700 pages of reading, per week, for one class

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How do you do it?

First it sounds like we may attend the same school. I am starting my 3rd semester OB PEDS and Psyc and during my Fundamentals course i also had 3 other classes. My advice to you is skip all the first chapters in the assigned reading its usually review A&P you can check to make sure. If you paid attention in this class you dont need to recover this meterial. Also for this section you need to keep in mind that there not going to test you on the content of these chapters there going to be asking questions about how to apply this knowlege in a clinical setting. There was very few questions about what is this or that. Just try to learn / keep in mind what order you would do or evaluate things. ABCs the famous order. If your teacher has power points print them and take notes on them most of the things that are extra that you write down will be on the test in some way. If you can record your lectures so you can go back and recover anything that you may have questions about 85% of the questions will most likely come from the content of the PPs and verbal lecture. I have also made a point to make sure to read ALL the colored boxes in the chapters most teachers make about 50% questions from this content. Last semester i passed by mostly just the lectures, PPs, and these boxes. Hope this helps to ease your mind or at least give you an idea of what content to concetrate on.

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I'd be curious to hear what feedback you get from your instructor.

Looking at this problem logically, I looked up a few different nursing fundamentals textbooks. They were all 1200-1500 pages. The entire textbook. So I'm very curious what materials are adding up to 700 pages per week for an entire semester of 14-15 weeks.

I agree with this, it still doesn't make sense, even after I read the OP's posted response to this. How much per week is considered mandatory reading, and how much is "additional reading if the student needs extra help understanding the material"? 300 pages per week plus the initial 700 is 4,000 pages in just 11 weeks. You simply can't test in depth on all that material unless you are spending all your class time taking tests. Do your three books even add up to 4,000 pages? Maybe some chapters are duplicated in multiple weeks? Is the teacher doing something like have you read the PDR pages for each drug (unnecessary)? Definitely ask your teacher for clarification because this simply doesn't make sense; or maybe there are typos or something. I remember in my general med-surg nursing courses we got about 100 pages of small font heavy reading on average per week, and our books on average were around 1400 pages long. I read every page because we were tested on minuscule details of those pages. But each school and each teacher work differently. Hope you get some sort of answer from your teacher.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
It looks like MOST weeks, alone, will be around 300 pages of reading.

There, see? It's better already. :)

Best of luck as you begin your studies.

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Specializes in ICU.

I still think even 300 pages per week for one class is ridiculous.

At what point are instructors going beyond what is a reasonable amount of information for a student to learn and retain for testing? What an ineffective use and waste of students time when they could be spending it on practising skills or actually becoming confident and knowledgable about the fundamental points in a class. These people are not "teachers". They just assign massive amounts of work without any thought to whether it facilitates learning. How dissappointing.

Sorry, just my little rant on ineffective instructors. Good luck in your course and I'm sure you'll get a feel for what you need to focus on the next few weeks!

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Specializes in Operating Room.

The key to nursing fundamentals is to get a good idea about the content, but don't spend your time reading EVERYTHING. I don't know about your program, but my tests consisted of all NCLEX-style questions. I used to do all of the required reading along with studying notes and freaked myself out... So for my final, I studied the notes and skimmed lightly through the book. Guess what? Got a 98%. Ask your teacher what to focus on. I had a great teacher who was very straightforward with the testing and really wanted us to do well.

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Welcome to the wonderful world of nursing school. Write your good-bye letters to all your friends and family. Just kidding. You will eventually learn how to read the important stuff and not everything. Scan concepts you understand and just read the stuff that is giving you a hard time. Read the little boxes for stuff you get pretty well, it is often a summary of the detailed stuff on the page.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

Also, scrufette, I am highly considering Wellbutrin. I am just worried it will shoot my anxiety thru the roof...that's my only concern. I notice that I get less sleep when I am anxious...and it intensifies my depression..and adhd..etc..and it just spirals onward and down. Dunno if that makes sense. I have heard a TON of good things about wellbutrin. Tons. I'm super curious.

If it makes you less anxious about taking the med, I've personally been on Prozac and Paxil in the past, both of which have encouraged much weight loss, though Prozac in particular was extremely helpful for my major depression. Since I've been on buproprion, though, I've had nothing in the way of side effects like either of those drugs. You should give it a go, if your ADHD is getting in the way too much. If you don't like it, at least you tried.

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Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

I don't understand how any one class can have 700 pages per week. How many weeks is the class? Let's say the average textbook is 1200 pages--is this a two week class? Do you have 4 textbooks for the class?

I'm in an accelerated program and never had more than like 200 pages per week to read for one class (and that's a lot). But a lot of it is reviews of a&p, or charts, or diagrams--so it's not 200 pages of solid reading.

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Our school uses the ATI books to reinforce the material they teach. They simplify everything and outline it and are wonderful as a quick reference. Saunders questions get you in the mindframe that the instructors are looking for when they are testing. Pay attention in class and note which things the instructor are stressing and make sure you know those. It will get easier as the semester goes on because you will begin to apply the info you are learning and that alone will help you remember it. Good luck!

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Hehe. 700 pages/week = teaching fail.

One of my big irks is when questions come out of sections that are clearly intended by the author as reference material, not memorization. I don't mean labs or meds either.

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Specializes in MS, ED.

This is for Nursing Funds, yes?

Mine was the same way, and I'd say only about a third of the material was outlined in our notes or tested. Until we started basics of systems and clinical information, I used the study guide to outline important concepts and review questions to breeze through the immense readings, (and yes, I did very well.)

Studying for this last semester and NCLEX now, I can say that not reading all 700 pages has not come back to bite me. *chuckles

Best,

Southern

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and I assumed you passed the boards! =)

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