How to study effectively

You have to find out what works best for you. I'm not a study group person, I have to have silence and I have to read everything. What I usually do is read and highlight the chapters first. Let that sit for about a day, and then go back and take notes on what I high lighted. Study those through a few times, go over things I don't quite understand. Then I'll go over the notes that I took in class, and the notes that were sent out by the professors.

To not get distracted: turn my cell and computer OFF - I will procrastinate on Facebook if I don't.

Also, if you start to read sentences over and over and just are not paying attention - move to another chapter or topic. Hope this helps :)

Thx Mell Bell

I'm a study group person. It helps to bounce ideas and rationales off each other. I read the chapters and highlight on my own, then we bring our text books/notes to group. We use Fundamentals Success and go through the questions on each subject that will be on the test (we get a "blueprint" on what will be on the test and how many questions on each category). We focus on the ones with the most questions. It's worked great so far this semester, I've gotten an 86 and a 94!

The thing that has helped me most is to make a "to-do" list of everything i need to study/review. I am very specific in my study goals since I tend to go from reading a chapter about safety and hygiene and suddenly i'll see an illness i don't know much about so I begin looking up stuff in my med-dictionary then my med-surg book and suddenly i am so far away from the subject i had orignially began studying that i can't get back on track. It is too easy to feel overwhelmed!

While i am reading my chapters i have a pile of blank flashcards and a sharpie beside me. When i come upon an important term or concept that i do not know i'll write it on the flashcard. They don't all have to be for "testing" yourself. I, personally, feel that these are better than just notes taken on paper.

I also like to use larger flash cards to hold large amounts of organized, specific information. (ie, nursing process, lung sounds, wound care, injections) These types of cards are good for quick references during class, labs and clinical without having to carry around a book.

Read the assigned reading before lecture. Usually I just read it quickly. Take lots and lots of NCLEX type questions which can be found in most textbooks or their websites. Rationalize why an answer is right and find out why the other answers are wrong. Go to the text and highlight answers to the NCLEX questions. And don't forget your basic anatomy and physiology so you can tie in things together.

To keep from being distracted, I bought some noise-cancelling headphones and I listen to classical music.

Normally I never listen to classical -- only when I'm reading/studying. And I only listen to instrumentals, nothing with vocals. I guess my brain learns to tune out the meaningless noise (music), and the headphones block out exterior noise, and that keeps my brain from getting distracted.

I can read in the living room while my 10yo watches cartoons and I can read at his hockey practices without being distracted. I even use the headphones when I'm at the library -- even though it's a pretty quiet place, you still have people walking by, people pounding on keyboards, people printing stuff off, people chatting with their buddies, etc.

Every time I tried to read the book I'd fall asleep in it. I like the pictures and charts though. I didn't take notes in class after second semester. No flash cards. What i did need to write down I kept to one paper and i wrote normal, no cramped writing. I'm definitely a study group person. Nothing like trying to explain something and realize the holes of your logic. And I did a lot of nclex questions before each test. Those are the only books I tabbed. I graduated top of my class.

Its not traditional but it worked well for me. I knew the material well. My friends still text me with questions on there breaks now that we all have jobs.

I realized that I remember information better if I hear it, so what I do is read the book out loud to myself. I also record the lectures and play them back and take notes as I go. Also read all of the assigned reading before going to class and have some questions ready to ask if you don't understand something. I also love using flashcards to learn terminology. And a good NCLEX book that's divided up into subjects is beyond helpful.

A good way to tell if you understand and learn the information, is to teach it to someone else. It helps me to ramble on forever to my mom about a particular subject and have her ask me questions. It helps me realize what I know really well and what I need to work on.

Hope this helps! :)

I break my sessions into ~25 minutes of studying [or the end of one section, whichever comes first], and then 5-10 minutes of walking around, getting a drink, maybe looking at allnurses :). If I try to study too much at one time, I don't retain the information.

I spend a lot of time on vocabulary. If I thoroughly understand the fine distinctions between definitions, I will understand most of the concepts involved. Same concept in sorting through sample test questions - if I understand why the wrong answers are wrong, I will get much more out of the sample test than if I just identify the correct answer.

I do not try to learn something in one shot. Sometimes that works but more often I apply spiralling. I study a new concept half of my study time and spend the other half reviewing. I let any particular topic go for a few hours, then a few days, then a few weeks, then a few months. I do study for the test (I need the grade) but I also study things that are already tested for because I need to do that to remember them in enough detail for the long term.

Another way to do spiralling is to spend half the study time on the new concept, a quarter on the last couple of topics studied, an eighth on the ones a little older, and an eighth rotating in the oldest topics.

I use as many different ways to study as I can.

Also, if I don't eat right, or if I don't get enough rest, or enough exercise I don't learn much no matter how much time or effort I put into study. If I have a good margin built up, I can push my limits to some degree. I just know it is WELL worth making a priority of keeping a good margin.

I realized that I remember information better if I hear it, so what I do is read the book out loud to myself.

This reminded me of another thing I do to help cement the brain's pathways to the info. The more times and the more ways I "traverse the pathway" to the information, the stronger my ability to recall the "map" to the information when I need it.

First, as I'm reading the chapter, I take notes by hand. If we were given vocabulary words to know, I also write out those definitions as I come across each word in my chapter reading.

Later (usually the next day, depending on how much time I have to learn the info) I type up my notes, and if there's anything that I don't understand from my notes, I go back and read through that part of the chapter again.

When I take notes during lecture by hand, those later get added into my typed chapter notes, either tacked on to the end if they're supplemental info, or inserted into the appropriate section of my chapter notes.

This procedure works very well for me because it forces me to review all of the information several times. I read info, handwrite info, type info (which makes me read it again, from my handwritten notes), hear info in lecture, and type lecture info (which means I have to read my existing chapter notes in order to find where to insert the lecture notes).

The typing up notes helps me in another way, too -- I'm able to use formatting to organize or highlight certain concepts or terms. I'll use bullets, italics, bolding, underlining, indents, font sizes, etc., so that I'm not just creating yet another book to read. Instead, I end up with legible notes that are personalized for exactly what I need, and that I can scan quickly for a 'refresher' before class.

If there's a particular subject that I don't quite understand/remember, I'll write it out in more detail in my notes, so that each time I review the subject, I'm getting detailed info on the things that are harder for me; likewise, I use just the bare minimum of notes for things that I already have a firm grasp of. And having everything in a computer file makes it easy to change my notes at any time -- if I suddenly "get" a subject that was giving me a hard time earlier, I can reduce the font on all the descriptive stuff so that I know I don't have to review that part so hard anymore.

I also send all my notes to myself as an email attachment to my Gmail account. This way, I can pull up my notes from any computer at any time -- very helpful if I forget my notes one day, since I live 30 miles from campus!