Nostraadms Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Hey, since everyone says that PA school is nothing like they have ever done before, I was wondering what the best way would be for cc students to get an idea of what PA school would feel like? Taking 3-4 hard science over 16 week course? 1 hard science over summer (6 weeks)? I plan to take micro over summer, and heard from other students that labs are really long and you have little time to study-would that give me an idea?. So what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted March 2, 2013 Administrator Share Posted March 2, 2013 Try taking 21-24 credits of ONLY hard science classes in one semester. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Try taking 21-24 credits of ONLY hard science classes in one semester. With a minimum grade requirement of 70-80% and a 2 fail and you're out policy.... Bottom line, nothing like it till you're in it....its not so much overtly hard material but you get a HUGE amount in very little time. Firehose analogy. Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorRRT Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Don't forget the fact that should you fail out, you have a massive amount of debt with no way to pay it. Provides plenty of incentive to hit the books HARD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynamo24 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I took physics 1 w/ lab, Ochem 2 w/ 2 credit hour lab, a reserach writing class, and a neuroscience class all while doing research, volunteering, and working in a semester. While I thought this was horrible...I still believe that PA school trumps that. Simply because of the above reasons..gotta get 70-80% and two fail and you're done. Plus you NEED to know the stuff you learn. I really don't think I'll ever remember newtonian physics simply because it was in one ear and out the other give me the grade smell ya later. This is studying/training for your career and how you will treat patients, support yourself and/or your family. Not to metion you are most likely representing a group of physicians and other PAs. So yes I assume knowing the information in PA school cold will be much more difficult than any undergraduate schedule I'll have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinntsp Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I plan to take micro over summer, and heard from other students that labs are really long and you have little time to study-would that give me an idea? lol, good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnguyenle Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Not sure where everyone went to college. i went to a place where my courses were for example: 1st Year fall : Bio 1 with lab, chem 1 with Lab, Intro to lab data, humanities and other stuff 1st year Spring : Bio 2 with lab, Chem 2 with Lab, Statitistics, Humanities, and some other stuff 2nd Year Fall : Orgo 1 with lab, Humanities, Microbiology with lab, Calculus 2nd Year Spring : Orgo 2 with lab, Psychology, Medical terminology, Physics with lab 3rd Year Fall: Functional anatomy with Lab, microbiology and infectious diseases with lab, hematology with lab, Integrated biomedical sciences I (pathology), Cell biology and Biochemistry intergrated with Lab, and some other stuff 3rd Year spring : Immunology, immunohematology with Lab, Clinical microbiology with lab, Integrated biomedical sciences II, and some other science courses 4th year fall : Molecular Genetics with lab (graduate level class), Seminar Class, And my clinical rotation 4th yr spring : Molecular diagnostics with lab (graduate level), medical ethics, and my clinical rotation My 3rd and 4th year are all "higher level science classes" while my 3rd year for fall and spring semster i took 21 and 23 credits respectively. It was tough and I expect PA school to be harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARONEUS Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Next time your thirsty, try waterboarding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maverick87 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Hey, since everyone says that PA school is nothing like they have ever done before, I was wondering what the best way would be for cc students to get an idea of what PA school would feel like? Taking 3-4 hard science over 16 week course? 1 hard science over summer (6 weeks)? I plan to take micro over summer, and heard from other students that labs are really long and you have little time to study-would that give me an idea?. So what do you think? I've had 2 experiences that were harder than PA school: military bootcamp and starting a successful legitimate business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I wrote a book about what it was like going to PA school. Maybe it would help you get an idea of what life was like for one student: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1479372099/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkles9708 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Think of your hardest and busiest semester and multiply the pace by 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemegroup Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 A very busy hell, basically ;) Not for the weak of heart ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UGoLong Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Where I went, the program was doable, but you had to focus. No two days were the same. I visited my family a few hours away most weekends without my books, unless I had a test early the following week. I came home from class, took a walk, ate dinner, studied until an hour before bed and then watched a show to clear my mind. Then I woke up early and put in a few hours of studying before classes started. If I had more than an hour off between classes, I walked to my apartment and studied some more. I also had to experiment with how best to study in each subject; the same approach didn't work well for me in each one. I outlined my notes for some classes, drew family trees of drugs, and used computer programs for others. In summary, it was a job. It wasn't a cake walk, but tens of thousands of people have done it successfully before you. I would do it again; it was the experience of a lifetime. Not to pimp my book about it again (but I will): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1479372099/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroncoPAS Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Not to pimp my book about it again (but I will): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1479372099/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk I'm on page 35 of your book that I started earlier today. Very good so far. I don't think you need to pimp it out so much because it'll sell itself as a very useful tool for anyone thinking about going to PA school, young or old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Hey, since everyone says that PA school is nothing like they have ever done before, I was wondering what the best way would be for cc students to get an idea of what PA school would feel like? Taking 3-4 hard science over 16 week course? 1 hard science over summer (6 weeks)? I plan to take micro over summer, and heard from other students that labs are really long and you have little time to study-would that give me an idea?. So what do you think? Ever dig ditches in the pouring rain when it's 45 degrees out? Ever string barb wire fence in the dead of winter? Move irrigation pipe by hand in the heat of summer? Ever depend on your own hard manual labor to put money in your pocket? Ever had to wrap your hands in duct tape and keep working despite the blisters? Ever work in medicine and hear the last breath of a child? Ever wear a uniform and stand a post in an area that was destined to be shot up or blown apart? There are difficult experiences in life of all sorts of different flavors. To me, sitting in a classroom and learning about medicine is far easier than being shoved in the front seat of an ambulance for a 36 hour shift while being posted on street corners. 24 hours of it is overtime, but I only worked that so we could pay our bills. Now I get to wear comfortable clothes, sit in fancy chairs, learn from people who actually teach from evidence based medicine. What a great difference. Of my didactic year, I went home (2.5 hours one way)every weekend except one to see my family. Family time was not school time read: no sequestering away reading text books instead of playing with my kids. School time was during the week when i was living there by campus. All you gotta do is show up, pay attention, do the assigned work, and soak up information. Find a good study group and enjoy the ride. Yes, there will be stressful times but man I tell ya...it's a cake gig compared to so many other life experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarheelGirlx3 Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 So I hear people say taking a course load with more sciences in the undergrad is more favorable than taking, say 2, and doing well. I say this because I am a bio and psyc double major, and so I have usually been taking around 14 hours a semester, with 2 science and 2 psych classes (both bio classes worth 4 credit hours). This semester though, as a 2nd semester senior, I am taking 16 credit hours with 3 psych and 2 bio. Will this look bad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loliz Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 Register for a full time semesterof hard sciences (16-20 credit hours) and ask the professor if you can do the entire semester in 4 weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discogenic Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 ...Of my didactic year, I went home (2.5 hours one way)every weekend except one to see my family. Family time was not school time read: no sequestering away reading text books instead of playing with my kids. School time was during the week when i was living there by campus... . How was your clinical experience in terms of family time? Better than didactic? Worse? Obviously there's a lot of potential variability between individual experiences, but in general is clinical year better time- and distance-wise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 How was your clinical experience in terms of family time? Better than didactic? Worse? Obviously there's a lot of potential variability between individual experiences, but in general is clinical year better time- and distance-wise? Yes, Steve was it better? worse? I would like to hear what you have to say as well as anyone who wants to chime in. Wait, if I remember correctly you haven't finished your clinicals yet or have you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted March 5, 2013 Moderator Share Posted March 5, 2013 With a minimum grade requirement of 70-80% and a 2 fail and you're out policy.... at my program each course was given once a year. fail one and repeat the entire didactic year(even those courses you passed). fail 2 and you are gone. cheat once on 1 test and you are gone. fail the exit exam(either written, practical, or oral) the last week of school after finishing everything else and you are gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Steve Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 How was your clinical experience in terms of family time? Better than didactic? Worse? Obviously there's a lot of potential variability between individual experiences, but in general is clinical year better time- and distance-wise? I had a four month family practice rotation 30 minutes from home. I did a month of cardiology 120 miles from home, came home on the weekends. I am headed for an ER rotation 5 miles from home. My remaining 4 rotations have not yet been arranged so I have no idea where I am headed but I have provided the school with multiple local contacts and I hope it all works out to be local-ish. Nose in book study time has been limited to an hour or two a night, sometimes less. Sometimes a bit more. Just took a Packrat and appear to be on a good predictive track for the PANCE. For me the hardest thing about clinical year is missing my patients when I rotate out. They have all very kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 My mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joelseff Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Yes, Steve was it better? worse? I would like to hear what you have to say as well as anyone who wants to chime in. Wait, if I remember correctly you haven't finished your clinicals yet or have you? Clinicals were better in my program b/c I got to live at home and see the wife n kids everyday and we only went to school the first week of every month-but these first weeks were as crazy as didactic basically giving you all the topics covered for the next test the following month while you have a bunch of assignments and objectives for each rotation. Not to mention your attendings and preceptors pimpings and assignments they loved to give. More ppl flunked out during clinicals vs didactics in my program. In fact everyone made it through didactics but once clinicals hit ppl were dropping like flies...well we lost 6 people or so...but most were in the first few months of clinicals. Clinicals were *better* than didactics for sure, but it had its own challenges. YMMV. Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator EMEDPA Posted March 5, 2013 Moderator Share Posted March 5, 2013 my clinicals were all over washington d.c. trauma surg rochester NY: ER hartford CT: peds ER then 5 "at home" in philadelphia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemegroup Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 we didn't lose anyone during clinicals that i can remember (although i came close for standing up to a nasty doc) but we did lose 5 people or so during didactic. some stayed and tried again the second year, not sure if they all made it or not but i know a couple did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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