Learn How to Study in Nursing School to Pass Your Nursing Exams

"Study Smarter, Not Harder: My Strategy for Acing Nursing Exams"

Too Much Information And So Little Time!!

"If you’re looking through the chapters in your Fundamentals or Pharmacology book, wondering how you're supposed to know What to study and How to learn everything before your next exam, you're not alone. I’ve been there—overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsure where to even begin. But after completing nursing school and getting my Doctorate (Yes it took me that long), I finally developed a study strategy that would have helped me pass my nursing exams with confidence and that has helped the nursing students I am currently tutoring pass their nursing exams. In this post, I’m sharing exactly how to study smarter—not harder—for your nursing exams, and Thrive in Nursing School"

Information Overload

Okay, so you get into nursing school and in your first week they are telling you that your next nursing exam will cover 3 chapters with each chapter being at least 20 pages long. When you ask your professor how to study- They tell you to just “look at the objectives” as a Study Guide. Now your even more confused because you look at the objectives and they are just as broad as your professor’s answer. So you end up reading the entire chapter and highlighting everything important. You go back to study all of the highlighted information, only to realize you have almost highlighted the entire chapter. Then when you take your first nursing exam, you see some of the content you have studied on there, but the test questions and answers are so tricky you have a hard time picking the “best” answers.  

So In This Blog-  

You will learn how to “Think” like a nurse when studying for your nursing exams.

• Because thinking like a nurse when studying is the only way to ensure you pick the “Best” answer for nursing exams.
• How to study nursing school content
• How to apply nursing school content

When Studying The Chapter

• Be sure to focus on all the abnormal findings or diseases/disorders.
  • Such as Assessment findings ( Low blood pressure, Low Oxygen), and disorders such as Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus.
• Once you identify the abnormal findings/disorders
  • Ask yourself “How do I know this patient has this abnormal finding or disorder”
    • Using your senses- Write down everything you See, Hear, Smell  about the disorder
    • Write down what the patient may say to may you think this patient has this disorder
    • Write down what would you do if your patient has this abnormal findings or disorder.
    • Write down when will you notify the provider.
      • Would you assess the patient sign’s and symptoms first or will you notify the provider?

BONUS TIP- When studying Record yourself talking out your notes and then listen to it while driving in the car, in the shower, or walking to class etc.

Please feel free to comment on some of your struggles in studying for Nursing Exams to be featured on a future Blog Post.

See you guys in a couple of weeks for a breakdown of how this is done in your Fundamentals class.