We have been quite successful throughout the course of the nursing program. We swear by our study tips to help stay on track, be productive + to combat procrastination. Please read along to see what has worked for us!
MAKE A STUDY SCHEDULE
We always start off by sitting down + making a realistic study schedule prior to studying for our classes. We keep the following in mind when creating this schedule:
1. We calculate our grades for each class using Ben Eggleston grade calculator. (Click here for the link). From here, this helps us prioritize what classes will need the most attention during our studying time. It shouldn't always come down to marks, however we are wanting to have competitive applications for NP school, which is why we do this. ALSO, it helps us calm down knowing that we need only a certain percentage to pass a course.
2. We use our day planner that we purchased at homesense (similar to TJ Maxx in the states) to plan out a study schedule that fits our already hectic schedule. We include time slots for our classes, food breaks + at least one hour break for exercise or to watch a TV show for a mental break.
COMBAT PROCRASTINATION
Procrastination, it gets the best of us! Think of the hours you can spend doing productive things, rather than searching your social media. Here are our tips to beat this
1. We have been so blessed to have found the productivity planner to help us stick to our study schedule. It is a daily check in with tasks that must be done. It contains checklists (that are SO satisfying when you can check tasks off), helps your prioritize most important tasks + help us get more done in less time!
2. There is an app blocker you can download for your mac. This app is called "self control". It can block websites for up to 24 hours so you can avoid unnecessary browsing during your study time.
3. Use the new iPhone update to set time limits on your apps or downtime (time when your phone will not have access to your phone - besides calls + set apps). You can do this by going to your settings > screen time.
4. We set alarms to keep us on track. We both use our apple watches to set these alarms so we can avoid the use of our phones at all times. When we are in a time crunch, we sometimes set goals with our alarms - for example if we have 12 classes for one course, we plan to study 1 hour each class over 2 days (6 hours a day).
USE A WHITEBOARD
Using a whiteboard is something that we have been doing since semester one! It has worked wonders for us, and for everyone who we have suggested it to. Along with our whiteboards we do the following:
1. Make online cue cards. We have learned through trial and error that hand making cue cards are much too time consuming for us. If you type out cue cards, it is a lot more timely. We use our cue cards to quiz ourselves + write our answers out on the whiteboard. If we answer is correctly we put it in the "correct" card pile. Similarly, we put the ones answered wrong into the "review" cue card pile. This strategy helps with a lot of repetition to help memorize terms or concepts.
2. Acronyms are something we swear by! We create a ton of acronyms (we write the out on one piece of paper as we create them), then practice them on our whiteboards. We use two colours when doing this to help with memorization!
TALK IT OUT
Talking it out with a study buddy + teaching each other is a great way to memorize things. It helps fill in the gaps or details that you may not know, as well as gives you a chance to vocalize your learning. We also have some girls in our class who have recorded themselves on their phone, and play the voice memos while commuting to and from clinical or classes (especially helpful for those who have a further commute!).
USE YOUR TEXTBOOK QUESTION BANK
We just recently started doing this since our previous year! The textbook questions help you get an idea of what kind of questions you may be asked. Our nursing textbooks have online resources with more questions/quizzes. These have been super helpful for our success. Do check out your online resources that come with your text - they helped us greatly during our maternity rotation!
GET SOME FUN SCHOOL SUPPLIES
To help keep us motivated, we like to purchase cute school supplies. I know it sounds pretty silly, however this is something we love. We like to get new highlighters, pens and tabs to help keep us organized. By the end of our study week, our highlighters and pens are often dry - perfect timing for our next supply shop! Nothing is better than having cute supplies to help your page become nice + alive with colour! Be sure to check out our DIY study cheat sheet blog post to get some inspiration around creating beautiful study guides to help you stay focused + motivated.
GET SOME SLEEP!
This is HUGE! We always set goals to not study past 1130 pm to ensure that we get at least 7 hours of sleep. We are huge sleep advocates! You can't be productive if you aren't sleeping good or exhausted! We will pop a melatonin if we find it hard to get to sleep if we are finding it difficult to turn our minds off (make sure you always follow the labels + consult your doctor if this is okay for you!).
We hope these study tips help you survive your nursing school exams! We wish you luck with your finals! Please message us if you have any additional tips - we love hearing from our followers!
Syd & Tara
XX
Comments