How do you study? *LPN accelerated program*

[anonymous1919, LPN]

I try really hard to make good grades. But I don't. I really hate it because in school your grades mean everything to your peers. They look down on you if your grades are poor and assume you're going to be a bad nurse. Have been in the nursing field as a CNA with more nurse friends than family members, I know this isn't true. I have met many WONDERFUL nurses that in the clinical setting just blow your mind away that claim they made B's and C's. And I have met many idiot nurses who don't know their a$$ from a hole that claim to have made straight A's.

My general average on tests is usually 77-79. I have taken 9 classes total so far and have 7 C's and 2 B's and 4 of those C's were less than a point from being a B. So it's REALLY, really frustrating.

I have determined it has to be the way I am studying. So I want to know how do you study?

I seem to always miss off the wall questions. My adult 3 class is 6 weeks long and my first test was over 4 chapters and questions I've missed were really small parts of the subject. Like out of 1 whole chapter it was one single sentence that was the answer. How am I ever suppose to remember 1 sentence from 1 chapter of 20 pages when I still have 3 other chapters to learn and I have about a week to do it?

Argh....

[RNTutor, BSN, RN]

First, forget about what your classmates think. It doesn't matter, because they are not giving you your license. No matter what you do in life, don't let your self-worth be determined by the opinions of these kinds of people.

So as for the studying...it's hard to say for sure what's going on, but from what you did say I can offer 2 ideas based on my tutoring experiences. 1) The teacher just writes bad tests, and nitpicks, and it will be difficult to impossible for you to do well on those tests. Because yes, it is ridiculous to memorize every sentence in a chapter, no matter HOW long you have to study it.

2) This second reason is probably more likely though. If you're long many other nursing students, you probably have a tough time identifying the most important information in the chapters. I see all kinds of students who tell me how much they study, but just can't figure out why they're not doing well in class. After I ask a few questions, it usually turns out that they don't understand the information as well as they think they do. They may have memorized quite a bit, but are not clear about how information they've memorized gets integrated into the bigger picture of nursing. That's where the next level of understanding comes in.

The solution? It's not easy, but it will likely involve changing your study habits. I am guessing that you spend a lot of time reading and highlighting. I would suggest you read a little, then try to teach it to a non-nursing friend. Or draw a diagram that explains how the underlying A&P works. Or picture yourself in that situation at clinicals, and see what would happen if you were actually working with the patient.

[Missy BSN, BSN]

Everybody learns differently and nursing definitely favors those who learn best by reading. If that's not your style (it's not mine either), it's okay. You will have to work a little harder and convert what you read to your style of learning. For example if you are an auditory learner, read aloud. If you are a visual learner, draw diagrams or make flash cards. I'm a little bit of an auditory and a visual learner combined. So I read aloud and every so often I stop and explain things to myself aloud as well. Stopping frequently to ask my "Ok, so what's the point of all this?" helps to keep my brain from "drifting off" and putting things in my own words helps me to make sure I'm truly understanding what I'm reading.

Good luck!

[teeniebert, LPN]

Pre-reading helped me. I'd look at the syllabus to see what we were covering that week and read as much of the material as I could the weekend before (no highlighting). Then I'd take the book to lecture and highlight important points as they were mentioned by the instructor. If I didn't understand something on the first read, it was usually covered in class. I hope this helps.

[CrazierThanYou]

This is the first I've ever heard of an accelerated LPN program. How long does it take?