What to Look For in a Study Partner

What To Look For in a Study Partner

A Post by Rae from Nursing 101

So yesterday, you found out what it's like to study alone. I didn't want to just portray one way of studying in nursing school, so I asked my friend Rae to explain how to study with a study partner!

Finding a good study partner in Nursing School is like finding a good husband. 

You don’t want someone who doesn’t pull their own weight because then you waste valuable study time teaching instead of learning more. But you also don’t want someone who is too serious because you don’t want to feel like you’re in boot camp or can’t have any fun. 

So you have to find that happy medium and if you are lucky you’ll find someone to have all the way through nursing school. By time it’s over you’ll partner will probably know you better than you know yourself. 

Thankfully I found my partner. We met in Biology a year before clinical started and we started in the same semester. We try to always have at least lecture together and if we’re lucky clinical too. We share the responsibility of the material. If notes need to be made we split the chapters and email our work to each other. If we have multiple HW assignments due we split those as well. Work smart people. 

Before our study sessions we take a minute to write out a schedule and include breaks and then we talk about where we each feel we need more help. We go over our notes together because sometimes someone else will hear something or write something down that you didn’t. We’re very much on the same page and sometimes when we are delirious from the exhaustion we decide hey let’s take a nap. 

We complement each other well. 

Sometimes I’m a little tightly wound so it’s good to have someone a little more relaxed than me to remind me that the sky isn’t actually falling. 

If you can, find a partner who you feel comfortable with outside of school so that you can have home study sessions; and you want to feel comfortable calling them up when you have trouble with something and can’t quite figure it out. 

We quiz each other as we study. Having to randomly recall information helps make it stick. 

Every night before a test my study partner comes to my house and we study together till about midnight and she spends the night and we go to take the test together. I love having that support in the morning when I wake up. We review what we learned over coffee and breakfast and help calm each other down and sometimes even say a little prayer before we leave. 

When looking for a study partner you want to find someone who you could be friends with outside of school. You need to enjoy spending time with them otherwise you’ll never want to study and that makes it harder to learn. 

And once you pick your study partner there should be an unspoken knowledge that this is a commitment and no matter what you will always help each other in anything they need, whether it be personal or school related because let’s face it sometimes a study session can turn into a much needed therapy session. 

Like I said a good study partner is like a good life partner. Love the one you’re with. 


And finally, the winners of the giveaway:

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Ladies, check your emails! 

This is also the end of the nursing series! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have! I certainly loved working with Rae and all of your awesome comments on the posts!


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