The end of MERP

It’s the last study day. The question is…how are you the most productive on the last day? Nursing school thought me many things and lots of good study habits. Having done nursing school and pre-med including MCAT prep in 3 years, I had to process a lot of information at once. I didn’t have any time for distractions because I had my family and my job to also worry about. My time had to be utilized fully and carefully with great focus or I would have never made it through. I learned to study ahead and never fall behind. Now that I am in medical school I find those lessons invaluable. I don’t cram. I use weekends to review throughout the semester so I am less stressed during test time. I also learned that it’s important to relax during such a stressful time doing something none related to school or spending time with loved ones. Well here is how I plan on spending my last day before the final.


8-9 I woke up at 8am ready to go and rested, I got a full 8 hrs of sleep. My brain is not foggy and I don’t feel drained. Instead I feel invigorated and ready to go.

9-12 doing some individual light study review of all subjects, except physiology. This is not the time to learn new concepts or memorize new details. This is the time to glance over everything and refresh it in your mind. Take a look at the formulas and review graphs, diagrams, and charts.

12-6 review with my friend whom I have been studying with from the beginning of the semester. We will quiz each other and will be spending a little more time on physiology since that is her weakness and my strength.

6-7 Wrap up review and look over last minute notes.

I plan on relaxing after 7pm with my family. Maybe finishing up the peter pan puzzle that is all over our floor or watching a movie or both. In bed by 10 pm and up at 6:30 to make sure I get my 2 cups of coffee before the exam. In the morning I can tell you I will not be looking over notes while I sip my coffee. I like to watch the news and go about my day as if it’s any other day. I wondered once if I would do better if I looked at my notes before the test so I tried it on the morning of a quiz. It was awful. I felt completely stressed out and I started to question what I knew or didn’t know. I was going into panic mode. It was unproductive and I have not done it since. This is what works for me. It has taken time to get comfortable with relaxing before the test instead of pushing through to the last minute. I want to be a great doctor and not the kind of the doctor that crammed the night before the test. I want to understand the concepts not just memorize them. It’s less work in the end. I remember when I my friends were preparing for our nursing board exam and were trying to remember everything while I did about 100 practice questions and called it good. I passed my exam with no problems and in the quickest time possible. I only had to answer 75 questions because I answered most of them right and the computer estimated that I was on a passing track. It’s not that I’m smarter than anyone else, I just understood why and didn’t just memorize facts. My desire to understand why is also the reason why nursing school was not enough for me. I always wanted to know more, do more, learn more…but that is a different post altogether. Maybe on my break I will write about what drove me to medical school after becoming an RN. Well its 8:58 and I just finished my second cup of coffee. It’s time to start. Wish me luck…and thank you for reading.