How many hours do you study per day?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

Published

Or, what's the most you've done?

I study 3 hours a day for my Health Science class (A&P & Micro), and at least 30 minutes for Chemistry. Last week I had a Chemistry test, so I studied extra, about 4 1/2 hours a day. Now I have an Exam on Monday that I'm concerned about, so I think I've studied five hours today so far, and I'll do at least 1-2 more. Sometimes I wonder how I do this and how long I can keep up the pace, only a few weeks into the semester!

Of course, you should see my house! :uhoh21:

Kelly

Specializes in PICU.
Also, for the students who say they never read their textbook - that they only study their notes - I have a question. Many of my classes have exam questions from our reading assignments, that we never cover in lecture. Do you just miss all those questions? I am curious. Do some schools just not test on material not covered in lecture?

For my A&P class the information in the book was different from what he had in his lectures, and I got really confused when I tried to read the book. (It used different terms and didn't cover the same material.) He only tested on what was in the lecture, so after the first couple of weeks I never opened my book again. His lectures were really thorough, so I don't feel like I missed anything. (There would usually be around 450 powerpoint slides for one week worth of content.)

Otherwise, I think it is valuable to know what parts in the text are beneficial to read. Someone mentioned case studies and I agree often the case studies bring the content together so you can check that you understand everything. Often text books throw in extra stuff that either isn't necessary or isn't important. Knowing what to read and what to study is really helpful. You aren't going to remember everything from the class 2 years after taking it, so focus on really learning the important parts.

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Specializes in PICU.
Good questions. Textbooks are one the most valuable resources we have. In it contains all the information we should know as we become nurses. I would prefer a nurse who has studied his/her books and recieved a C than someone who only looked at their notes and got an A. I apologize if this offends anyone. I think it is so important to know what is in between the covers of your textbooks. Why are they written then. Plus that's a lot of money to waste just to look at the cover. :)

Reading the text book doesn't mean you understand the information. It isn't possible to get an A withouth learning anything. You can however, get a C by just having lucky guesses on the exam. I really don't think there is any bright line rule for how to learn the content in a course. It depends on how the course is taught, the quality of the text book (and I've had some very poorly written text books), and how the student learns. It is interesting to hear how other people study and how long they spend, but if you're getting good grades with your study methods don't feel like you have to change.

My best study tip (which I've seen on here before) is make flash cards when you have to memeorize a lot of informaiton. (Question on front of card, answer on back.) Take them with you where ever you go during the day and flip through them once in a while. It is amazing how quickly you will remember everything on the cards.

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Specializes in Cardiac.
Also, for the students who say they never read their textbook - that they only study their notes - I have a question. Many of my classes have exam questions from our reading assignments, that we never cover in lecture. Do you just miss all those questions? I am curious. Do some schools just not test on material not covered in lecture?

Multi, I too was one of those students that didn't really read the book. Most of the info was lecture, hand-outs and critical thinking.

I didn't 'read' the book, only skimmed some parts of it, and learned to recognize what parts the teacher was going to think was important.

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Sapper, I'm curious. For a class like A&P, are you saying you never studied for several hours at a time?

I get home from work at 5pm, have dinner and spend time with my wife till about 630. Then I start studying, I'll study one course (a&P for example) for 1hr. take a 5-10min break, then study another subject for hour, take a break, then lastly if time and motivation are abundant i'll either stidy a different course or go back and study one of the previous ones. Most likely the motivation isn't there so I get my stuff together to go to the gym in the morning, then read for pleasure, spend time with wife then go to bed.

On nights before exams i do almost the same thing. ill study A&P for and hour, take a 5-10min break, then actually here ill goof off for about 30-45 min. on the internets or reading a book (War & Peace currently) then go back and study. Repeat if I have time and motivation then do my pre-bedtime stuff again.

Also I was reading earlier posts about reading the book. I started out reading the book alot then realized it wasn't worht the time so now I just study the figures and use the text to clarify some ideas from the lecture or ones im just curious about.

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Reading the text book doesn't mean you understand the information.

Completely agree.

I really don't think there is any bright line rule for how to learn the content in a course. It depends on how the course is taught, the quality of the text book (and I've had some very poorly written text books), and how the student learns. It is interesting to hear how other people study and how long they spend, but if you're getting good grades with your study methods don't feel like you have to change.

I can mostly agree. If you can understand all that you need to without opening the book then more power to you. You are blessed. The question you may need to ask is are you getting the same amount of material as people who use the textbooks? I guess the answer can vary from instructor to instructor.

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Wow - so say anatomy - you have to learn all the bones, along with the names of all the bumps, crevices, and holes (LOL, not the technical names, I know!) - do you have a photographic memory or something? Or say, all the muscles with their insertions, origins, and actions? I just don't see how anyone can learn this easily . . . I have to go over, and over, and over it, and still I won't remember them all. I'm doing very well in school, but it ain't coming easy for me!

Kelly

good questions I don't really know what it is, I think i might just be really good at taking tests? I also just think that my study techniques is really good for me. This thread and topic is really interesting to me. about the bones and stuff we did that in the lab and I didn't even miss one question on the test and I think the bone and skull practical was my favorite! I think it also helps that i'm a little older then most of the other students in my classes and I am more focused? I also am very interested in the material I annoy my wife with useless (to her) information about anatomy and physiology.

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My best study tip (which I've seen on here before) is make flash cards when you have to memeorize a lot of informaiton. (Question on front of card, answer on back.) Take them with you where ever you go during the day and flip through them once in a while. It is amazing how quickly you will remember everything on the cards.

L:ike I said before this thread has got me thinking alot and i find it very interesting as you can tell from my 3 posts in 10min.... But as for this tip I find that flash cards actually don't work (in my case and IMO my classmates cases), because it teaches them just the definitions etc on the card and it seems to take away from their ability to critically think about the info on the cards. (I hope that made sense). Ive seen people who just relied on what the cards said then when on the tests they had to apply the info to certain situations they couldn't do it because that info. or use of the info was not on the flash card. just my 2 cents.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
Multi, I too was one of those students that didn't really read the book. Most of the info was lecture, hand-outs and critical thinking.

I didn't 'read' the book, only skimmed some parts of it, and learned to recognize what parts the teacher was going to think was important.

There might be a difference because I'm not talking about nursing courses since I'm not in a nursing program yet. I'm talking about other courses where the professor or instructor has so many exam questions from the reading assignment, and there's no rhyme or reason to the questions. It's more like a 'net' of sorts designed to catch those who really read the text assignment or not.

This is where my surprise is directed at those who just skim the text or say they don't read it at all. I'm wondering if they have these types of classes at all - or if they just settle for C's.

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Your gpa means little when it comes time to care for folks.

except for the fact that you actually have to have a GPA of 4.0 to get into nursing school, so unfortunately it means the difference between being a nurse and not for some of us.

I hear ya though I have been working on this since 2004, i have 3 small kids I hate how much I have to devote and get the guilts often but I am taking it at a pace where I can still be a full time mom, just means more buring of that forever candle at both ends.

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It's hard to quantify hours, b/c I do study at work and in front of the TV in addition to actual "study time." I try to always read the chapter before class, then even though I print out the powerpoints, I take my own notes off the lecture unless the prof talks so fast it's impossible. I seem to learn best taking notes several times, so next I go back to the book and take notes in my own words from the chapter. Finally, a few days before the test, I go through any review material if we're provided any and I make my own flash cards. It's my 4th-5th time through the info this time, so I already know it fairly well. They just help to break the information up into smaller chunks for me to learn, and then I can go through and pull out the ones I don't know already or am having trouble remembering. They work very well for me, but my method may differ from others'. One think that worries me about nursing school is that with the massive amounts of required reading I might not have time to go through this whole process for every exam. Hope that by quitting my job I'll have time...grades are important to me, because after my BSN I would like to leave my options open for grad school.

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Specializes in Psych.

How do you define studying? I am lucky to have completely read the chapter and reviewed my notes before I take a test. I do complete all my homework assignments and have found that all the little assignments make up for the fact that my exam scores are in the mid to high 80's. Is that studying or are you talking about more review?

I have seen some of the uber-note taking and highlighting students in my classes and I would be interested in learning official study skills. Note taking is hard for me. I feel like I understand more if I just sit back and enjoy the lecture. Unfortunately, that leads to remembering tons of interesting tidbits and forgetting some of the specific titles for functions (I'm in micro right now and got an 85 on the first exam, blech). But out of the last dozen final As, I got one B. So I guess I have effective study skills even though I'm not doing it like the all star highlighting crowd.

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I consider all of my outside of class learning time studying. Reading, looking over, note taking, homework, etc.

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