Welcome to the holiday month of December! If I had one gift to give to you during this fast-paced season even with the pandemic precautions we are all participating in, it would be the gift of “working smarter versus harder”. The best way to demystify all of the review imperative for final and NCLEX® success is to simplify your studying. Perhaps I should also say, it is a good idea to simplify your life as well.

Do you ever feel as a nursing student that you are in a sailboat navigating in a large ocean of information not clear as to where to start and stop? Do you ever feel challenged to redirect the compass to an attainable and manageable body of water? There is a lot of information in nursing that is “nice to know” versus “necessary to know”. The level of competency for you as a nursing student and new graduate has continued to increase based on the demands of the health care industry. This is further compounded by the fact that you must understand many undesirable effects, drug-drug interactions, disease-drug interactions, food-drug interactions, laboratory values to monitor with specific medications, etc.

The great news is that we CAN answer these challenges through our creative memory strategies and techniques. Instead of spending countless hours attempting to memorize “nice to know” information, we specialize in learning strategies that assist you in mastering “necessary to know” information. Research reports that the brain does not learn information in isolation. The brain learns by chunking of information. Chunking begins the process of building a structure for storage, (ie., mnemonics, images, charts, rhymes, songs, jingles, etc.). Chunking strategies allow information to be organized in the brain and stored for future application.

We wish you success on your December journey with studying! Thank you for allowing us to partner with you as you study for your finals and the NCLEX®. We will have fun and learn how to study “smarter versus harder”!