taotaox1 Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I totally respect that you found pre studying the right choice for you, and have no doubt that for some people it was/is the best path. That being said, people coming and posting in this open forum often are seeking general advice and are not aware that not studying MAY be more useful to them (they just assume they have to). Nothing wrong with challenging that presupposition. It certainly is simple to ignore if it doesn't fit well. As you say, we are ironically off topic now, so I feel content to bow out on the matter. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmdpac Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 I totally respect that you found pre studying the right choice for you, and have no doubt that for some people it was/is the best path. That being said, people coming and posting in this open forum often are seeking general advice and are not aware that not studying MAY be more useful to them (they just assume they have to). Nothing wrong with challenging that presupposition. It certainly is simple to ignore if it doesn't fit well. As you say, we are ironically off topic now, so I feel content to bow out on the matter. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2 I agree with this pretty much point for point. Conversations grow and develop with the introduction of thoughts, ideas and concepts that aren't necessarily a direct answer to the question asked. Conversations in real life work this way. Conversations in online discussion forums work this way. Sometimes volunteering information that is not a direct answer to the question asked offers insight to an idea the person asking had never previously considered. Sometimes, too, having someone or a group of people tell you, "...Hey! It's ok to chill/relax/not do anything..." can help ease some of the pre-enrollment jitters that we all faced prior to starting PA school. If you still think that it's off topic and wrong to volunteer information that is not a direct answer to the question asked then we'll have to agree to disagree. I'm out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bnyoung Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 Hi, PA-S2 here. The summer before I started my program, I read about half of Dubin's EKG book. It was semi-helpful for the two days we spent learning EKG interpretation. Not helpful otherwise. I suggest watching youtube videos. For physiology review, a guy named Andrew Wolf (he's a professor somewhere, I believe) has a great series of physiology lectures that are geared towards medical folk. I use his stuff a lot when I need to refresh my physiology knowledge. There are also tons and tons of videos out there for physical exam skills. Duke, for example, has a very long and thorough one that you can watch if you want to torture yourself ;) As for books, I think Bate's Guide to Physical Examination (or Mosby's, depending on your program) are good to start flipping through. I also echo the recommendation for the "Ridiculously Simple" series of books, espeically for physiology. But seriously, don't NOT go on vacation or something in favor of studying. Nothing you read this summer is going to make a significant difference. But it does ease the nerves a little bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nonlegit Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Sometimes this topic can really become off putting around here. Its only 2 months of your adult life just prior to grad school. Just do regular life stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SERENITY NOW Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 yep this question has been asked and answered dozens of times, but i understand that searching this forum is often fruitless because of the poor search engine. as you can see, many will say that you should do nothing but relax. others will be neurotic about learning as much as possible. i personally would recommend a balance between the two. if you have a summer off, i'd say study for 2-3 hours a day and relax for the rest of the time. high yield areas to study: medical terminology -- dont just rote memorize words, read up on the general way medical terms are set up (often based on latin roots and suffixes) and learn the roots/suffixes. they are put together in countless different forms, but just learning the roots and suffixes will be much easier. for example, thoracostomy vs thoracotomy vs pneumothorax etc etc -- so many common roots in these words. physiology -- my program put a lot of time into teaching us anatomy, but we only did basic reviews of physiology and deferred to our knowledge from undergrad phys for the rest. i didn't remember as much as i needed, so i wish i would have done a hard review of physiology before going in. at the very least know the following well: cardiac, lungs, renal, GI. figure out how you are going to retain a lot of informaion. its kind of like figuring out the best way you study. for me, i could only retain things when i could see the big picture. so before every unit, i'd make an outline of all the diseases and how they fit into common "families". for example - within cardiac disease there are valvular diseases, electrical/rhythm, coronary artery diseases, etc etc. i wish i would have made an outline of the different families of diseases before going into school so taht i'd have an idea where all of this information is fitting in in the grand scheme of things. same thing for pharmacology -- know the families of drugs. DONT worry about putting in the details to each. PA school will give you plenty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyM2 Posted July 12, 2014 Share Posted July 12, 2014 One of the things I like about this forum is that threads often digress, devolve and go off topic. I think of much of the posting as brain storming with both good and bad advice thrown in. If you ask a question here and expect the exact right answer or think you know what the right answer should look like, you will often be surprised. PAs are an unusual group of people with (much) higher than average intellect, drive and imagination, but they aren't all cast from the same mold and tend to see the world through a variety of prisms based on their backgrounds and experiences and, yes, sometimes their prejudices. If you ask a question here, just be patient and keep reading. Something useful almost always comes out. In my view the op has received some excellent advice on the original question about what to study and a very spirited discussion of whether the original question was relevant in the first place. IMO this has been a very good thread with lots of thoughtful responses. In short, "This has been a good conversation." Sent from my Kindle Fire HDX using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sehou2014 Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 Many schools (including mine) have a med terms test the first week. It's to make sure students aren't gonna get lost in the language of medicine. That seems like your safest bet. Other than that, I'm keeping with my habit of reading obscure medical cases and diseases for fun. One day it will pay off, I swear. Sent from the Satellite of Love using Tapatalk Just curious: when did the schools inform the students there will be a med terms test? In the offer letter or later? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian7 Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 My school also has a med term test the first week. We were told about this with our acceptance package that they sent us. They also gave us the name of the med term book that we should be referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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