Study aids & tools

are you in nursing school right now or doing your prerequisites?

Flashcards help for memorizing definitions, lab values, pharmacology.

Study group of only 2-3 people..make sure you're productive and don't spend all your time talking.

The "test success" book by Nugent is very helpful with tips; it is written by nurses.

That book so goes over how to answer NCLEX questions by looking at the stem, keywords, etc.

Some people do well with concept maps; I personally didn't, I used a white board to write my own flow charts and help with my recall and retention.

Videos. There are some great RN's on youtube with some simple explanations. Micheal Linares, EmpoweRN, etc.

Don't try to read EVERY word...get the important concepts out of the reading. (This is where NCLEX review books or the study guide to your text come in handy; the questions are geared towards those concepts).

Stay organized. Nothing worse than procrastinating and realizing you're behind in the reading.

I used the Mosby's Medical Terminology Flash cards (3rd edition) for my Med Term class, they were a good help

For Med Term I made my own flashcards because writing things out by hand is super helpful in memorizing them. As far as once you're in the nursing program, the Davis Success series is great for practicing NCLEX style questions. And Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN is a great content review for each semester's courses (in addition to being useful for the NCLEX).