Some Study Skills

Hello there fellow nontrads. I am officially done with my ICU rotation and starting on Tuesday I will be at my combined EM/FM rotation. Also next month I have 3 interviews making it a total of 6. And the countdown to match day has begun (February 14th).

So I decided to write about study skills since in the past I wrote about time management. Now as nontrads, many of us have not been in school for a while and have either lost the study skills we once had or never really had them to begin with. And usually that translates to poor performance on exams. Most of the time though, we have the information in our head but we are so nervous about the exam that we blank out. And I think that these ideas can help with all types of educations.

The secret is..................Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition. The more times you read about it, the more it will sink in. Once you start with Repetition, the second secret is pattern recognition.

For example: When I would start a class, I would take notes and listen as well as I can. Of course, during that time I would miss some things because I was writing notes. But that was alright because I was recording the class, In the old days (1990's) I used a portable tape recorder. Then, on my way to work, I would pop the tape into the car and listen during my commute to/from work. Then at least I would hear what the teacher was saying. And because I was not writing anything, I did not miss anything.  In addition, I would then transfer my notes from the presentation I wrote all over to a notebook in outline form. This forced me to read the notes several times as I was writing them. However, before I would start a new set of notes, I would read all of the notes that I had written up to that moment. As the semester went on, of course that took longer and longer to do. Then before the exam, at least 2 weeks before. I would put all of my notes together into a review sheet and study that.

So how would I not get distracted? Good question, I would listen to white noise.

In the past, I would listen to a recording of a thunderstorm. It was enough to break the silence and not let my mind wander. Now with my ipod, I downloaded the whitenoise app and there are plenty of white noises to use. Presently, I have been using an mp3 that my friend had told me about that helps with brain waves and what not. I noted it in a previous post.

To prepare for an exam though, I would hunt the internet for inline quizzes and exams. You need to play with keywords. And I was able to take practice tests to see where I was lacking.

I hope that this helps fellow non trads. You can do it. Just keep your eyes on the prize. As always, below are some books that I think would help. Until next time. And if I do not see you sooner: Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy it, you deserve it.