I’ll start with an app that helped me get through those first few semesters
I am thrilled to be collaborating with Picmonic to help you save 20% when you sign up for their app using my link HERE. This app is worth every penny I spent on it. I will be posting a video explaining it in more detail but wanted to mention a few of the perks in this post.
What is Picmonic? The best way I know to explain it is cartoon-like graphics telling short stories in a way that helps you remember the information you’re studying. This is great for both visual and auditory learners like myself!
What’s so great about it? Not only does this app have playlists for you to choose from by your specific Nursing course but also by body system or textbook. I was able to find every Nursing textbook we’ve used on their app with all of their coinciding Picmonic playlists organized by textbook unit. Did I mention that you can also create your own playlists? You can search random topics and create your very own playlist of Picmonics to study. Last but not least, you can take their quizzes that help you prepare for exams.
You can choose study topics by Nursing course, body system, or textbook
I chose Fluid and Electrolytes as an example here but as you can see, there are 5 picmonic stories explaining Infusion therapies, 12 picmonics explaining Electrolyte imbalances, etc.
This is where you can select to play the picmonic, quiz yourself, or add it to your playlist. You can create playlists by exam if you want. For example: “EXAM 1” and then add all of the picmonics that relate to the topics on exam 1 instead of searching for them each time you want to study.
Save 20% signing up using my link:
https://www.picmonic.com/viphookup/ByChanley
GoodNotes
Unfortunately, this one is only for the iPad & Apple Pencil users. I officially went paperless towards the end of my 2nd semester and this app is the reason why. You can import your class notes and write directly on them and highlight key points.
This is the exact iPad I have.
This is the Apple pencil I have.
Other benefits of this app:
You can create notebooks for each class and even customize the notebook covers to make them cute. Below are some of mine from last semester.
This app automatically recognizes your handwriting making it easy to search key words within a specific document or even the entire app. For instance, if you took notes on Diabetes but can’t remember where you saved them on the app, you can search the word “Diabetes” and anywhere you wrote or typed it will appear.
No more printing or wasting paper! Now that we’re online, our instructors ask us to sign forms to scan and email back to them. This app makes it incredibly easy to just import the document, sign it with my Apple Pencil, and email it right back without having to scan or print anything at all.
If you’re ever given a physical paper assignment, instead of writing directly on it with pen, you can use the free “Notes” app for iPhone to scan this page in, open it in GoodNotes, and do the assignment with your Apple Pencil making it easy to erase and rewrite if needed. (I’m OCD and scribbles on my notes and assignments drive me insane.)
Here are some examples of notes I’ve taken in this app to give you an idea of what you can do with it.
Notion
This is an app that I LOVE to use for the Active Recall study method. This app allows you the ability to create toggles.
You can create a new page for each exam topic and then create toggles within each page.
For example, these were some of the questions I created for myself for ARDS. I would ask myself each question and then click the toggle arrow to see the answer.
Toggles help you actually recall that information before seeing the answer unlike your lecture notes. This is great because it makes you realize just how much you know or don’t know while studying.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.