Welcome class of 2021!

Please explore this site for ideas about studying and test taking in nursing school.  The student videos are especially helpful, as they contain tips from former nursing students, folks who have been there, in your place.

According to the authors of Make It Stick (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014), “We’re easily seduced into believing that learning is better when it’s easier, but the research shows the opposite:  when the mind has to work, learning sticks better.”  One way to make the mind work is through retrieval practice, such as with self-testing.  This, the authors argue, gets more mind-at-work traction than rereading book chapters over and over.

Continue reading The value of retrieval →

Not that anyone has or would ever do this, but a good look at the real effects of cheating.

Test-Taking Tactics

A handful of things you can do to improve your recall of information for tests.

1. Focus on the thing to be learned and minimize distractions.

Experts suggest that the problem is not digging memories out of our brains.  The real problem is getting the memory in.  Distractions affect how memories get stored.  You want to recall something?

Continue reading Studying to improve recall →

So you’ve taken that first test — what now?  Now’s a good time to critically think about your study habits.  Ask yourself if what you did brought you the results you wanted.  If not, look at your time management.  Are you studying at least 3 hours for every hour you spend in class?  Think about your reading.  Did you read the assignments before class?  Did you take notes on your reading? Think about your note taking.  Did you take good notes?  Did you connect those notes to your textbook or your PowerPoints?  Did you try out any practice questions?

Explore the student videos and more student videos, and review the PowerPoint on test taking ideas.