not too dense. That way, you still have something you can come back to study.

-Find already made Quizlet sets on the topics you are covering. You could cut down on the time you spend making flashcards. (But you also have to find good sets, which may be hard.)

-Team up with a fellow student or two who also really enjoy flashcards. If you use an online source like Quizlet, you can split the work and all be able to study them.

-Try Youtube videos. I've always been a reader myself as well (and I still try to read most of the chapters), but I also have found videos to be incredibly helpful in learning and retaining the information. RegisteredNurseRN, Khan Academy, Armando Hasudungan, etc all have informative videos on their channels, and they are good at really narrowing down the key information. You can also listen to videos on your commute, depending on how long it is.

-Take notes and just study those.

With any of these though, make sure you are taking the time to understand the information and how the different systems are interacting. If you can understand the patho of congestive heart failure, you don't really have to memorize how it will affect the body and how that effect will then be displayed via signs and symptoms.

Thank you for you input. I like the idea of taking some notes after each section to try and summarize each one. I think I'm going to give that a try instead of making a bunch of flashcards, and maybe make a few flashcards on key information. I have been using Quizlet to make my own because I want to be sure the information is correct and I can't do that with decks made by other people. I did use Khan Academy during A&P, so I'll start taking a look at it again.

your notes in lecture should primarily be what you need to study. And more of a note of "study this topic." Try to limit your flashcards to key points and things that you actually need to study. After learning about hip replacements, do you REALLY need to study the idea of trying to avoid excessive bending for any other joint replacement? Do you really need to study that cooling should be part of how to treat almost every infection that can cause a fever after learning the basics of how to treat a fever?

You need to trust your knowledge and ability to learn. You're gonna wear yourself out.

Thanks, I think I'm going to incorporate taking regular notes while reading and less flashcards, except for key points like you said. That's why I came here searching for advice, the rate I'm currently going isn't sustainable and you're right, I'm going to get worn out. Thanks for the insight!

[Lipoma, BSN, RN]

Yeah, your current method is neither effective nor efficient. I ditched reading my nursing books 2 months into the program because I didn't have time because I was in class 2 days a week and 3 days at the hospital. I focused my studying on the lecture notes. I printed it all put 2x2 and then took notes during class. We'll see how successful that method was when I take the nclex.