How To Beat a Rigged School System: 13 Steps to 100%

Copyright Ⓒ 2021 by Nicolette Piaubert.

HARDCOVER: 978-1-955963-17-6

PAPERBACK: 978-1-955963-09-1

EBOOK: 978-1-955963-27-5

Arnold Publisher

In partnership with Horizons Literary Management LLC.

Printed in the United States of America.

DEDICATION

To the nursing staff at Atlantic Union College, especially Dr. Eleanor Folette, the nursing director who first suggested that I publish this study plan and Mrs. Kimberly dunker, my clinical preceptor and classroom instructor of nursing who believed in my potential and pushed me towards greatness. To all the students whom I ever helped improve their grades and requested I share my knowledge with others. To all the young people in my life who inspire me to give them a better chance at success.

FORWARD

There are many different self-help books on the market, covering subjects from powerful messages on personal change to books with proven strategies to help overcome adversity. Somewhere among those books, you will come across study guides that promise to help you pass your desired exams such as the SaT, MCaT, LSaT, NCLeX, to name a few. This little book, however, is not like any of the before-mentioned books. The unique quality of this book is that it has a bit of everything. Small as it may be, it is more effective than any study guide you have ever come across because it addresses both the seen and unseen problems students face when it comes to learning and improvement.

This book is the mother of all guides; without the knowledge of the information in these pages, many scholars will never be able to achieve the level of expertise they desire no matter how many self-help or study guides they go through. Within this book are instructions on how to unpack the knowledge stored in all editions of any subject. In essence, what this book does is it teaches you how to learn deliberately. Not only is this book packed with powerful tools to teach students how to study for all subjects in general with a few critical pointers for select subjects-nursing, but it also helps open the awareness of some of the problematic issues in our school system that are stunting the educational growth of many. From the time students enter school, which is now as early as three years old, they are being forced fed information but are never taught how to learn said information, this book does just that.

Many think that knowing how to study is an innate quality that everyone has. However, that is not the case. Some people indeed have a knack for organizing information that allows them to process it and mentally store it in a way they can recall it better than most, but not everyone is born with that ability. The rest of us must be taught. Especially if you had the unfortunate chance of being born in, or having had to move to an underprivileged neighborhood and consequently had to attend a school that is defined as high-poverty. A high-poverty school is one that has an economic Need Index (ENI) of at least 60%. Not only do these schools lack the necessary resources to teach their students from the standard course of studies, but they also lack the funds it would take to obtain said needed resources. Worse yet, these schools are frequented by students who live in households where the emphasis is not always placed on slow and laborious thinking, with quiet time, structured learning, and supervised help. Instead, these students come from homes where their minds are always in survival mode or fight or flight, and their past time is spent indulging their senses to escape from their many troubles that come from both inward and outward.

Such students are into investing time in activities that produce tangible and immediate rewards, qualities not found in deliberate learning where one is learning for learning’s sake. This book will indeed be most helpful for those who have and still attend high-poverty schools, who do not have the resources to get the education that they need and, therefore, cannot obtain the career that they yearn for. but anyone with the longing to get a more in-depth understanding and knowledge in a given subject can make use of this book. Scholars who follow the instructions in this book are guaranteed to become experts in whatever field they desire.

As a tutor, I encounter a countless number of students who tell me, I don’t know how to study. I empathize with those students because I was once in their shoes. Sadly it took me getting into nursing school to realize that fact. and sadder still, it took for me to undergo one of the worse experiences of my young life to give me the desire to discover how to learn. Failing my second year of nursing school was the worst thing and the best thing that ever happened to me. Before my failure, I was aware of my lacking skills as a student but had no way of filling the gaps in my knowledge bank. I had bought countless study guides, had gone to review classes, and still performed below my potential. I did not know how to go about learning the information I had before me. I had often longed for someone, or a book, to show me how I could place the information in my head. I had even resorted to sleeping with my textbook under my head after being told that would be helpful. That may sound ridiculous to you, but as it is often said, desperate times call for extreme measures.

After failing and having to sit out a semester from school, I was forced to evaluate my study method and develop one that worked. I sat with my many books around me, and for days to weeks to months hashed out what the best modes of learning were. It was then that I discovered there were different systems of learning, and I set out to break the process down into small understandable parts. What I found was not new, but the process I took to obtain my results was. It is a known fact that the three systems used in learning are analyzing, synthesizing, and understanding. What I found was that most people, including myself, usually got stuck in only one of the systems at a time, and that is typically the middle. I now know it is not until a person uses all three methods that they are guaranteed to become well versed in a subject and can become experts. With the knowledge of the importance of using all three of these systems, I developed a fail-proof 13 step study plan. These 13-Steps are the foundation for my tutoring center Gab-Nic excelsior Nursing Center, to this day. It is not easy to learn new information if you are not doing it in a systematic way that will allow your brain to absorb, assimilate, understand, and then file it in such a way that you can recall it later. My 13 step plan helps you do just that.

Many people ask me why I decided to write a study guide, they worry that it will not be in my best interest and that it is counterproductive for a tutoring business. Regardless, I decided to write this booklet after seeing the response of my clients after minutes of explaining to them how they should go about studying. The awareness, joy, and determination they exhibit are enough to motivate anyone to spread the news. If I can keep a few people from feeling desperation and hopelessness while studying, then I have gained rather than lost. Besides, I know the feeling of frustration one gets after countless hours of studying that does not pan out to good grades. But truth be told, I have missed out on quite a few clients because of the information written on these pages but, I became a tutor because I hate to see people fail not because I want to get paid, so I don’t mind.

A NOTE TO THE READER

Though this book is small, it covers a lot of ground. This is so because it was meant for all kinds of students who are struggling to make the grades they need. This book can be beneficial to parents and students alike, and it is written with both in mind. I desire to make everyone who reads this book aware of the great potential that lies within them regardless of the education they were given in the