Re-learning How to Learn

I have written briefly on this topic in a previous post which I will post a link to  at the bottom, but I want to write further about one of my biggest struggles this past year.  In fact, it was hands down my biggest.

Last summer as I packed to go to college I secretly thought that my biggest problems would be social ones.  As you have previously read, I'm shy.  An extrovert (which I didn't realize at the time), but I'm shy.  But I rarely allowed myself to think about those types of problems.  My defense mechanism is to entirely ignore and forget about future problems (especially social ones) until the situation is right in my face.  My life mantra has really become I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  Which has seemingly helped but is entirely off topic for this post.  What actually became my biggest problem was having no idea how to study.

I don't have first hand experience with any other high school but mine, But I have heard time and time again that this is many student biggest struggles when they reach college.

I was a B/B- student in high school and studying was essentially non-existent in my life.  Not even my friends who had straight A's all through high school studied more than the night before a test.  It was incredibly easy to slide by.  Which I now will never forgive myself for doing, because my college offers basically guaranteed scholarships based on your GPA and ACT score.  If I had actually bothered to learn the material in high school I could have achieved close to a 4.0 and had a better ACT score which would saved me a lot of the debt grief I will now be going through... I basically threw away thousands upon thousands of dollars...

But again, slightly off topic.

Opening a textbook and sitting down to study was entirely new for me.  Recording lectures and actually reading a textbook was new for me.  Spending my free time in the library only began spring of my senior year when I got my preliminary "acceptance" letter from my first choice school saying that I was accepted for enrollment but only into the 5-year nursing track not the 4-year track, but that a .18 bump in my GPA would get me in.  I had less than two months to do that.  I sat in the library alone every morning and during every lunch and I sometime even went to the public library after the school library closed to continue studying or working on a paper.

I did it.  I sent in my final high school transcripts and the acceptance letter came.

But other than that studying was a foreign concept.  Once I got to college, I had to do a trial and error approach that lasted for far too long before I finally figured out what I had to do to pass.  Thankfully that was before I outright failed anything.

I eventually realized that I am a kinesthetic/tactile and visual learner.  I actually have to watch and follow what the professor is doing while he is saying it, just listening does nothing for me.  I also discovered that the dreaded, horrible, make-your-life-miserable "mind-maps" that my physiology prof was so fond of actually made things light-years easier when I finally caught on.

The best tip I have if you are both a tactile and visual learner is when learning vocabulary or a concept is to use the acronym system (or lists) or visualize something really funny that sounds close to the word or helps you to remember another section of material.  I especially like the acronyms for anatomy and physiology because they allow you to remember large amounts of information in a certain order and its much less likely that you will make a simple mistake such as listing something in the wrong place or out of order.  And as a quick side note: please, please, PLEASE, for your own good... do not ever stick with a way of studying that is not working just because you are too lazy/stubborn to find/learn a new way.  Yes, that was another of my mistakes...

Find out what kind of learner you are and make the needed adjustments, you will thank yourself later.  I would even go as far as to say that no two people will have the same optimal study strategy.  My roommate and myself: polar opposite study habits.  I study flashcards, do the readings, watch YouTube videos, and review day in day out.  She browses the chapter and her notes two hours before a big test; we get the same grade...

Find your optimal study strategy and run with it!

This past year was crazy.  But in the end, the long hours paid off.  I wish all my fellow nursing/future nursing students good luck and I hope you are able to learn from my mistakes and excel in your studies.

Leave a comment below and let me know what your favorite method of hitting the books is!

Here is the link to my previous post where I touched on my study struggles: Sorting Through It All
   

I Am Not An Introvert

For at least a solid decade of my life I believed the lie that I was an introvert.  I let it define who I was and it held me back.

Now, let me clarify that being an introvert is not bad and it doesn't hold everyone back. Introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts are what make the world go round.  They each prefer to fill different necessary spots in this world that a person with another personality type would rather die if they had to do.  It's how we're made.

But, I tried to shove myself into a box I didn't belong in like a baby first trying to play with a shape sorter, I wasn't gonna fit.  I had labeled myself an introvert (and later an ambivert) and had adamantly argued that I was NOT shy.  I thought I was comfortable.


Well, I realize now that my first tip-off that I was certainly not an introvert was the fact that up until around 9th grade I had loved school... because I could hangout with friends, and I was ALWAYS friends with the new kids.  But at some point in early middle school I began to feel self-conscious just like every other preteen.  So naturally I got a little more shy, but then came the innocent sounding label: Quiet.  And I believed it.  I believed that I wasn't the spontaneous, talkative girl who loves socializing.  Which is, in part, true.  I am shy.  But I am an extrovert.  Looking back now, despite the fact that I wasn't and still am not the most talkative unless you give me copious amounts of caffeine, in that case, watch out world!  I was always the last to leave any group event or gathering because I didn't want to miss out on anything fun that may still happen.  I have always been an adrenaline junkie :) and love trying new things and thrill seeking.  Definitely not qualities of your textbook introvert.

But, thanks to the wonderful and amazing girls on my dorm wing at college this past year, I gradually began to realize that I hated to close my door and I always wanted to go to dances and get fro-yo, and *GASP*  I even knocked on people's door to invite them to come swing dancing.  (Not to mention DRAGGED others there too because I was not going to miss it :) )  I was so much happier this year, not that I was depressed before, but I realized who I was thank to the amazing friends I've made this year, and that person may be shy (and I'm working on that) but loves to meet new people after the initial 'talking to a new person' terror is gone, loves to go on 12:30 AM doughnut runs to a packed bakery, and especially loves to go country west coast swing dancing! :)  Thank you to everyone who made this past year one of the best years of my life.

Yeah I should have had this figured out long ago :)  It seems pretty obvious now.  If you had a similar experience I would love to here about it!  Leave a comment below!
    

Here's the link to part 1 of this post: Sorting Through It All