Ok i'm 3 days into the nursing program and I can see a huge problem with my study habits. They are good ones but obviously need some adjusting. it seems that we're going to have to read 80-180 pages for lecture 2 to 3 days a week.
After reading for 4 hours and coming to about 50 pages, (that's 1 page every
4 mins or so i guess), I realized that i was totally and utterly screwed. Reading the book has never been the best way to retain the knowledge for me. I don't know what to do here. Should I wait till after the lecture and only read what they went over in class with a few more details? I've already tried spilting the reading up through out the week and it would still encompass all of my time. If i did just highlight the things brought up in class and studied those, perhaps made my own notes from them and lecture, would i still do well? What do you do to combat this problem?
I can get it down to 3.5 mins per page sometimes but my eyes get tired and i slow up. I need guiadence people! Am i the only one with this problem?
If you cannot get all the reading in, make sure you focus on the boxes. In text books these are really important details; i.e. the reason they are in boxes. Also utilize study guides and on line extras that come with the book. I have had instructors that will pull small things out of the chapter that were not covered in classes to test on. This, I'm told, seperates the A students from the B students. LOL.
If you cannot get all the reading in, make sure you focus on the boxes. In text books these are really important details; i.e. the reason they are in boxes. Also utilize study guides and on line extras that come with the book. I have had instructors that will pull small things out of the chapter that were not covered in classes to test on. This, I'm told, seperates the A students from the B students. LOL.
Good luck and just find what works best for you.
i had the same problem this summer when i took A & P II ina 5 week session....fyi, dont do that. anyway, charts, graphs, etc...pay close attention to these....this is the keeper. OUTLINE THE CHAPTER. pick out the main topic, go through, speed read, and write down the main points. go to class and hilight the info you already havethat he goes over, and add on whats missing. this was critical in my class, b/c he used powerpoint for his entire presentation. click click click, once the screen was gone, so was ur info. record the class. after you get ur notes, and the class notes, study those for the test, along with the few diagrams, and that should do it.
Seems like you have gotten some pretty good tips on reading and all. I never could read b/f class b/c it didn't make sense until lecture. Most of our instructors gave us power point pages to have when they went through their lectures so I would make notes right there on the page and then read more indepth once I got home. I didn't read everything but I did look at the boxes and different age considerations for each disease process.
Another thing that I started using 2nd semester was a page that I made out on a legal size sheet of paper. It consisted of several labeled columns such as:
Signs/Symptoms
Tests performed to confirm dx
Nursing Interventions
Drugs used to treat
D/C and pt teaching needs
Referrals
This really helped me b/c I would look at my notes again and write down in the columns what applied, then go back over the text book and add to the sheet and then in study group when we got together I was able to add even more b/c different people catch on to different things so I got a more complete picture. I also found that if I could teach the material and information to someone else (usually some member of my family that thought I was nuts) I had learned and retained the information.
Hope this gives some ideas for you to incorporate into your mode of study and good luck in school.
Am i the only one with this problem? 
stressgal, RN
589 Posts
If you cannot get all the reading in, make sure you focus on the boxes. In text books these are really important details; i.e. the reason they are in boxes. Also utilize study guides and on line extras that come with the book. I have had instructors that will pull small things out of the chapter that were not covered in classes to test on. This, I'm told, seperates the A students from the B students. LOL.
Good luck and just find what works best for you.