Nursing school requires a lot of hard work and dedication, but given the stress of the profession, it all makes sense. It does, however, mean that nursing school exams can be quite challenging, so knowing how best to study for them can really give you a leg up. In this article, we’ll be giving you some of our best nursing school tips for success to help you succeed in nursing school.
Is Nursing Difficult to Study?
Is Nursing Difficult to Study?It’s important to remember that nursing, as a profession, is part of the medical field, which means that it is a high-intensity job that requires precision. This can make nursing a hard field to study for, but it is by no means impossible.
How Many Hours Should a Nursing Student Study?
This depends greatly on your daily schedule and how you learn best, but in general, a nursing student should study every day. One of the best study tips for nursing school students is to study every single day. This generally means studying for a few hours every day to help make sure the material is sticking.
This daily studying can take many forms. It can be everything from a study group meeting to sitting down with a tutor to reading your textbook. This daily study time is essential to passing nursing school, but understanding how to utilize your study time well will make this time the most useful that it possibly can be.
One of the best study skills for nurses is to understand how to study effectively. This means understanding that you need to take breaks while you are studying, so you don’t get too burnt out. This also means taking good care of your body. Make sure you are eating good food that will give your brain the energy it needs, get some exercise, ideally outdoors, every day, and get a good night’s sleep. Taking care of your body is key to succeeding at any type of school.
If you are interested in reading more articles on how to pass nursing school, then feel free to check out our other articles on the subject.
How to Pass Nursing School: The Ultimate Guide
How to Succeed in Nursing School: 12 Tips
How to Prepare for Nursing Exams?
Preparing for nursing school exams is a long process. Like we talked about above, making sure that you study every day is key. Another great way to ace nursing tests is to start studying for any test early. This means using some of your daily study time to dedicate to preparing for a test a week or more in advance of the test.
Another way to make sure that you are as prepared as possible for your nursing school exams is to make sure that you have a good background in the subjects you will need throughout nursing school. This is a great way to help you feel more prepared going into nursing school and not feel like you have to go back and review the information you are already expected to know.
If you want to know how best to prepare for nursing school, feel free to check out our article on that topic.
How to Study for Nursing Exams: 5 Tips
Studying for nursing exams can be stressful, but we have some great tips and tricks to help you feel prepared for every exam you encounter throughout nursing school.
1. Make and use a study guide
Having a study guide can be super helpful, especially for tests or quizzes that cover material that you will need to know for a later test or even for your NCLEX exam at the end of nursing school. By creating nursing study guides as you go through your schooling, you are also creating an amazing resource of information for you to draw upon later on.
You can also find nursing exam study guides online that are specific to the NCLEX but creating your own is a great way to go over the information again and again. The more times you go over the information, the more likely it is that the information will stick with you for a long time.
2. Utilize all study resources
Most nursing schools have some study resources that are available to their students. This could be an online database of study resources or a tutoring program that is available for you to use throughout your time in nursing school. Whatever options your schools offer are great resources for you to use to make sure that you are succeeding at nursing school. Those study resources are there for you, so make sure you use them.
3. Focus on critical thinking over memorization
Critical thinking is a skill that will be much more helpful to you in your professional life as a nurse than memorization will be. Critical thinking can also help you figure out a challenging question on a test or exam much better than memorization can. Understanding the systems and how they work logically will help you think through your challenges as opposed to relying on just memorizing facts.
4. Create and follow a study schedule
We’ve talked about it before, but we’ll talk about it again. Studying every day is the key to getting through nursing school and the best way to study every day is to create a nursing school study schedule. Creating a study schedule that works for you and then sticking to your new study schedule is a great way to set yourself up for success in nursing school and beyond.
Creating an effective and useful study schedule can be challenging, so we have some articles that can help you create the best study schedule for you. Creating a study schedule is not something that happens overnight, so set aside some time to really think critically about your life and make a study schedule that will work well for you.
5. Mix up your studying
Studying on your own every day can get pretty boring, so try to keep your studying interesting and engaging by mixing it up. This can mean that you study on your own some days, meet with a study group some days, and go ask your professors questions on other days. This can also mean that you don’t study in the same location each day. This will help keep your brain more engaged, and it won’t create as much of a monotonous routine in your life.
Keeping your study sessions somewhat routine while still making sure you mix them up enough to not become monotonous is key to helping your brain take in and retain all the information you are throwing at it. Learning to study every day is a skill that will take time to develop, so don’t expect it to happen overnight. Cut yourself some slack, but stick with it, and you will get better at maintaining a daily study habit.
How to Pass Nursing School Tests?
Passing nursing school tests can seem like a pretty daunting task, but if you break it down into parts, it can be much more manageable. Understanding how to study is the first step to passing nursing school tests, so make sure that you apply the tips and tricks that we talked about above to your life to give you the best chance possible to pass all your exams in nursing school.
Nursing school exams can seem intense and long, but just remember that the profession that you are training for is also pretty darn intense. Making sure that you give yourself plenty of time to study before any test, no matter how big or small it may seem, is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Another great way to prepare for nursing school exams is to understand how the questions will be asked. If this is a large exam, like the NCLEX, you will be able to find study questions online, but if this is a smaller test, like for a specific professor, make some time to go talk to that professor about what you should expect to form their tests and what type of answers they will be expecting from you.
The key to answering nursing test questions is to be able to understand the question and think critically about the answer. Studying for nursing school tests can take time but being able to read a question and think about the subjects being asked about is a skill that takes time to develop, so don’t rush yourself.
When it comes to studying for your NCLEX exam at the end of your time in nursing school, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to prepare and take plenty of practice exams. This can be really helpful in understanding how prepared or not prepared you are to take the exam.
Large exams, like the NCLEX, also offer many online resources and study guides that you can either use for free or purchase from the company that administers the tests. Investing in some good study resources can be super helpful, but if that’s not in your budget, there are tons of free resources out there that can help you.
Your nursing school might have some resources available for you to help you prepare for your final nursing exams, so don’t hesitate to ask your professors for any tips and tricks that they might have for passing these large exams. You may even find an NCLEX study group that you could join if that is something that interests you. You won’t know what resources are available until you ask, so make sure you speak up and seek out the information you need to succeed.
Wrapping Things Up: How to Study for Nursing Exams
Studying for nursing exams is hard, but it is very doable with the right tools at your disposal. Understanding all the tools that you have is the best way to help yourself prepare for exams throughout nursing school and for exams at the end of your time in nursing school. Remember that nursing school exams are just like any other exam in that they take time to study for, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to prepare for each and every test throughout your time in nursing school.
Check out our ultimate guide to becoming a nurse here.
