In this instructional video, the presenter shares a series of practical, experience‑based strategies that helped her earn straight A’s throughout nursing school. She begins with a pharmacology study hack: instead of memorizing each individual drug, focus on the mechanism of action for each drug class and use the red‑tabbed classification section of the Davis Drug Guide to quickly locate this information. Next, she advises against reading every word of the textbook; instead, prioritize the sections emphasized by professors during lectures, as these are most likely to appear on exams, and accept that occasional out‑of‑scope questions are inevitable. The video then addresses exam‑related anxiety and self‑sabotage, recommending that students first recognize negative self‑talk, then replace it with intentional, affirming thoughts (e.g., “I am enough”) to break the vicious cycle of fear‑driven under‑preparation. Throughout, she references supplemental resources such as a free study checklist, the Nursing SOS “How to Study Pharmacology” course, and a related Med‑Surg study video. The presenter also gives a shout‑out to a viewer, reinforcing community engagement, and ends with calls to action to subscribe, watch related videos, and apply the shared tips.
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In this video, I'm giving you my best tips for how I got straight A's in nursing school. We have a ton of amazing nursing school tips here on this channel. And today in this video, I'm gonna dive deeper and share some that I have never shared before. So make sure to stick around until the end so you do not miss out on any of these juicy tips that I have for you. Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell, and let's dive in. So my first huge tip for you to help you get straight A's in nursing school is to study pharmacology the right way. For real. This is one of the trickiest nursing school topics there is. There are so many medications to learn, it's insane. But I have a huge pharmacology hack that will save you a gazillion hours studying all those medications, and that is to focus on the mechanism of action of the drug class. Oh, okay, I know that's a lot of big words right there. So here's what this looks like. A drug class is a group of drugs that act similarly in the body. So each medication in a drug class has a similar mechanism of action, which means that it acts the same way when you take it. So, for example, furosemide and bumadanide are both diuretic medications that fall under the drug class of loop diuretics. And when you look in the drug guide, their mechanism of action literally says the same thing. Inhibits the reabsorption of sodium and chloride from the loop of Henle and distal renal tubule, meaning that it causes a whole lot of urination and diuresis. So here is the beauty in this. Since all the medications that fall under the drug class of loop diuretics have the same mechanism of action, all you need to do is remember the mechanism of action for the drug class, not for the individual medications. So if you have a drug class with, like, 10 medications in it, don't waste your time learning what each of those medications do individually. All you need to do is look up what the mechanism of action is for the drug class that all of those beds belong to, and then you'll automatically know what each individual drug does because it will be similar to that drug class. Isn't that just amazing? And here's a little bonus tip for you inside your Davis drug guide. There is this little red tabbed section here. Those are all of the drug classifications. So it's just got this red strip here, and it says classifications on the side and under each of these drug classifications. What you're looking for is the general action and information. It's general action and information. That is where it's going to tell you the mechanism of action for that drug class makes it total, totally easy for you. I talk more about studying pharmacology in this video here, so be sure to check that video out if you want. And if you're a nursing SOS member, make sure to go through the how to Study Pharmacology course that we've got for you where I walk you through, step by step, how to do this. Now, my next tip is absolutely game changing, but it's one of the hardest things to get nursing students to do and this is to stop reading every single word in the textbook. Now look friend, I know that you want to know every about everything, but here's the reality. There is not enough hours in the day for you to read every single word of every single chapter that's assigned to you and still study all of that information and actually learn it. So you will have to pick and choose what sections of the book that you'll read if you want to come out of nursing school with just a little sliver of sanity. So here's what I recommend. Focus on studying the sections of the book that your professors talk about in class. This is the information that they think is the most important for you to know and is therefore most likely to show up on your exams. In my opinion, this isn't optional in nursing school. I honestly don't know anyone who reads everything in their textbooks. There just simply isn't enough time and it's not even an efficient way to study. So focus on studying and reading about the topics that you learned in class. Now of course when you show up to your exams, there will be random questions that your professors pulled out of the footnote on page 12948, but those questions will be few. So don't freak out when you see one. Just answer the best that you can and move on to the next question. What's the alternative? The alternative is to read every word on every page but then not have enough time to study it and actually learn it. Now that will make you fail your exam when you don't actually learn anything. So. So seriously friend, trust me and be efficient with your study time. I talk a lot about my study process and how I was so successful at taking exams here in this video, so definitely check that one out after watching this video. And I also have a free study checklist for you that walks you through how to study in nursing school step by step, the easy way. So don't miss that. I will put the link to that down below in the description for you to download it now. My next tip is one that has come up up again and again the past few weeks with our nursing SOS members and I know you struggle with it too. But before we talk about it, I want to give a shout out to Tamra for our YouTube comment of the week who said thank you again and again. It is so funny that the video you released today is the exact same subject we are doing in school. We have been learning the nursing process, writing care plans and learning critical thinking. How did you do that? You are so helpful and and I really love the way you teach. Thank you so much for your support, Tamra. I really, really appreciate your kind words and I'm so glad that you're here and that you have found our videos super helpful for you in nursing school. So friend, let's talk about our next tip. I really wanted to talk about this because it has come up so many times the past few weeks and I have done a lot of coaching with our nursing SOS members on this topic because it is a huge problem. I have been hearing a ton from our students that they feel like they're going to fail an exam. It gives them crippling anxiety to the point where they can't focus or study. And here's what this comes down to. Self sabotage. You are sabotaging your success ahead of time because you feel like you're going to fail anyway. So you don't study. You don't show up for your exam prepared and then what happens? You fail your exam. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. You think you're going to fail so you don't take any action to study. And then the result is that you don't do well on your test. It's really a vicious cycle. So here's my biggest advice for this. Step number one is you have to recognize when it's happening. Which isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to catch those thoughts in your mind that say I can't do it. It's too hard. I'm not good enough. It'll take too long. I know I won't get an A. I'll probably just get a C. All of those spinning negative thoughts that your brain gives you every single day, right? You need to recognize that they are happening when they're happening. And then step number two is to say oh no, no no brain, not today. And give yourself a new intentional thought. So for me in nursing school, my intentional thought was I am enough. I would literally whisper this to myself as I took my exams. I am enough. This was my little reminder to myself that yes, I could do it and I was good enough to pass nursing school and I was good enough to be a nurse. I cannot even tell you friend, how much peace this of sense simple practice gave me. It truly was life giving. So when you find that your brain is just spitting out with all of those anxious, fearful and negative thoughts, just take a step back and recognize that those are just thoughts. It doesn't make them true. And then insert your intentional thought and think that over and over and over again, day after day. You have to stop shaming yourself and spinning with anxiety because what happens when your brain is reveling in all of those negative thoughts? You are not going to have a very efficient study session. You're going to be too focused on the fear and the anxiety to actually study. So that's why we have to solve this underlying problem first and then we can get back to studying efficiently. In the next video in this series, I'm going to walk you through how to study Med Surg the easy way. Seriously, you are making it way harder on yourself than you need to. I'm going to give you my best tips and hacks for learning med surgical fast, so be sure to check that video out. Now. Click on one of these videos right here to keep rocking nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be and I'll catch you in the next video. Take care.
