Rough start.. Study tecniques?

[Hbidds]

Throughout high school I wanted to be an English teacher, so I never focused on my sciences or math, but aced my other subjects. They came naturally to me. However, this summer I saw this video that really made me want to be a nurse, both considering the good and the not so good. This was before I even looked into the competitiveness of it. So I'm now pre-nursing and in my 1st semester of college!!

Here's the problem: I never focused on science, so right off the bat my first chem test and a 30 pt assignment went less than well. It is disheartening to not do well right away with the kind of crazy good grades I need to be accepted. I was wondering what you do to study?? Because in class, this stuff makes beautiful sense, but put a test in front of me, I go blank. I'm willing to give up a social life for a job making a difference and that I'd love doing every day. So I don't care how time consuming, what are some good/effective ways to study?

[zoe92]

Before I started college and decided to do nursing, I was not a big fan of science classes. I love history and English. When I started pre reqs, I had to change how I studied in my classes. For chemistry, it is all about practice problems/equations. Use your book, google practice problems, or ask your teacher for possible ones to work on. For other classes like anatomy and microbiology, I use flash cards.

[Hbidds]

Haha glad to know I wasn't the only one! And yeah, I will deffinatly try that out, just reading through a powerpoint isnt working too well anymore d:

[Saysfaa]

Start early, take care of yourself (get enough rest, eat right, exercise). Study when/where/how you think the most clearly. Give yourself cues that *this* is time to get serious. There are many ways to do that - some pick a certain place or a certain kind of white noise or have a kind of ritual to get set up.

Read the book, take notes from the book and from (not follow along on the power point printouts), rewrite your notes, sort the material in a couple of different ways. Teach someone else (even if it is yourself or the dog) helps you pick out what is important and which things to understand before going on to other things. Make practice tests - that helps you figure out what is important among other things. Make flashcards, even if you never use them.

Use the flash cards. One way is by starting going through all of them and sorting them into three piles (got it good, sorta got it, nope). Then pick a small number from the second two piles and go over them a few times. If you get them pretty easily, just go through them once a day or so until the test. If you don't, pick a small number (two if you keep confusing a pair) and go over just those until you start getting them. Then add a few more (or one) or do a different pair and then combine the two pairs. Occasionally mix in a few flashcards that you know pretty well. Occasionally pull out a few that you used to not know but now you do. Go through them often and at increasing intervals.

Use vision, audio, touch, and movement (google learning styles for ideas - some of that is hype but it is mostly usable anyway).

You will figure it out quickly once you decide to do so. The goal is to work smart rather than hard and not get over confident.

[Peny]

I agree with Saysfaa, index cards are the best! At times, I write so much on them when it comes down to remembering something on the test, sometimes i can recite all the info that was on that specific card. Don't ask my how I do it, I have no idea but it works!

When I realized I was able to remember what the whole card said, I started to number the cards and associated that specific item with the number. Strange I know but it works. I haven't tried color coding them, I wonder if that would work with my memory.

Can anyone else do this? If I'm the only one, I'm sure someone is going to want to study my brain someday!

[Saysfaa]

I do that too, except it doesn't matter what I write it out on. The act of writing it out works and the act of sorting out what is really important works even if I type it out.

Number wouldn't work with me at all, I have very little number sense in any form but I've used color, font, and spacing on the page and find that each of those work.

Although, just writing it doesn't work 100% unless I rewrite several times. I still do better going back over things at intervals.

[Medic2RN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I found that for studying the sciences flashcards are very useful. They are very helpful in A&P, Micro, nursing classes. Chemistry is a bit of a different animal. There are many intricate rules to follow when answering problems. I found that doing the practice questions from the book helped. Also view the online material normally listed in the textbook will give you a visual of the processes that may help.

It's time consuming, but it does help.