What are some Helpful Unique Study Habits/Techniques

[nursingpassion]

I am a 22 year old female with ADHD, GAD, and panic disorder. I am in my final year of nursing school and I am having a very hard time studying. Different study techniques that i use to use are not working well anymore. When studying, I have a very hard time concentrating for more than 2-5minutes and/or feel very fatigued. Most suggestions online are to take frequent breaks, have consistently adequate sleep, and to not cram. Unfortunately, these are very unrealistic to me as I have an exam, a ton of homework, and have to work every week. I do take frequent breaks, normally 30 minutes studying 10 minute break, but its very hard to get into the swing of things. I do take Adderall XR and it helped a lot in the beginning of the semester.

Basically,

I am looking for some creative suggestions to help me focus and/or get me excited to study thus making me more awake and less sleepy. There is a ridiculous amount of information to study and it's hard and can be very bland or boring at times.

I am a hands on learner so when the material isn't something I can physically practice, my focus drifts away.... like right now for example lol

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[JLBowman]

I went to nursing school about 30 years ago, not knowing I had adhd. But, the study technique I devised was to use index cards writing a question on one side and the answer on the other. The key is to trust your brain. When you read a question on a card and get the answer right, set that card aside. The pile of cards gets smaller. That’s the game and the reward your brain gets. If you got an answer right, trust that it’s in your brain. Then, when you face that multiple choice test, keep trusting your brain. If your not certain, pick the answer that jumps out to you and don’t try to overthink it. You’re probably going to be right. Rarely when you go back and change an answer is it a good thing. I will tell you that I generally waited to study until the night before the test. 🤣 Good luck. Nursing can be a good job choice for us. When we switch into crisis mode we make excellent nurses.

[_Sarah_J]

Have you checked YouTube? How To ADHD is especially good- I’d be surprised if you weren’t able to find something g helpful there!!

[will_change_later]

I have no idea what it's like to study for nursing school, so perhaps this is useless, but here's what helped me with passing exams:

I looked for material beyond the course, like educational youtube videos on a specific topic, current news articles, relevant podcast episodes, on rare occasion even books that covered way more than I ever needed but were so well written I could not stop reading. Tackling a topic from different perspectives gave me a broader understanding, made things easier to grasp and reduced aversion. Yes, it may sound time consuming. But perhaps a few minutes into listening to an enthusiastic expert podcast you *see* something you heard in class in a different light which in turn gives you that spark... or you hear something that surprises you and now you want to check your notes...

You could even couple listening to auditory educational material (headphones!!) with doing boring housework. In fact, I actually highly recommend it 😁

All the best to you!