I noticed alot of you have 4.0's. Do you have kids? I just dont understand how you do it. Are you up all night studying or just genuises???
I do ok I have a 3.4 but come on, BSN programs want a 4.0- the competition is stiff. Of course minimum prereq GPA may be 3.0 but thats not whose admitted. The school Im applying to gets 350 apps for 50 seats and is on a GPA ranking selection. So they automatically admit all 4.0's. I still have Stats, Micro, and Chem to take- so I want to know how are you guys getting A's???
This stuff is hard, and with small children and a household to run on top of that is even harder. I need some insight here.
I will be graduating in August and have kept a 4.0 all the way through including pre-reqs. I don't really have much advice because I didn't really study that much. To me nursing school was fairly easy. I never studied for the finals, I figured that I should have learned this stuff during the semester.
I hate you. :rotfl:
Nursing school wasn't fairly easy to me, it was the toughest thing to date I've ever done. :)
I always had to study and work for my grades. (So far 4.0 after five classes in my RN to BSN program, but it ain't easy).
Specializes in home & public health, med-surg, hospice.
I started nursing school out with a 4.0 but now have a 3.5.
My secret was preparing vs. catching up. You've got to read your chapters for lecture before class. Lectures really are most effective when used as a chance for review and clarification.
I have two kids living at home, but they are both adults now, so my time is basically my own. The house is not as clean as it used to be, and sometimes supper is a bowl of cereal or a sack of burgers from the drive in. I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who is going to school while raising young children.
I have found that I am a visual learner, and that I also learn from writing things out over and over. Here is my method of study:
I re-write my notes as soon as I can sit down and do it. Preferably the same day.
I read the chapters that will be covered in the day or so before class, and then review them again the day after class.
After I re-write my notes I make flash cards of that day's pertinent info.
I review flashcards from one of my classes every night right before I turn off the light to go to sleep.
I write and re-write any lists, charts, diagrams, etc. until I can do them from memory. (Like the types of human tissues, or the structures of the brain.)
I write information from memory directly on my test to help me keep it straight during multiple choice and matching type exams.
I color the pages in a biology or anatomy coloring book that relate to the material covered in class. These coloring books were not required but I have found them to be helpful for my visual learning style. For instance, this week we covered epitihelial tissue and the itegumentary system, so I'll color those pages in my book.
I do only about 45 minutes of study or review on a single subject before taking a break or moving to another subject. Anything over 45 minutes to an hour will not be retained and is a waste of time.
I study every week as if I will be tested on the material covered so far. As a result, I do not stay up late cramming before exams. I do not do much review or study the morning of an exam. Just a quick glance at my flashcards.
I make up silly mnemonics to remember lists, and associate similar words to remember things that go together. The weirder, the better. Obscene and crass ones seem to be the most memorable.
I snatch a few minutes here and there during the day to re-write the notes, make the flashcards, and color the anatomy pages, and spend one or two hours a night reading the textbooks and reviewing the notes. I don't study every subject in depth every night, usually focus on one, but do short reviews of the others. I skip one day each weekend in order to take a break.
Thats funny, we all pretty much do the same types of things...Seems most people are pretty visual. I even try to create little cartoon drawings of a given process to better remember it. I think too is the time management thing. Studying or looking over things every chance you get. You've gotta live and breath it for a while.
Of course I know my lab partner just reads the stuff once and gets it. Drives the rest of us nuts. (with jealousy). Some people are just bright.
Studying with little kids around is hard though, because they need your attention too. But funny how we are twice as motivated with them as well.
I love reading all these study tips keep em coming if anyone has more. (especially Micro!)
I noticed alot of you have 4.0's. Do you have kids? I just dont understand how you do it. Are you up all night studying or just genuises???
I do ok I have a 3.4 but come on, BSN programs want a 4.0- the competition is stiff. Of course minimum prereq GPA may be 3.0 but thats not whose admitted. The school Im applying to gets 350 apps for 50 seats and is on a GPA ranking selection. So they automatically admit all 4.0's. I still have Stats, Micro, and Chem to take- so I want to know how are you guys getting A's???
This stuff is hard, and with small children and a household to run on top of that is even harder. I need some insight here.
-Jasmine (hopeful Nurse Practitioner)
Same here, wondering how people get straight A's. I am so depressed right now because I have a horrible A&P teacher. I have given up the illusion of making an A in his class and hope that I will be able to maintain my B. Nobody is currently making an A in his class.
i still need A&P 2, micro, nutrition, stats, and Human Growth & Dev.
don't forget some people take these hard classes over and over.....until they finally get an A, especially these A&P classes.
You have a good GPA and many wished they did as well as you. Keep up the good work, give it your best and don't stop trying.
I don't have kids, but I have a boyfriend, a needy kitty cat, a house to run, and a 60 hr a week job. I take classes part time (2-3 classes a semester). I write, rewrite, and re-rewrite notes. I take all the images the teacher puts in her powerpoints, blow them up on the computer, print them off in triplicate or more, and label over and over and over. I am by no means a genius, but repetition does wonders. I've found that my learning style is visual/writing based, therefore I need lots of pictures (I take notes on the lecture powerpoints, color everything, highlight practically my whole book) and labeling. I've found taht for me, looking at a picture and saying out loud or to myself the name of the part I'm trying to memorize does not work - I get confused. But if I write down everything, doing the labeling exercises over and over, that works for me. I'll be applying for nursing school for fall '06 with a 4.0 GPA, so I think I must have found what works best for me. Try all the options available to you, and find what works best and stick with it. Switching study habits/styles all the time can make you more confused. I also try and stick with material the teacher has given in lecture/lab, because I don't want to be bombarded with extraneous material that I don't need to know for the test, because then I usually end up knowing everything about what I don't need to know for the test, and nothing I should know for the test. I have a 106% avg. in A&P right now, so my methods have worked for me. Hope you find what works for you!
I work part-time, have 2 kids, and volunteer alot at my kids school. I also only have been taking 2-3 classes a semester. That way I can put a lot of study time in to get good grades. Now when I start clinicals in January I will only have to take 8 credits so it helps :)
Specializes in Lactation Ed, Pp, MS, Hospice, Agency.
Try printing out your PP lecture notes on COLORED (not white, it's offensive) cards that u like. I like 4x6 pastels (oh & when u click "print" look at options for paper size). Put notes from your Master lecture notes on here. Hole-punch these cards & put them on ring holders. Same color for same class. Diff color for diff class (organizes them). I take them EVERYWHERE! I have also recently put them on my PDA but had to get a PP program for my PDA (handango.com has good prices, but I am on a trial 15-day from another site that I found, but they want $45.00 & the other site had it $20.00 less)
Believe me I am no 4.0 student, but remember once u r in a program
"C" still = RN. Yes, it's still impt to study long & hard, but passing is what will count as will learning to be a good, safe nurse. Instead of "typing" my notes out I ViaVoice them (You Talk It Types) (runs $50.00 & comes w/headset). This has saved my butt many times! Talking out my notes ingrains them more into my brain too.
What I did to achieve this is to eat well, get a good night sleep,stay very focussed, reward yourself and most of all relax and be proud of your achievements.
I think the biggest secret is finding what strategy works best for you and then sticking with it. Some do best with study groups, others are solitary learners; some of us are visual some auditory learners. Make use of resources - the internet, study guides, textbooks, etc.
For me, I find it best to read the book, go to class and rewrite my notes from class. I then study from the good copies (I'm not much into note cards). I study each day - maybe sometimes for just a 1/2 hour, then longer on other days (depending on my work schedule). I am a planner, so I figure out a schedule each week to keep me on track. I try not to play catch up but always stay either ahead or right with the teacher's pace.
I "study" or review whenever I can...when I'm on my ellipse machine, at dinner / lunch break at work. I also always take an hour each day as downtime and do something non-school related so I don't burn out. I take one day off of schoolwork entirely each week if at all possible, too (sometimes hard with multiple tests and 40 hours of work each week).
Keep a positive attitude, find what works and stick with it and try to keep a good balance.
Goodluck :)
ps. reward yourself for personal accomplishments and don't compare yourself to others so much...be proud of your own goals, not others goals :)
Technically I don't even have a GPA because all my course are transferred in from my previous degrees. But I have 95+ averages in A&P1 and Dev Psych I. The reason I am an A student are:
- I never miss class and never wait until the last minute to start preparing for an exam. I get ahead, even, if I can.
- I have learned how to study in a way that works for me. I surprised myself this semester, realizing how good I have become at memorizing. I use association and repitition.
- I make study guides, then I memorize them, then I regurgitate everything everyday until the test. By the end I get lazy because I know it so well. I have an A&P exam tonight and I barely studied last night because I am so prepared. When I was studying for my math degrees, I used to write out my proofs. Now I just read the question and cover up the answer. It's much faster for me.
- Something new I am doing this semester: online quizzes from my A&P book's website, Histology quizzes from AL's tutorial online, etc. I also made notecards for Histology so I could identify slides for my lab practical. I imagine I will be using more notecards as A&P goes on.
When I started college I had no idea how to study and ended up with poor grades. It took me several years to figure out how to study and get good grades. Here are my suggestions:
1) What type of learner are you? Visual, Kinesthetic, Aural? If you learn through listening (aural) then definitely attend every lecture and tape the lectures to listen to them later. Also, talk to yourself while studying. If you are visual draw lots of diagrams and pictures, use different color highlighters and notecards, pay attention when your professor writes on the whiteboard or uses powerpoint slides. If you are kinesthetic you probably do better in labs because you learn better doing things with your hands or while moving around. Try rewriting your notes, actively taking notes while reading your book, or exercising while studying. Also, I am kinesthetic and it helps me to even teach others, it really reinforces the material and I have to be active while I am doing it. Unless your teacher moves around a lot in lectures or gives hands on demonstrations the class will not help you much if your kinesthetic.
2) Do you learn the details first and then form the big picture or do you always see the big picture first and then fill in the details?
I tend to be a big picture person first so how I study is I read all of the material and get an overview (taking notes while I am doing this only on the most important items) and then I come back to my notes later and highlight them or underline them (this further breaks down my notes to what I really need to know) and then by the time it is a day before the test or a few hours before the test all I have to do is look at a couple of higlighted items in my notes. Basically what I am doing is breaking down the information from a lot of information at the beginning (3-5 chapters), to a few pages of notes, to finally just a few words or definitions. Since I usually struggle with details looking at this information right before the test starts helps me to at least remember a few of the harder details. I might still miss a few questions but the majority of my test answers will come from the overall picture that I learned in the beginning of my studying.
Now, if you are a detail learner that learns the details first and then puts the details together to make a big picture then you will need to study a little differently. I would focus on finding a way to make the details come together earlier on in your studying by either making outlines or concept maps or diagrams. If you wait until a day before the test to study the overall picture and put the details together it could result in disaster on your test. The key is understanding the overall picture way before the test so you have time to solidify it in your brain and then you won't have any trouble applying that knowledge to the test. So many times I have seen really smart people that can recite every detail in class (something I could never do) but then they do miserably on the test because they couldn't figure out how to apply that knowledge. They are simply not making the connections between all of the details.
3) Don't waste time. For the longest time I didn't realize how much time I was wasting on things that didn't help my studying. Some people don't need to make notecards. Rewriting your notes is great if you have the time but if you are taking an accelerated class (like a 3 week class I took) you won't have time. Choose a few things that really work for you and that you know you will have time to do. If you don't do well in study groups (they definitely don't help me) then skip them. If you are pressed for time then listen to lecture tapes in the car or carry notes with you while you are standing in line and running errands. When I rode the bus to classes I would use that time to study as well. If you are bad at time management and feel overwhelmed than get a planner or PDA or calendar. At first I always feel overwhelmed at the beginning of the semester but when I start breaking it down it isn't as bad. Take things week by week or even day by day. I have a daughter and was still able to complete my BS degree with a 4.0 but I didn't go to every campus meeting, or perform perfectly on everything. My family came first and then I just figured out what I needed to complete each day for my classes.
4) Learn what the professor wants early on. Once you have read the syllabus and had your first test you have a pretty good idea how your professor grades. If you know that your professor always curves the tests then don't stress out when you get a 69! (I just completed a class just like this, the professor inevitably curved every test so even though my test grades were probably a B average I ended up with an A in the class!). If there are old tests available to study from then use them, sometimes the questions will be exactly the same. If your professor gives extra credit then plan on doing it if you think you might need the points but don't stress about it if you are happy with your B. If you have to write papers then make sure you know exactly what is expected in the paper and get help from a writing tutor if you need it. Always try to give more on a paper then you think you need to, better to write more than to leave something out. Sometimes it is hard to know what style to write a paper in but usually if you are in a Science or Social Science (Psychology) class it is usually going to be a technical format, which means you should leave out a lot of your own views and use more sources. Also, you will want to get to the point quicker and cover every point related to the subject. If you are writing an English or Philosophy paper then you are usually expressing your views and will need to elaborate a lot more. These papers can be harder to write if you don't already know your personal writing style. When in doubt, get help from the professor, go to office hours, ask for advice on the papers or studying for the tests. I have had professors even say that they would remember who came to class every day, etc at the end of the semester when the grades were really close (if you have an 89 maybe they will bump it to an A). Don't compare yourself to other people in the class, you are there to learn and they won't be the ones taking your test, or taking care of your patient.
5) This is the most important! Have Confidence! If you believe in yourself and value your gifts and talents then this will come through in your performance on tests and papers. Don't second guess yourself on exams, pick the best answer as quickly as possible. If you think about an answer too much you are probably not using your intuition anymore. If you studied enough before the test and you don't have Hitler for a professor then you most likely will know at least 75-80% of the test really well, it is that last 20-25% that you have to spend more time on. Try to narrow down your answers and then pick the best one, you won't remember everything for a test so don't fret over every missed question. By the way, there is nothing wrong with getting a B or even a C in a class or on a test. I earned a B in A&P I and I am proud of that grade because I learned a lot in that class from a really fabulous Physiology professor.
6) Relaxation. Find something you can do in between tests, etc. to really relax. Maybe sports/fitness, reading a book, etc. Academics are not life they are just a part of our lives. Believe me when I say that years from now most people are not going to care what grade you got in A&P!
But I have 95+ averages in A&P1 and Dev Psych I. The reason I am an A student are:
Tweety, BSN, RN
36,267 Posts
I hate you. :rotfl:
Nursing school wasn't fairly easy to me, it was the toughest thing to date I've ever done. :)
I always had to study and work for my grades. (So far 4.0 after five classes in my RN to BSN program, but it ain't easy).