Need New Way To Study

Published

Hey everyone Im currently a student nurse and I never thought it would be this difficult for me. Especially with the exams. if someone knows any good ways to study please let me know. Im all ears..

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Pick up a voice recorder with a usb cable (Target $50). Tape the lecture, burn it to cd and listen in your car.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

^^ exactly

i use flashcards as well. haha. it's a ***** making them, but i memorize them fast thru that method. and for procedures, just practice with a friend.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I did a couple of different things, which likely helped solidify everything even more.

I was part of a study group which met once every week starting 4 weeks before a test. We chilled, ate, and quizzed one another on everything we knew would be on the exam.

One thing that REALLY helped was we made up funny sayings or mnemonics to help us remember. For example, benzodiazepines are the drugs of choice for status epilepticus, so...we said if you had "status" you usually drive a "benz"...and just silly stuff like that. I've never forgotten those things, though!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

awesome thanks guys all im doing is reading and reading and more reading. Im trying to find an easier and better way to study. Thanks

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Here have been some methods that have helped me, some have been mentioned and some haven't been mentioned yet.

  • Make/Join a study group - I am the type of person who learns best by talking and teaching others, quite simply I don't learn very well by sitting by myself with a book and just studying. I need to be moving around, talking and interacting with other people who are trying to learn the same material I am. I know it isn't for everyone but it works for me.

  • Record lectures - Buy a digital recorder and record all lecture sections (with the professors permission) and then go home and listen to the lectures again. This helps reinforce the material and make sure that your notes have all of the information you need in them. Someone also suggested uploading the lectures to your computer and burning them to a CD or to your iPod so you can listen to the lectures in your car or at the gym.

  • Take good notes - Taking good notes is critical to studying. When you review your notes after class it will help you to remember what was said during lecture and help you with your study sessions.

  • Make flashcards - Making flashcards is great for review and can be used during all of those times when you are alone and have nothing to do (like if your in a waiting room for a doctors appointment or something) or can be used to quiz your classmates during a group study session.

  • Study the material daily, even if only for a few minutes - By studying the material daily it helps to cement the information in your brain and prevents you from trying to cram the night before. Also by studying the material daily it helps to encode the information into your brain under long-term memory versus cramming which only encodes material under your short-term memory.

  • Try to find ways to relate the material to real life situations - When you try to related what your learning to real life situations it helps to form connections in your mind. Abbreviations, acronyms and even silly stories can help a person retain information. For example: When I was learning the roles of a nurse I remembered that they were CLEAR (Caregiver, Leader, Educator, Advocate, Researcher) Sometimes making a silly or embarrassing story (especially stories about sex) seem to be a great way to help people remember difficult to understand concepts. Just make sure that whatever story or acronym you make up is simple enough to remember what it stands for or else it doesn't serve its purpose.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Practice questions seems to help a lot...The more you do the more you get familiar with the format of each question and what they are trying to ask you

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.

I am not sure about actual nursing classes, but I do well in A&P and other "reading and memorization" based classes by rewriting important concepts and notes in my own words. I also try to help explain things to other students. I find that if I take the time to explain a concept to someone else, I remember it easily.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I find that to retain information from a text book, I first read over a chapter, not trying to take any notes at first. Once I read over a chapter, I will then go through the chapter again and take handwritten notes of important concepts. Then, I will take the quiz that is typically at the end of the chapter and grade myself. If I find that I cant recall a topic or point quickly, I will mark it and make flash cards out of those particular points.

The key to all this is repetition with the information, and trying to link it to as many functional concepts as you can. Our brains form memories by making neural connections in our brain. The more neural connections a particular memory has, the stronger and easier to recall it will be. Also, while you can condense notes or type them into a computer for archiving and what not, this does not activate your memory like writing it on paper.

Review your notes within a day or so after a class, and fill out concepts that may need a little more explaining based on what your took down. Sometimes while taking notes in a lecture, we short hand something so much that you can't decipher what it was meant to mean. Recording the lecture can also help a lot.

Acronyms and silly sayings can help a bunch for memorizing terms. An example I use for the 11 organ systems is:

IN U and ME Dees Systems RLY Ceep you Running

Integumentary, Nervous, Urinary, Muscular, Endocrine, Digestive, Skeletal, Respiratory, Lymphatic, Cardiovascular, Reproductive.

I know that the phrase is misspelled, but I can remember it clearly, and it really helps in recalling the systems. The capital letters are the ones I use to remember the particular system.

Just remember, connections make memories. Study often and in short bursts. Study 20-30 minutes and take a break, go for a walk or some kind of light exercise to get you refreshed and start another 20-30 mins.

I hope this helps, it has helped me a bunch when trying to study things.

LV

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I found what really helped me was two main things.

Recognize what kind of learner are you?

Auditory? meaning you can hear it adn remember it?

ie. someone tells you how to hang and iv bag and you'll remember.

Tactile? meaning you do it and remember

ie hang a bag yourself and you remember

visual?

ie. watch someone hang a bag and you'll remember.

this was the key to learning that my style was tactile. i need to feelsomething to really learn it. it's hard because you really can't feel/experience more abstract nursing concepts without being in a clinical rotation....so nursing school is a real struggle for me. what i did was go to the nursing lab and ask for help. the teachers were able to show me the lead placement, then allow me to apply them to the MORRIS doll until the sites made sense.

recognition of your skill set is the surest way to augment them to suit your needs.

what also really helped me was hiring a tutor. she was my savior for cardiac lectures. she really was able to pinpoint where i needed help and without her help i would have surely not passed. if you can ask your school for help, i'm sure they know of someone who is willing to dedicate some time to address the challenges that you're facing.

know that you're not alone, and with the help of others you can achive your goals.

good luck out there.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

get a female study buddy :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in none.

Anyone know how I can get a hold of more practice questions for my nursing tests (am only 5 months into my first year of nursing school) --Ps let me know if u know of sites or books for studying.....mahalo's

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion