tinylilron Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 I am just curious about the life of a PA student. I was very successful student in undergrad. I majored in Biochemistry and minored in Psychology. My GPA was 3.78. I was also very through, reading my text books cover to cover making lots of notes and going over every little detail that I did not completely understand with my professors and peers. After hearing about the curriculum of many PA programs I wonder how do you learn/memorize anything. Being in class from 8AM-7PM, 5+ days a week with no breaks of vacations, when do you have time to read, study and review the material. I really want to be a health care provider and I am very serious about my education and studies. Plus, how is one expected to work 100 hour week? Is it really possible to be awake and competent for 24+ hours? Can any successful current/past PA student explain their tactics, etc? How can a pre-PA student prepare for the rigors of PA school? I would appreciate any of your help. Thank you, Verónica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen0508 Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 "I was also very through, reading my text books cover to cover making lots of notes and going over every little detail that I did not completely understand with my professors and peers." you wont have time to read books cover to cover in PA school. There is too much information to know it all. What you dont learn during didactic, you will learn during clinicals. What you dont learn during clinicals you will learn in practice :-) "Being in class from 8AM-7PM, 5+ days a week with no breaks of vacations" thats definitely an exaggeration. you will very rarely be in class that long, unless you have a break at some point during the day (during which you can study) or have a lab. for the most part your lecture days will be ~9 hours or less. also, there will be vacations during didactic. we had a week off during the summer and a couple weeks off for christmas "when do you have time to read, study and review the material." in the morning before class, or at night after class "I really want to be a health care provider and I am very serious about my education and studies. Plus, how is one expected to work 100 hour week? Is it really possible to be awake and competent for 24+ hours?" i'm assuming you are talking about rotations. during rotations you will work whatever hours your preceptor works. for the most part it will be 40-60 hours a week, like most jobs. However, you may get a rotation where the preceptor works crazy hours (ER, surgery, etc).. like my clinical coordinator said .. "you can do anything for 6 weeks".... its a short, temporary , rotation. you suck it up and make the most of it. "Can any successful current/past PA student explain their tactics, etc?" you will find your own niche. some people woke up at the crack of dawn and studied, some studied at night. I'm a night owl , so i would stay up late and study. Some people did study groups, some studied on their own. Some did flash cards. Some made objectives. Some studied the powerpoints (which i did most of the time). Some wrote out notes by hand (biggest waste of time in my eyes, but maybe just because i write slow :-) After a month or so you will figure out what works best for you. "How can a pre-PA student prepare for the rigors of PA school?" Dont do anything to prepare. Enjoy your free time while you have it. Spend time with your loved ones because you will be seeing alot less of them. BTW, relax! thousands have done it before you. YOU WILL BE OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjohnson3604 Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Agreed!! You'll find what works for you. As a wife and mom in my clinical year, I think didactic was all about finding your niche. Some friends studied 5hours a night after school. I studied in the mornings so I could spend time with my family in the evenings. I made flash cards a couple of nights before each exam (sometimes 3 per week, depends on the structure of your program), some classmates did study groups with white boards and highlighting their textbooks. Realistically, there is no time for reading books cover to cover. Furthermore, those who have been practicing for years still have mentors they call when they have a clinical question. You can't "know all" of medicine. You will have breaks, you will have stressful times...but as mentioned before--MANY have gone before you, and if you're committed to the process you'll do just fine. Please relax before you start! No sense stressing yourself out, remember you can't know everything and take it in stride. Best wishes in starting your program, breathe!! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkles9708 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 What about reviewing Anatomy and Physiology, especially if say I took it 6 years ago? My only fear is not remembering some aspects of A&P may put me at a disadvantage with my Gross Anatomy class in the spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorRRT Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Reading through some A and P would help, just don't go overboard. Enjoy your free time, spend it with family and friends. I started in May; we're in school from 8-4. I'll typically come home, work out and grab dinner; and get back to studying. Counting school and studying, I average 12 hours of "work" a day. Don't expect to be able to read everything cover to cover and know every intricate detail. So far, I get the impression that it's more important to be able to decipher what the critical concepts are, and focus on those. And if you're wondering, the "drinking from the fire hydrant" analogy is 100% accurate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Get some healthcare experience that you can apply to your didactic year. It can potentially save you a lot of study time because you won't have to keep going over every basic detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acromion Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 I am just curious about the life of a PA student. I was very successful student in undergrad. I majored in Biochemistry and minored in Psychology. My GPA was 3.78. I was also very through, reading my text books cover to cover making lots of notes and going over every little detail that I did not completely understand with my professors and peers. After hearing about the curriculum of many PA programs I wonder how do you learn/memorize anything. Being in class from 8AM-7PM, 5+ days a week with no breaks of vacations, when do you have time to read, study and review the material. I really want to be a health care provider and I am very serious about my education and studies. Plus, how is one expected to work 100 hour week? Is it really possible to be awake and competent for 24+ hours? Can any successful current/past PA student explain their tactics, etc? How can a pre-PA student prepare for the rigors of PA school? I would appreciate any of your help. Thank you, Verónica Hi Veronia, just to give you an idea of how your life will change, it is now 3:30 AM on a Saturday night and I just finished studying for the night when I saw this question. Since 4 days away from completing my didactic year, it is interesting to reflect on how much my life has changed and how I've been able to access resources within me that I didn't know I had. PA school does that to you. It sounds like you will be well-prepared for the PA curriculum. Just keep doing what you did in undergrad but be prepared to step it up a notch. Everyone has their own method of learning and what worked for you in your pre-reqs will probably work for you in PA school. The most important thing to keep in mind is that PA school is self directed learning. At the graduate level, you get very little handholding. The professor isn't going to spoonfeed you every detail you need to know for the exam. For Clin Med, we are given a list of diseases we are responsible for knowing for each unit. There's not enough time to cover every disease in lecture, so you are responsible for learning it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckeral Posted August 12, 2012 Share Posted August 12, 2012 This thread is definitely helpful in getting me ready for school in two weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted August 12, 2012 Administrator Share Posted August 12, 2012 If you're smart and hard-working, you can do it. The thing about PA school isn't how hard you will study, but how LONG you will maintain that pace of study/work--I never did a 100 hour week in PA school (not like that's even a good idea in the first place...), but I did more than a few 60's. It's not like there's a place to slack off built in--vacations are just sufficient to keep normal people from exploding, and that's pretty much it. Stamina is the key word for PA school, because if they let you in, either you're smart enough to do it, or they screwed up. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick87 Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Yeah everyone has different ways of doing things. I pulled all-nighters for every test and had a vibrant social life. I got through didactic year with no problems and a high gpa, but seemed to have more trouble retaining things than my classmates. If I had to do it all over again, I'd like to think that I would have changed my habits and studied a little bit everyday....but I probably would have ended up doing the same thing :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kms111211 Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Thanks for the words of wisdom, everyone! I'm glad I found this thread. I was recently accepted into the Towson-Essex PA program in MD. Even though I won't start school until June 2013, I'm already getting excited! ...but I will definitely slow down and enjoy my free time while I still have it! ;) Katie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriarMedic Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 I have found my life to be less stressful now, going full throttle into 2nd semester of PA school than when I was a pre-PA juggling a full-time job, per diem job, and 8 credits of hard science pre-req classes that didn't really intrigue me. My life now is simplified to school...I wake up, I go to class, I come home and study. The material is inspiring and for the first time in my studies I'm learning things to KNOW them versus memorizing things to pass an exam...it's quite exhilarating actually. Mixed in are social events and vacations here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Does anyone have any suggestions on how to actually retain what you are studying? In undergrad I would whole memorize chapters PLUS class notes, but obviously that is impossible on PA school because of time concerns. We will have a quiz every week (including first week) and I need to memorize the most in as little time as possible. Also, how do you retain not just for exam 1, 2, 3...but for the rest of your school/life? Is just "reading over old notes" once or twice a week after you had an exam on it enough to keep it in your head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbflightmedic11 Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 @FriarMedic I think I will feel exactly like you do now. Before I graduated with my BS in Science a few months ago, I was juggling my full time job as a paramedic ( 48-56 hour work week), my 1 year old son, full time college ( 15+ credits...including one semester i did 22 credits. Including my hard sciences), and juggling home life, social life, and my BF :). I am TOTALLY looking forward to just worrying about school and my son/family starting this January at EVMS. So I hope to have the same exhilaration you feel now :) THanks for the insite! Helen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c0untingstars Posted September 11, 2012 Share Posted September 11, 2012 @purpldz It was nearly impossible for me to consciously retain information during didactic year, there were just too many tests. But now that I am in clinical year and have exams every 3 months, I can use my day to day time to study things I don't feel confident about and really work on retaining the information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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