Study/Test tips

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Hello ladies (and gentlemen!) :)

I am in my first semester of nursing school, and I'm just wondering if anyone has some useful tips for studying? A lot of the stuff in my nursing program is all about READING and I personally can't just read something one time and retain it. Our teachers do give us power points for each chapter, so I take notes on those during lecture. Yet the more I read, I feel like I'm not retaining anything.

So my question is, do you have any study habits/tips you would like to share? What works for you? Any suggestions?

Any response is much appreciated, and good luck! :nurse:

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Specializes in Hope to be in the NICU.

Personally, I try to read a paragraph or two and then summarize that in my own words. If Im able to, then I understood what I read.

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I don't retain reading material easily either, so to help myself here is what I do to study... (Hope it helps!)

We have two weeks between each test, so the first week I bust my balls to get all my reading done so I have the whole second week to study the material...

First - I read the chapter and highlight while doing so.

Second - I make typed outlines of the chapter from the highlighted material.

Third - I do the workbook that came along with our fundamentals book

Fourth - I make flashcards from the workbook

Lastly - I study the outlines I have made from the reading material and the flash cards, so far it's seemed to work for me! :)

Maybe a few of those would work for you too! It is very hard to fit it all in between class/lab/clinical/and careplans! Good luck to you!!!!

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i record lectures, it helps me a lot, listen to it in the car or making dinner whenever

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Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care, Trauma.

Mind mapping has been crutial for me. If you're a visual learner and you've never heard of mind mapping, I'd suggest you do a youtube search for "tony buzan mind mapping" and check out a few of the videos. It's a technique I only learned recently, and it's revolutionized the way I take notes, study for tests, and retain information.

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what I've noticed when I study sometimes is that, I can't just read it and retain it, so I go ahead and get the reading out of the way, quiz myself with the study guide that comes with the book and whatever I get wrong thats what I focus on. Also, 15 to 20min. of review a day has helped to not overwhelm myself but yet its fresh in my head! hope this helps, good luck!

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Thanks everyone! These are great tips!! :thankya:

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