How much time do you *really*spend studying?

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I am curious if I am doing too much, or not enough! I would love to hear how often everyone studies and if you dont mind sharing, what your general GPA/letter grade is. I spend at least 3 hours every night studying, and weekends are a free for all. This has worked well so far (pre-reqs) but I havent taken my first nursing test yet... I hope its enough!

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Are you in nursing school?

We have been told various times throughout the program that nursing is not like highschool, it's not one of those things you can study the night before a test and expect a good grade. You have to fully comprehend the material and be able to apply it.

That being said, I study around 4-6 hours a day. I make sure I review all my previous material, even skimming it, before going over new materiall.

You can understand the material and comprehend it and still study the night before and do well without studying for hours every day. I learn the material in class. I go over notes the night before my exam. I manage to do good. If there is something I wasn't understanding that is when I will put more time into going over those things. But one thing they told us in school was to study the stuff we don't get. Don't waist your time studying the stuff you already know you know. I have NEVER studied for hours daily. I never study for many hours over a week. I do not have the attention span to sit for hours and study. I have tried. I make sure I listen good in lectures and clarify anything I don't understand. I find reviewing the night/day before the test to put it fresh in my head works best for me.

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You can understand the material and comprehend it and still study the night before and do well without studying for hours every day. I learn the material in class. I go over notes the night before my exam. I manage to do good. If there is something I wasn't understanding that is when I will put more time into going over those things. But one thing they told us in school was to study the stuff we don't get. Don't waist your time studying the stuff you already know you know. I have NEVER studied for hours daily. I never study for many hours over a week. I do not have the attention span to sit for hours and study. I have tried. I make sure I listen good in lectures and clarify anything I don't understand. I find reviewing the night/day before the test to put it fresh in my head works best for me.

I am in an accelerated program, 5 classes a term, 4 terms in a normal year. I fully understand the material and I still study because replicating the information is going to cram it into your brain. You can't expect to do 12 pages of self learn med terminology overnight. Maybe my material is more self learn than yours... A lot of our instructors will go over *some* notes in class, mayb 50%, but then assign us an entire chapter reading, online quizzes, online lectures, and assignments. With the amount of homework I have to do, I can't exactly not be studying... I wish I was in your class. There's no way I could retain the amt of information needed for the rest of my life, by just reviewing notes before a test...

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Specializes in Case Manager.
You can understand the material and comprehend it and still study the night before and do well without studying for hours every day. I learn the material in class. I go over notes the night before my exam. I manage to do good. If there is something I wasn't understanding that is when I will put more time into going over those things. But one thing they told us in school was to study the stuff we don't get. Don't waist your time studying the stuff you already know you know. I have NEVER studied for hours daily. I never study for many hours over a week. I do not have the attention span to sit for hours and study. I have tried. I make sure I listen good in lectures and clarify anything I don't understand. I find reviewing the night/day before the test to put it fresh in my head works best for me.

Your classes and and tests must be heavily based off of the lecture because ours seems to be the exact opposite. The instructors said that all test material will come exclusively from the book and that the lecture is only there to supplement the book and verify that we read.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hem/Onc.
I am in an accelerated program, 5 classes a term, 4 terms in a normal year. I fully understand the material and I still study because replicating the information is going to cram it into your brain. You can't expect to do 12 pages of self learn med terminology overnight. Maybe my material is more self learn than yours... A lot of our instructors will go over *some* notes in class, mayb 50%, but then assign us an entire chapter reading, online quizzes, online lectures, and assignments. With the amount of homework I have to do, I can't exactly not be studying... I wish I was in your class. There's no way I could retain the amt of information needed for the rest of my life, by just reviewing notes before a test...

I believe someone mentioned this earlier.....it really depends on what class you're in, and how it's taught. I'm not sure where you are in your program, but studying for med term (only using that because you brought it up) is way different than studying for nursing fundamentals. Reading the same nursing process info over and over won't do jack for you if you don't understand how to apply it. Med term, pharm, A&P (to some extent) all depend on you memorizing facts upon facts. Most nursing classes beyond prereqs center around critical thinking and not simple regurgitation of info.

Then there's the fact that you're in an accelerated program, which means you're covering more material in less time. Hence the monstrous amount of studying you need to retain this info for the rest of your life ;) That's one reason why I didn't do an accelerated program! Way too much at once. If you can handle it, rock on and more power to you :up:

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Your classes and and tests must be heavily based off of the lecture because ours seems to be the exact opposite. The instructors said that all test material will come exclusively from the book and that the lecture is only there to supplement the book and verify that we read.

Hey that comment looks familiar....but when I said it, I was jumped on for telling her that her program was easy. Yes, I fully understand that wasn't even implied....but logic and facts rarely are connected to replies.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Your classes and and tests must be heavily based off of the lecture because ours seems to be the exact opposite. The instructors said that all test material will come exclusively from the book and that the lecture is only there to supplement the book and verify that we read.

Our program expects students to show up, so they use the motto that the book is to supplement the lectures or used to further delve into explaining things you might not understand. We are in class a LOT. Looking at some of the schedules I see people post on here I have been shocked because it seems like they are in class a lot less than we have been in my program. All programs are different obviously, but I am happy with my program and they have a very high NCLEX pass rate, retention rate and are accredited so it works for me.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Hey that comment looks familiar....but when I said it, I was jumped on for telling her that her program was easy. Yes, I fully understand that wasn't even implied....but logic and facts rarely are connected to replies.

Actually their approach and full reply was different than yours, they weren't passive-aggressive with it (much like the passive aggressiveness of your last part of this reply) ;) That said you are obviously never going to let it go. Other people read your comment the same way I did.

You said your program was about 70:30 with the 30 being reading and 70% being based off lectures, 70% sure seems like it's primarily based on lectures also.

ETA- I went back and read this thread because I don't recall I ever specifically told you that you said my program was easy. Sure enough I didn't. I replied to a post of yours, than I put a few spaces after that reply and made a general reply about the topic in response to another poster saying this "The difficultly of each program obviously varies and the speed because if I studied 4 hours a week, I would no longer be in nursing I would have failed a long time ago."

and yes, I think someone saying the difficulty of a program must vary because they have to study tons or they won't pass, is saying that those that don't have to study a lot must not be in a difficult program. How much someone decides to study does not determine the quality or difficulty of their program. It is most likely more related to their learning type.

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Specializes in ER, OB.

I don't really study very much. I would say a few days and the day before a test I study about 2 hours. Now clinical paperwork and pass/fail writing assignments...now thats another story. I would say that takes about 6 hours a week to do at least. All that paperwork and writing assignments take up most of my time. I also watch a lot of videos on youtube to whatever we are learning since I learn best by seeing. Watching those things doesn't even feel like studying but I would say I spend and hour or two per week on that kind of thing. We also have to pass 1000 NCLEX questions with above an 80% so I try to get at least 200 of those in per week which can sometimes take me a few hours to do.

Over all though I would say I spend about 22 hours per week in class or clinical. I spend about about 6-10 hours per week preping for clinical, doing clinical paperwork, or writing papers. And spend about 5 hours per week studying for tests, organizing or looking over notes, watching videos or other visual aids, and doing NCLEX questions. I also work about 20 hours per week. I had never really thought about it till now how many hours I was spending doing all of that. I guess after looking it's no wonder I have time for nothing else. All of that leaves little time for fun, but that's ok I keep telling myself I have come this far, I can do anything for 8 more months. :D

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I have a question for anyone who has to take a math calculations test to move onto the next semester. How would you study for that test and what are the questions like?

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I have a question for anyone who has to take a math calculations test to move onto the next semester. How would you study for that test and what are the questions like?

Our dosage calc is all self study, we have to purchase a book, ours is "Henke's med math," But i'm pretty sure the US uses a book called dosage calculations. Your school should have a required text, pick up that book and work through all the chapters! (our test covers 1-6, fractions, decimals, metric system, ratio and proportion, abbreviations) Also check out the math thread on here for some great sites.

Questions are going to vary by teacher.. usually there's a good amount of ratio questions and some abbreviations, fractions... Basically you need to know that entire med math book for the test because you don't know what's going to be on it.

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thanks so much for the info, do you think that its good just to start studying fractions and other things first? I have applied to a program but won't know until end of october. I do not know what book they use exactly.

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