How to Study for Exams Part I

Exams in nursing school are not easy, but they are totally do-able.

Over the next few posts, I’m going to share the method that I have used in order to get A/A- in terms one through four.

This is what has worked for me; make sure you are developing your own study method that works for you. I have classmates who can study way less than I do and only miss one question on the exam as well as those who studied way more than I did and fail.

If you follow this method, though, I promise you will not be worse off than if you hadn’t applied any of these techniques at all.

---

How Much Time Do I Need to Study for an Exam?

The short answer is that it depends on your goals. The difference between the amount of effort required to pass an exam and getting 100% is significant (in my experience).

In the last post, I went over how to make a weighted grade sheet. Because I have that, and I’ve been able to pretty accurately predict what my grade will be, I’ve decided to experiment with the amount of time I study for exams throughout nursing school just to see what worked and what didn’t.

Here are my results:

• To guarantee I get an A, I need to start studying 5-7 days prior to the exam.

• If the goal is just to pass, I have been able to study for 2-4 days to achieve that. Usually, I will see A/B grades with this amount of studying, but I would definitely say more than 2-4 days is needed to guarantee an A for me. If I study for only two days, though, it has to be a pretty dedicated two days; they are long study sessions, and I had been studying during class as well (which is a method I'll mention in a future post).

• By term 4, I hadn’t gotten 100% on a concept exam yet. I really wanted to see how much effort it would take to miss zero questions. I started studying 10 days out and that worked. I am unsure if studying 8/9 days would have done the trick, but I feel like if I wanted to get another 100%, I would probably plan to study for 10-14 days.

• On the flip side, I was also really curious what would happen if I only studied for one day. The only time I attempted this (Exam 1 in ADN 450), I received a 77% before questions were thrown out/points were given back (which raised my grade to 84%). In case you weren’t already aware, a 77% is a failing grade in nursing school, so I would definitely not recommend studying for only one day!

Like I said, everyone is different, but in my experience, the ideal amount of time to study specifically for a concept exam is one week. This absolutely does not mean I’m studying for 24 hours a day for a week, but if I want an A, ideally I start the process I’ll be describing in the following posts about a week out from the exam. The week-long time frame definitely matches up with advice from most universities and peer-reviewed literature I've seen.

---

What does a week-long study schedule look like?

In future posts, I'll go into more detail, but here is what I would prefer to do in the week leading up to an exam.

• 7 days before the exam: put together a study guide using readings, powerpoints, class notes, ATI books, NCLEX comprehensive review book

• 6 days before: finish up the study guide; start making flashcards

• 5 days before: finish making flashcards based on the study guide; try to run through them once if possible

• 4 days before: study content flashcards; fill in any information I feel like I'm missing

• 3 days before: study content flashcards

• 2 days before: rotate between NCLEX-style questions and content flashcards

• 1 day before: rotate between NCLEX-style questions and content flashcards; review any weak spots by watching YouTube videos

• Day of the exam: spend an hour or two running through content flashcards, watch a couple relevant YouTube videos