Medical-Surgical nursing covers basically every disease process known to medicine. The breadth is insane, and most students try to read every chapter in detail. That’s a trap.
You physically cannot memorize everything. What you can do is understand patterns. According to evidence-based study techniques for nursing students, the most effective nursing students focus on high-yield concepts and test themselves constantly rather than trying to read everything.
Prioritize Systems, Not Chapters
Group your studying by body system. Cardiac one week, respiratory the next. When you understand how the heart fails, you’ll recognize all the variations of heart failure questions on exams—even ones you’ve never seen before.
Use Practice Questions as Your Compass
Get a set of Medical-Surgical Nursing Test Banks and start every study session with 10–15 questions from the topic you’re reviewing. See what you get wrong. Then read only the chapters covering your weak spots. Targeted studying beats shotgun reading every time.
More tips over at Why HESI A2 Is Harder Than People Tell You (And How to Beat It). Keep pushing—Med-Surg is survivable.