1) First and foremost determine how you learn, most likely it will be a combination
of the following learning methods Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic or Tactile.
A Visual learning style one tends to think in pictures and learns best from visual displays & taking detailed notes.
An Auditory learning style one tends to prefer verbal lectures. Written
information has little meaning until it is heard. Therefore they may benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder to record the lecture and play it back later.
A tactile learner prefers the hands-on approach
2) Document all of the activities you take part in over a couple of days and how long you are involved in these activities. There's no need to write a paragraph for each activity, just create a list and note the time spent on each activity. To give you an idea of the types of activities you should be looking for they are, sitting at red lights (each red light is typically at least 2 - 2 and a half minutes long), using the bathroom, standing in lines at grocery stores, restaurants, driving to and from school or work, etc. What we are looking for here are activities that consume time that can be captured for study by multi-tasking. Even though you may only spend a minute or two on an activity, don't discount it, you'll be amazed at how quickly the time adds up. You'll see in the next section why these times are important and how they will help you study
3) Study in short bursts at a time. About 15 - 20 minutes each, then get up and walk around, get a something to drink. Basically I'm saying take a 2 - 3 minute break every 15 - 20 minutes, and then return to study. Don't study more than about 2 one half ones at a time, even when using this technique. It has been proven that your maximum or peak learning occurs only for this duration of time, after that your retention time dwindles considerably and you are wasting time if you study longer than 15 - 20 minutes at a time.
4) Play baroque music (Classical music with 60 beats per minute) low and in the background while you study. This too has been documented to help your brain work and improve retention. It works even if hate classical music. Many people say they dislike classical music, but if you have ever watched the older Warner Brothers cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Porky Pig, and many others, the music in the background is Classical music.
5) Take short notes, no long dissertations on the note taking, make them sort and sweet noting key points and cutting out verbosity. Leave out unnecessary words like: the, of, in, body, etc. You will just be noting connections and import details. You'll be glad you did when you have to review all of this material for tests and, more importantly for final exams. I will post some complete notes later on that you may use and that demonstrates the type of notes that you should be taking. For now, here are a couple of examples for note taking:
GI Tract Influences:
Psychological:
Stress
Anxiety
Physiologic:
Cancers
Ulcerative Colitis
Inflammatory bowel diseases
Organic:
Diet
Smoking
Alcohol
AND
Histamines – Local Regulators – Stomach mucosa
H1 - controls stomach & muscle contraction, & capillary dilation
H2 - controls HCL secretion, Anaphylaxis
6) The last key for part one is to review a few pages of your notes at night, just before going to sleep each night. This means take your notes to bed with you and read them just before falling asleep. You want to avoid any other stimulation after reviewing your notes and allow your brain to digest them and store them correctly. This improves retention and recall.
7) Write all papers early, don’t wait until the last day or two before it’s due. All assigned papers should be written and checked for spelling and punctuation errors. Then put the paper away for three to four days. Putting the paper down for a few days enables you to read it from a fresh point of view.
Often when one reads a paper they have just written their mind inserts thoughts and ideas in the appropriate locations, smoothes the flow of the paper and makes appropriate connections between points in the paper. Then pick it back up and reread it your self, have someone else read it and get their point of view. Ask them what they understood from the paper and compare it to the intent of the paper. Make any corrections necessary and take it to your schools writing lab to be checked for grammatical errors, word usage, punctuation, proper structure and ensure that the paper flows correctly. It should then rewritten to conform to the writing lab instructors comments.
Once it’s rewritten take it to Kinko’s and have it bound. It doesn’t matter how much accurate, valid, and topic related information you have in the paper if you have grammatical and word usage errors or the paper doesn’t flow smoothly from one section to the next, or from one idea to the next or look good you will loose points on the paper. Trust me; you will need all of the points you can get whenever or where ever you can get them.
8) Learn the meaning of key words like assess, collaborative, intervention, outcome, nursing diagnosis, objective, subjective, physiologic, psychosocial, and psychological. I’ll have more key words in the test taking strategies section of this blog.
9) Once you have learned the meaning of the words above you will need to treat these as categories and then develop the ability to categorize things or group things within each of these categories. You’ll see why later when I cover test taking strategies.
10) Learn and review medical terminology well. It will get you out of a bind during tests. If you know the terminology you will be able to apply educated guessing when you are stuck on a test question. Believe me, it really helps! It has gotten me out of quite a few jams.
11) Learn to identify pharmacology classes, side effects for each class, and the primary reason a class of drugs is used. I post some pharmacology information later to help you learn this information.
12) Learn the key Fluid and Electrolytes and relationships between them and other Electrolytes and hormones. I will post a complete section on Fluid and Electrolytes later.
13) Learn Arterial Blood Gases (ABG’s), how to interpret and differentiate between Acidosis and Alkalosis and Metabolic and Respiratory problems. I’m currently working on a simple technique to select between acidosis and alkalosis and also metabolic and respiratory problems.
14) Read ahead!!! You must read ahead, that doesn’t only mean read the required reading prior to lecture, but also read and stay at least one lecture reading assignment ahead. Things don’t always sink in until later. The reason is due to you needing more information to see how things work and fit together. This is when the information sinks in; the only way to do this is to read ahead. In addition, at least at the school I attend, the instructors are notorious for asking questions on a test from information to be given in a future lecture.
