How should I study during nursing school??

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Hello Everyone, I was wondering if someone could help me out. I have begun the first semester of my nursing program and so far I'm doing what I consider...good... with a B average. However I find that it takes me 4-5 hours reading a chapter because I take notes on every single paragraph:uhoh3:. It just seems like every single thing is important and I have to write it down. My instructor provides us with power points which is great but I sometimes don't know if to focus only on what she's teaching. Of course I try to do both but it feels like reading and taking notes takes too long. Does anyone have any advice on how to "fix" this problem? Also, on tests, I've noticed that there is always 2 answers that are the best. what has helped you in picking out answers? What methods of studying have worked best for you? Any suggestions would be great. Thank you for your time!

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Well I'm curious as well to see some study tips, I too read & disect the chapter and it takes forever! When I get to the summary my notes are pretty much the same..lol but writing helps me to retain the info but not enough. When I do "study & review" questions I don't remember all the answers.. Grrrr!!! Frustrating :/ I start school in October so I've been trying get jump start atleast on 1 book! Good luck to you and hope some tips & techniques are added :)

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I feel your pain. You sound just like me during my first year. Now that I am nearing the end of my program, I can tell you do not read every single detail. I remember in foundations/principles, those questions would frustrate the whole class. My suggestion to you is to focus on the nursing assessment sections and less on the "disease details". For example, in ARDS, don't try to memorize every chemical reaction/inflammatory cytokine blah blah blah. Instead, your focus should be, I am caring for a patient with X disease, what do I need to do, watch out for, complications, and treatments. That is all I focus on now. Also, PRACTICE QUESTIONS EVERY DAY. I try to do 20 questions a day, buy review/study books, look online for practice questions with rationales. I have become much more efficient (quality not quantity) in my studying by narrowing my focus and practicing questions. In terms of figuring out questions, I usually start with what can kill the patient? nothing obvious? Go to ABC's. Still nothing? next is nursing process. Assess before giving the med, etc. Most questions can usually be answered in this order. Not sure if that helps or makes sense...

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as for studying:

Science based courses: focus on pathology and disease related facts. You should have your anatomy and physiology down already and most often the answer for A&P questions are already found in the question itself!

Theory based courses: safety first!!! You can almost always narrow down each question to 2 answers. Look at both and if safety is a factor in one of them, go with that one. If not, statistically, the longest answer is the most right because it gives more of an explanation to your patient.

Oh, and if you honestly don't know which to choose (A, B, C or D) never go with an answer just because you don't know it. Often students get flustered and pick the answer that was never covered because they figure it MUST be right. If you don't remember learning or reading it, it's probably not the right one! haha

I hope this helps :) and best of luck to you.

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All this has helped so much, thanks! Since I haven't started yet (in 3 wks), I can start with new study techniques and focus on the main ideas! Also, does highlighting & writing in your books help or hinder your reading/studying? Ive done that before and by the end of class my book was darn near all yellow and written in haha!! ( it did help in a way to be able to grab my book and focus on what I felt was important. I also write all notes on paper or index cards, and still trying to decide which I prefer for studying because I can only write so much info on a card! So, thinking cards would be good for terminology, mneumonics and pharm., I think once I get through a few months of my program I will find my nitch and what works best but until then Id hate to waste time writting too too much! :) as you can see I'm very excited and wound up tighter than a clock to learn hehehe!! So thanks everyone for the great tips, I've started a note book on study skills, tips, web sites, books and iph., app's oh and coffee!

Tootles..=}

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Get an NCLEX review book. Most every one of those books is broken down by subject area, and then broken down by specific things you need to know to pass the test. You certainly won't learn everything you need to know to pass a nursing course from an NCLEX book, but they give you a pretty good overview of things to concentrate on.

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Right on!! blogs, study tips web sites! And my iPhone battery keeps dieing haha!! I can't stop researching all this awsome info! =}

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Thank you everyone for your replies! Keep 'em coming!

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For me, I record my teacher (with her permission of course) and I review my notes and books. I can slow down her lectures so that my brain can process the information. You may want to find out what kind of learner you are, I'm visaul and auditory learner. So I write my notes by hand 3 times, and I listen to lectures and review podcasts that my book's company provides. I also heard another good way is to record your own voice and listen to that when you study. I've yet to try it.

I'd say summarize your paragraphs, and if you can mentally make a question out of it, I'd write it down and all answers in my own words. It seems to stick when it is in your own words. Plus, I find fun ways to make things stick. Like when learning about the compliment system, i think of the end result as swiss cheese.

hope it helps :D

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I think there are two schools of thought.

One, you can literally study over every detail of the book and lecture until your eyes bleed so that you put thought into all of it and commit all of it into memory and then do well. Most people seem to strive for this, not make it, not do as well as they thought they would, and become dejected as a result.

Two, you can skim it, listen to the instructor, figure out what the instructor deems important based on that individual's personality, take a step back, realize you don't have to know all of that, see the big picture, and do well. This is what I do, and I actually do really well. I haven't the time nor the interest to make notes and read every page of the book.

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HeiseC,

I want to try recording lectures, do they pick up background noise or other students talking? Can you recommend a good recorder? I do the same study skills as you like writing notes etc.,a few times, making funny/odd sayings for memorizing skills, terms, etc, makes it fun! Thanks so much

Geneva007,

Your blogs are excellent. your compassion for life, nursing and a mom touched my heart! Thank you very much!

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I highlight. Always have and found that it helps. You don't need to highlight everything, though. See what you can learn/memorize just by reading and highlight "test-like" facts.

When it comes to pharm., I found most of the questions were nursing based, not pharmacist based! This mainly means med teaching and safety (pulse >60 for digoxin; foods to avoid on MAOIs; herbal interactions etc.)

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