Ways to Improve My Learning Efficiency and Effectiveness

Ways to Improve my Learning Efficiency and Effectiveness:

What are techniques in my toolbox I can use to help me learn? 

Techniques to Understanding your Objectives:

-          List the specifics of what you want to accomplish goal-wise the next day before bed.

Mindset to Adopt:

-          Adopt the kaizen model of improvement, little by little, day by day. (read about in Brian Kim’s “Your Competition Is With Yourself and No One Else” article and Anthony “Tony” Robbin’s Awaken the Giant Within)

-          Adopt the mindset that your competition is with yourself and no one else. (improve upon the techniques you use to focus and retain important information; improve upon habits)

-          Start Early to ensure time for questions to come into your awareness and pick up on information that you missed from reading it last time.

  

“Upon contemplation of studying on the last real day before HESI, I remind myself, that I got time, don’t rush over notes like I did for last test, and to have quality over quantity. You want to know what’s going to make a chasm of difference from your classmates and all other nursing student’s out there? By spending time to go over the important details that you miss out on from not reading the book, the important understanding portion, whereas looking at the notes is purely just that. Looking at the notes and remembering “oh, yea, that was on the slide”, but not REALLY UNDERSTANDING why which will contribute to your development in the long run. So ask yourself again Michael, do you want to rush, have a quality of moderate at best or a true foundation of UNDERSTANDING? As in the military special forces, do it RIGHT, or do it AGAIN. Plus this is something that other people, who are not willing to spend as much time like you are, will lag behind. Remember your own signature that is sent in every google email you send to OTHERS.

'If you will do what most people are not willing to do for the next few years, then
you'll be able to do what most people won't be able to do for the rest of their lives.

Extremely concentrated effort in a short period of time builds enough rocket fuel to
help you escape the gravity of mediocrity that entraps everybody else.' "                                               

-          Remember when studying and reviewing, understanding pathophysiology can be very helpful to understanding to the S & Sx, but understanding the interventions (the application aspect on the job) is IMPERATIVE.   

Techniques To Use When Looking Off PowerPoints:

-          When looking at the power point slide…

1.       Formulate a question from the title of the slide.

2.       As you look for the answer, be curious and ask questions about what you are reading. Ex: “Why do you need this?” “What is this for?” “When will I be able to use this?” “What does this mean?” Anticipate test questions. “What would I do if…”

3.       Idea / Technique to help remember what you read: read the sentence, then immediately reword that sentence’s meaning into your own words (don’t have to look away from sentence)

4.       After exploring, ask yourself without looking, “What DID I just take away from this slide/section and is this what I SHOULD take away?” (Finding personal application & Reducing the information) Remember only key words when reciting and to put ideas into your own words.    

(You are surveying the slide/reading section, exploring through questions, reading actively by remembering to be selective- remember key words, not whole sentences-, and then reciting what’s important to take away)  

These Two Applications Will Come Naturally When Following the Above Process:

-          Create your own supplemental research notes that are based off insightful and important parts in the book readings along with any questions you have from the professor’s notes. (Questioning, Reading, wRiting, Reviewing)

-          If what you are studying has similarities with another, list the specifics of each disorder. This way you can compare, contrast, and understand the similarities and differences. This is an example of a technique to use in the wRite and Review of the SQ4R method. (Questioning, Reading, wRiting, Reciting, Reviewing)

Problems That Occur When Studying & Proposed Solutions:

-          I’m looking at the words but I’m zoning out- my mind is elsewhere (Pareto principle; the other 80% of the time). 20% of the time, I’m actually reading the material while making connections, and quizzing myself. 80% of the time, I’m just “looking”/ reading over the words. 20% of the time, I’m actually absorbing it. 

“Some Related Thoughts I Typed Up to Myself on Tuesday; May 14, 2013:

**Make your own notes from the textbook (And maybe even combine with applicable important parts from other resources like Silvestri, Lippincott, and professor’s notes). Remember how you took notes with Andy for the SAT II biology? With diagrams and important points that contribute to understanding? This is needed to truly take the next level when in comparison to your classmates and all other nursing students from state schools. Other people say they want to do ER? Want to put yourself ahead of the competition? You need to do this.

Write about how you felt like getting rid of your blog because you felt overwhelmed from studying yet it feeling very ineffective and just wondering what you were actually absorbing from the time spent studying. Thinking about the 80-20 rule and how to apply it. Feeling like I had all this other stuff I wanted to write about yet this studying was hardly being spent effectively. Then I started outlining and taking my own notes of the textbook mixed with DeBourgh’s notes and that time spent all of a sudden became a lot more productive. I could feel I was absorbing information and getting it, whereas, I did not.”

-          Not completely understanding the why's of what I am reading, just reading over that this/these is/are the symptoms or interventions 

-          When look away to quiz myself, I can’t remember the important specifics (ex: list of symptoms) I just read 

Ideas of How to Solve these Problems:

1.       Create your own notes that are based off textbook readings and professor’s notes. (Do the same type of notes you do for the pathophysiology notes you make but do it for the interventions: how interventions relate to pathophysiology)  

**Remember what Giancarlo said, new nurses, as well as you know it intellectually, when it really happens, you need to use mnemonics to guide yourself step by step. (Use mnemonics to retain for interventions)

2.       If your goal is to know it so well until the point where you can talk and educate people about it, that’s what you need to do. Talk about it.  

A.      Record a video of yourself going over the topic based off your notes without looking off the textbook verbatim (okay to answer questions that come up as you talk about it). Writing the notes in a logical fashion with use of charts and diagrams stimulates visually and requires you to know the material, but can be accomplished at a slower pace. Then talk about it as if you were lecturing on it as this stimulates your auditory sense and requires you to know it at a quicker pace.   

B.      The Following process is helpful if you have to respond to specific questions that if not thinking about them now, may have trouble answering on the spot: (Beneficial for in-depth questions, questions that require being well-thought before hand, and for discussion on controversial topics; Not for questions that can be easily answered and have relatively short answers to):

Outline important and insightful parts with interesting questions like from many product advertisement pages nowadays where they convince you to purchase their merchandise by ask intriguing questions- like there is some huge secret, esoteric knowledge kept from the majority of the masses- that get you to really think and desire to know this lost, clandestine body of knowledge. After all, answers to QUESTIONS is an imperative step in SQ4R to accentuate our active participation and ability to retain information that you spend time on. "Mimicking of product advertisement questions" tactic. (Questioning, Reading, wRiting, Reciting, Reviewing)

Techniques to Get Maximum Recovery Between Studying Periods:

-          Experiment with rest times between studying periods. How much time? How often? How should you rest?

-          Mental rest is what’s most important. Change your thoughts to something besides what you are studying when resting.

-          Physical rest: do some light exercise (10 jumping jacks, 5 push-ups, 3 pull-ups); stretch; contract your muscles for several seconds, then release

-          Perform technique number one under “techniques when studying” while standing. You don’t have to be sitting to be learning.