How long do you study...

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I was wondering how long you guys usually study, and how..

Do you guys read and take notes.

I think I am doing something wrong, I read 5-10 pages, take notes, and it takes me about an hour.... Does this happen to you guys.

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all the time. they werent kidding when they said ns is your life. im new too second semester. you gotta see what works for you. i bring a tape recorder copy the lecture and read the book regarding the stuff she talks about. you gotta see how the teacher works. either way its time consuming. electrolytes are killing me right now

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We can't record the lectures, and we have a "team taught" class where each unit is taught by a different instructor. That said, we've all had to come up with our own ways to study and learn the material.

Here's what I do.

First, I try to get the chapter read before lecture so that the instructor is reiterating (Is that spelled right? Oh, well!) what I've already read. I take as many notes as my hand will allow!

Second, I outline the chapter for easier review later.

Third, our book came with a workbook that helps guide studying, so I do that.

Fourth, we have an online portion to the book which will read the chapter summaries and also has some NCLEX questions, so I do those...

All in all, I wind up reading the chapter about four times, and then I review before the exam.

I'm glad that I've outlined all of the chapters because we have our final in about three weeks and it's cumulative, that's 40 chapters on a 100 point exam!

I think a big part is where you study, I find that for regular reading, almost anywhere will do, if there is minimal noise. But, before the exam, I've got to get to the library where there's no noise!

Good luck to you!

(Oh, and it took me about 5 hours to outline a chapter this evening!)

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You probably have to re-read over and over if its hard to understand! Omg, how many chapters do you get a week!!! 5 hours to outline, what the....

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I study for countless hours...it really has taken over my life.

What works best for me is recopying notes. Most of our profs give us notes to take to class, but during lectures I'm always adding more info in the margins/on looseleaf. So I make a point to recopy the notes word for word and organize them in a way that makes sense to me, adding diagrams where necessary. But that's just what works best for me...I just find that writing things down helps me retain the information way better than just reading it. Drawing & labeling your own diagrams is helpful too.

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For each particular test? Probably an average about 6 hours, so actually, not that much...but I'm a very auditory learner, so reading over notes and such isn't nearly as effective for me...but what I've been doing has been working! I have been maintaining a B average all semester in everything!

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LOL, sorry but I literally burst out laughing... an hour?? I study for 5-8 hours a night, and thats a good night. Nrsg school is way different from highschool. I had friends that study for 30 minutes-1 hour a night thinking that will be enough. You will hear this a lot, but you really need to put the time and work in. If you were a A student in highschool, prepare yourself for Bs.

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LOL, sorry but I literally burst out laughing... an hour?? I study for 5-8 hours a night, and thats a good night. Nrsg school is way different from highschool. I had friends that study for 30 minutes-1 hour a night thinking that will be enough. You will hear this a lot, but you really need to put the time and work in. If you were a A student in highschool, prepare yourself for Bs.

Not everyone needs to study for 30 hours a week!

I have not put nearly that much time into studying, and I have a B average so far and it's just about the end of the semester!

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It depends on what you consider studying. I spend about 15-20 hours a week on normal schoolwork. That includes things like: preparing for clinicals including putting together my organizational plans, preparing for preconference, etc.; reading; preparing for lab and seminar. About 4-5 days before a test I begin reviewing lectures - I tape all the lectures and try to listen to them at least 3x each. I also go back through my books and notes and recopy notes and take additional notes from what I highlighted the first time around. And, for me most important is practice questions. I do every practice question in our coursecompass a couple of times and make sure that I read rationales for each question, even if I get it correct. I put in about 20-30 hours specifically studying for each test, outside of general weekly preparation work. But, some of that means that I'm listening to lectures while I'm driving, not sitting down at a desk pouring over my notes.

I am maintaining A's in my first term classes.

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I am an associates RN student, almost half way through. I will agree that nursing school has taken over. I wake up at 0600 am and start studying I will usually study for 8-12 hours a day. I used to do outline all my chapters, however I found it was too time consuming. I would spend a couple hours oulining each chapter, and when you have 15 chapters to read in each class it just becomes impossible at some point.

I have an app on my iPhone that I record all my lectures with, I can then fileshare that document on my computer and upload all my lectures on to itunes and record in on a CD and listen to it as I study or drive in my car. ( I live in one town in AK and drive an hour and a half to get to school) so its increases my study time. I also do all the review questions at the end of each chapter and I use the study companion book that most text books come with.

I always study all the tables in each chapter and my text book italiscizes all the important information. I am also an avid flashcard maker, especially for vocab.

You just have to try new things and find what works for you. Having a variety of ways to study helps keep it from becoming to repetitive.

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I study anywhere from 4-8 hours per day on average. I used to over-study, but I have really lighted up the text book studying and I'm actually getting better grades. I mostly study the lab and assessment stuff the longest because it's all hands-on and very difficult to practice at home without constant instruction.

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The short answer: Not Enough

The long answer is, it depends. I have been cramming mostly making detailed outlines about a week-2 days before an exam. I used to be a good studier, but have gotten discourage in nursing fundamentals. It seems like I do better studying less, the exams can be so random and questions so confusing, that studying may not help alot for me. I skim the notes, skim the book and read alot of NCLEX study guides.

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