There’s a LOT to memorize when you’re studying to become a doctor or a nurse. Contrary to popular opinion, that’s a good thing. You don’t want an ER medic quickly Googling something in the midst of diagnosing a possible aneurysm.
On the other hand, you have a mountain of information to internalize and master.
Yes, this task has been done before by thousands of students who are now doctors and nurses. Lots of them did it through brute memorization. However, there is an efficient way to go about doing this, saving you a ton of time, sleepless nights, and prematurely grey hairs.
In this article, we’ll look at the most important habit you’ll need for nursing and medical school and how flashcards can help you cultivate this habit.
The Most Important Habit In Medical And Nursing School
The results are in and ... (drumroll) ... the most important habit to get through nursing or medical school is daily studying. Just a little each day.
I know, boring, right?
Perhaps you were hoping for some learn-in-your-sleep technique or illegal North Korean mind hack. Yeah, sorry: not going to happen.
The truth is, in fact, daily studying IS a ninja-level hack ... just clothed in extremely mundane garb.
It’s a story as old as Aesop: the tortoise and the hare. The hare tries to succeed in sprints and ends up losing to the tortoise, who keeps going—not hurrying or slacking, just keeping a steady pace. Granted, the tortoise wasn’t studying organic chemistry, but you get the idea.
Once an activity becomes a habit, you actually spend less brainpower doing it. For most people, a morning coffee (or three, if you’re in med school) is so automatic; you can do it while semi-conscious. Building a strong study habit will bring the same level of effortlessness to your daily school routine.
Because passing medical and nursing school requires you to absorb a small ocean of facts and data, students who try to cram it all in at the end of each term will end up sinking. Even if this strategy worked for you in high school, it won’t now, unless you have T1000 memory capabilities.
[Pssst! These totally free and entirely customizable study planners and exam countdown sheets will help you stay hyper focused and on track to crush your study goals!]
The Smart Way To Build A Strong Daily Study Habit
Regular studying is the best way to ensure that even if you don’t exactly cruise through your medical exams, you at least look like someone who has things under control.
It’s also a far more efficient way to learn. Our brains are designed to store information in our memories via repetition over time. Crammed information disappears from memory quite quickly, which isn’t a good thing when your knowledge set is your toolkit for saving lives.
So, how do you make your study habits easy? Well, in our current digital age, when one’s mobile phone has practically become an extension of the physical self, it makes sense to take your study time into the mobile world.
With a mobile study app, it’s convenient to study anytime, anywhere. You can make the most of those little in-between times when you’re waiting for a bus or sitting on the can. (Just not so long that your feet fall asleep.)
How Flashcards Help Build Strong Study Habits
Sure, breaking content into bite-sized chunks that you can conveniently study in a mobile app is a great way to facilitate those small daily study sessions we mentioned that are so important. But it's the actual cognitive learning principles behind digital flashcard apps like Brainscape and Quizlet that help you really turn studying into a habitual and effective daily practice.
Active Recall
Firstly, studying content via flashcards engages your powers of active recall, which is a far more efficient method of learning than futile multiple choice drills or simply reading a textbook.
When you have to retrieve the information from your brain with no cues in place, you’re creating a much stronger memory trace. You’ll notice the difference at exam time when the answers to questions surface easily because you’ve already done the hard work of retrieval.
This is because active studying is twice as effective as passive studying. By studying this way, you'll spend a lot less time having to learn.
Spaced Repetition
Secondly, apps like Anki and Brainscape have algorithms that use the power of spaced repetition to guide you through new material rapidly. Spaced repetition means you see fresh content at just the right rate to learn fast and avoid cognitive overload. You’re repeating familiar content at the optimal intervals to keep it firm in your memory. Spaced repetition speeds up your learning rate, as you’re not overwhelmed by new content or seeing familiar content any more frequently than you need to.
Because digital flashcard apps leverage these key cognitive learning principles, even a short study session is super potent and gets you a step or two further in your studies.
Further Tips For Building A Strong Daily Study Habit
Using a mobile app means you can study anywhere, at any time. You can sneak in short 5, 10, 15, 20-minute study sessions throughout the day. These ‘small wins’ accumulate over time, making it easier and easier to break the study opposition barrier as your brain gets used to quickly switching into study mode.
There’s a cool concept called ‘don’t break the chain’ popularized by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld has written one joke a day for years. Once you’ve studied (even a little bit) every day for a week, there’s a stronger urge to not ‘break the chain.’ The longer you carry on a daily habit, the stronger it gets. Eventually, you’ll find it easier to study every day than not.
Using an app like Brainscape or RemNote means it's easy to keep the chain going and pick up where you left off. No shuffling through dusty textbooks, trying to remember where you last fell asleep over your study notes. Just open the app and tap Study.
Tortoise Beats Hare (And Aces Med School)
So there you have it: all the reasons why a regular study habit is a must if you want to succeed in nursing or medical school.
Consistency and good habit creation are skills whose benefits will follow you throughout your career in medicine. Plus, you’ll be doing your future self a massive favor when exam time comes around, as you say goodnight to all the frazzled crammers and head to bed, well-rested, prepared, and confident.
Go forth and study daily! (Not quite the catchiest phrase, but like we said, your future self will love you …)
**NCLEX-RN® is a registered trademark of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), which neither sponsors nor endorses this product.
Additional Reading
- How to study medications for the NCLEX
- The best way to use NCLEX practice questions
- Does it matter which nursing school you attend?
References
Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2020). Desirable difficulties in theory and practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 9(4), 475–479.
Kang, S. H. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215624708
Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157-163.
Xu, J., Wu, A., Filip, C., Patel, Z., Bernstein, S. R., Tanveer, R., Syed, H., & Kotroczo, T. (2024). Active recall strategies associated with academic achievement in Young Adults: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 354, 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.03.010