Study Help!!!!

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I am in need of advice from fellow SRNA's. I have a total of 81 comprehensive anesthesia textbook chapters to read, and know well, from now until mid July, approximately 2 months time. How can I do this efficiently and do each of my courses justice. I am in clinicals 3 days a week and attend classes the other 2 days (8:00am to 5:00pm). I know that this is probably a cake walk for most of you that are in your second and third years. Any tips, hints or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Natural.

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81 chapters? Really? Suggested readings? Mandatory readings? Certainly, there must be some focus. If you compare the different texts, many have much of the same information.

Let me know....i'll help out where i can.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
I am in need of advice from fellow SRNA's. I have a total of 81 comprehensive anesthesia textbook chapters to read, and know well, from now until mid July, approximately 2 months time. How can I do this efficiently and do each of my courses justice. I am in clinicals 3 days a week and attend classes the other 2 days (8:00am to 5:00pm). I know that this is probably a cake walk for most of you that are in your second and third years. Any tips, hints or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Natural.

In my program we were tested almost exclusively from power point presentations and the only reading that anyone usually did was to reinforce the parts of the power point presentations that we did not fully understand. You are probably not going to have time to read/comprehend and retain 80+ chapters of material, and you will just have to chose what is important and what is not.

Nurse anesthesia school is not easy no matter what year you are in.

Good Luck!

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Talk to your upperclassmen to find out whether your instructors test primarily from the powerpoints or, if not, how to focus your studies and manage your time. In our classes where there were huge volumes of material to learn, we divided it up and each summarized a portion of it.

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Thanks all for your advice. Just to answer a couple of questions: the 81 chapters are from all 5 of my specialty anesthesia courses, they are not readings, handouts or duplicate chapters on the same information by different authors. I have tried in the past to focus entirely on the power points/lecture material without exhausting myself with all of the readings and ended up with a couple of C's on my exams. Unfortunately, in my program test material comes from both the text material as well as what is covered in lectures. So, it is necessary to do the readings to get a B and definitely more for an A. One last plea: if anyone has an efficient method of attacking such a vast quantity of material and making it their own in a very short time, let me know. I would be most greatful. Well, it's back to the books for me, Natural.

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Specializes in Anesthesia.
Thanks all for your advice. Just to answer a couple of questions: the 81 chapters are from all 5 of my specialty anesthesia courses, they are not readings, handouts or duplicate chapters on the same information by different authors. I have tried in the past to focus entirely on the power points/lecture material without exhausting myself with all of the readings and ended up with a couple of C's on my exams. Unfortunately, in my program test material comes from both the text material as well as what is covered in lectures. So, it is necessary to do the readings to get a B and definitely more for an A. One last plea: if anyone has an efficient method of attacking such a vast quantity of material and making it their own in a very short time, let me know. I would be most greatful. Well, it's back to the books for me, Natural.

There are no real short cuts, but if you are having trouble with test questions you might try getting the Valley Anesthesia Review memory master and sweat book to give you an idea what to focus on and possible test questions. Unfortunately every program is different and I don't think we are going to able to give more than general suggestions.

Good Luck studying!

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I am a current SRNA with a suggestion which has worked well for me. I read the first and last sentences of a paragraph to see what the topic sentence and the summary reveal. If this info reveals something that seems really pertinent, I'll investigate further into the paragraph. If not, I move on to the next. Anything in bold or italics gets an automatic read through. Also, any graphs, photos or tables require attention as the author thought the info was important enough for further elaboration. The end of each chapter will usually have some kind of summary information which requires review. If there are objectives llisted at the start of the chapter, make sure you understand those well. As another poster suggested, try a sweat book to gather insite on what info is most significant. Hope that helps!

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If you think all 81 chapters are pertinent, the only way you could break that much material down is to set a reading schedule over the next 2 months and stick with it. 2 months = 60 days = 1.3 chapters every single day. If you stick with it, only 1 or 2 chapters every day shouldn't be too hard, you might even be able to get ahead of schedule and spend more time on the tough parts. Thats how you have to break down study material for the boards, otherwise it would seem like an insurmountable volume of material.

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Specializes in NICU, ICU,.

Just out of curiosity, in which program are you enrolled? Personally, I am a "note-taker" when I read. I skim the chapters for the points of emphasis, and those points that build on the lecture notes. Basically, not reading word-for-word, I hope that makes sense. Reading one chapter of Barash, word-for-word is enough to put me right to sleep :zzzzz

Good Luck! :wink2:

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