How I Achieved A 4.0 On All Of My RN Prerequisites

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Hello, everybody.

I've gotten quite a few questions about how I was able to do so well on all of my prerequisites, and I wanted to mention a couple of quick tips that were invaluable in helping me get an 'A' in A&P I and II, Micro, Nutrition, Chem, Algebra, etc.

A lot of this was originally posted in a local forum, but I thought it might be of a benefit to other students as well.

A quick background on me: I've been fortunate enough to maintain a 4.0 GPA through all of my college classes, including this past Summer when I took 17 credits in 8 weeks (sorry, I don't want that to sound like bragging, because it's not -- it was the result of a lot of hard work and dedicated studying).

1. Go get an enormous stack of note cards. Break down each and every possible study question/concept/part on a separate card, then studying the hell out of them and, once you're confident with the material on a given card, put it in a separate stack. By the time your exam rolls around, you'll have a very small stack (if any at all) of concepts you still don't understand.

-When studying using the above method, use a timer and spend an exact amount of time studying (I usually did 40 minutes at a time) and then take a break (say, for 20 minutes). After about an hour of heavy studying (if you don't take a break), your mind becomes exhausted and studying becomes a lot less effective.

One great advantage to using note cards and a timer is that it's easy to find a stopping point when the timer goes off -- you simply finish the card you're on and then take your break.

2. Go to http://www.eleven21.com/notetaker/ and create yourself a free custom "Cornell Method" note taking sheet. Print tons of them and learn how to use it and live by it. This method of taking notes changed my life. You've got three sections to each and every page. The bulk of the sheet is for taking notes as you're listening to a lecture. As soon as you leave the lecture (within 24 hours), take your notes and formulate questions [potential test questions] from your notes and write them in the small column on the left side. In the small section at the bottom, summarize the notes from the page in a few short sentences.

-If you want to really get creative, you can color code your notes or use a highlighter to point out certain sections. In my lectures, I would write in black, and anything I missed and had to fill in at home, I would write in blue, since I knew those were items I probably didn't really understand in lecture. I would make sure to go over anything written in blue extra carefully.

-Highlight anything your professor writes on a board/overhead or repeats more than once. You can bet it will show up on an exam.

3. Record all of your lectures, but don't obsess over spending all your studying time listening to them. Instead, know that you've got those on hand if there's a concept that you're really struggling with or that you just want additional clarity on. You can then go back to your recording and listen to that snippet as many times as you like.

4. Don't spend all of your time reading your textbook word-for-word unless you're certain that your professor requires that extreme level of detail. Most of the material in a textbook is filler/verbose and you could easily spend the bulk of your time reading and re-reading your textbook only to find that you've gained a vague familiarity with hundreds of topics rather than a confident, detailed knowledge about the things you really need to know. *Resist the urge to want to know and understand every single fact/detail/word in your text because you think it will make you a better student or nurse -- it's simply not possible to know it all well*.

-Do carefully read all of the summaries for every chapter in your textbook, carefully analyze all images/captions, read the definitions, and scan the text itself.

5. Try to anticipate the material that will be in your next lecture (most likely, your professor gave you some kind of a syllabus at the beginning of the semester, and you should use it). You can do this by scanning your text or by purchasing a study guide for your course and skimming it before your lecture). You'll probably find that you're a lot more engaged in your lecture and learn better if you've got even a vague familiarity with some of the material that will be discussed in your lecture beforehand.

And there you go -- now you know all my secrets... at least all the ones I can think of right now. I'm sure a fair amount of this stuff has been said in other ways by other people in the past, but taken as a whole, I truly believe that this can help just about any student in any class.

Hope to help!

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Thank you so much for being generous with your study secrets, I definately agree with reading ahead, that works for me, if I do not familiarize myself with the lecture info before hand it all just flies over my head during the lecture. I will try the other method.

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Specializes in ICU.

These are awesome tips. I've heard of people using the Cornell notes and it looks really really organized...which totally speaks to the anal-retentive, control-freak part of me. Thanks!

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Good tips, thanks :up:

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Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

I bought a book called Effective Study Skills by Simones. The techniques he explains are very much like yours; the Cornell Method, not reading everything in a text and color coding.

There are 4 steps (textbook usage skills, content org skills, exam prep skills and diagnostic follow up), each have from 3 to 5 skills to learn (Textbook usage skills - 1. Active Reading, 2. Identification of Core Material 3. Topical Mapping 4. Chapter Outlining and 5. Time Management).

I bought the book for my daughter but I'm going to have to buy another one because I did highlighting and marked this one all up and don't want to part with it. I start my first real pre-reqs next semester (did English and a pre-req bio) and plan on following these steps to the letter. Now if only my daughter would realize the extra work is actually worth it.

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Thank you- I will add that study skills book to my buy list.

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Specializes in LTC, Psych.

I have used your exact methods!

I'd like to add one as well:

If your prof. uses power points, take the info & make yourself outlines covering the material you are shaky on. It is much easier to study from & you won't waste time going over material you already know.

Congrats on your 4.0! I too had a 4.0 when I finished pre-req's and I am looking to graduate nursing school this Tues. with a 4.0 (I need a 81/100 on my final to keep my A). Yes, it can be done, follow these study tips!

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You guys/ladies are awesome. 4.0 is to be commended indeed. I find that I don't have time to read the text chapters. I read the summaries at the end of each chapter and I study of the powerpoints. I find that reading the material every other day really makes one familiar with the material by the time of test day.

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i will be bookmarking this info thanks!

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Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.
You guys/ladies are awesome. 4.0 is to be commended indeed. I find that I don't have time to read the text chapters. I read the summaries at the end of each chapter and I study of the powerpoints. I find that reading the material every other day really makes one familiar with the material by the time of test day.

The book I mentioned talks about Active Reading, where you basically separate the essential material from the elaboration content. Its the essential material that is found on tests. In the topical mapping stage, you visibly separate this material by highlighting and he said if you highlight more than 15% of the text, your highlighting too much.

I tried on a couple of chapters in my bio just studying from the summaries and PPs. It just did not work for me at all... I did not do well on that exam (It was barely a B) I wanted to cut down my study time, but my grades suffered. I did get A's as my final grades and I am going to be sticking to the letter from the ESS book so I can get A's on the rest of them. I want to be like Psychopharmacology when I grow up! :D

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I use flaschards/notecards for everything too! That is the only reason I have a 99 average in Microbiology right now!

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Specializes in SNU/SNF/MedSurg, SPCU Ortho/Neuro/Spine.

4.0 guy here...

Try to understand the material, craming is not going to work, it might pass you, but it wont do much to you!

I am "off" this month from school but am like nuts, studying and getting ready for my classes in january.

this is what I did/am doing to prepare for my next 2 classes less then 26 days from now:

1- I ordered all my books online, used, (study guides are new) so i could save money cuz "I ain't got none!"

2- I got a list of nursing abbreviations with about 300 most common abbreviation and I made flash cards with them, (because on the pharmacology book, they alreaddy use c, ou, h.s, q8h, bid...etc)

3- I read one chapter a day, (20 pages) of each book the pharm, and the fundamentals.

4- i then answer the questions on the studyguide for that chapter.

5- i then solve 10 drug/dosage calculations. and then i am done for the day!

it takes me about 4 hours to get it all done, then i play with flashcards, and read all nurses.com LOL

i am doing whatever i can, because we are having fundamentals+pharmacology in 2 months, so it will be fast paced! i am on chapter 11 now and plan to finish the 40th chapter 2 days before classes starts!

i wanna get an A, let's see what is going to happen!

all I know is that my brain hurts already! (but i must keep the rythm)

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