 Hey you guys, so I know that some of you are in the throngs of taking prerequisites or studying for your pants or studying for just a regular old like chemistry or biology test, whatever it may be you're studying and you may want some tips on how to like ace, you know, these various different exams that you have to take and so that is what this video is going to be about. I'm going to be giving you guys some tips on how to ace any exam that you are about to take. Let's get into it right now. What's up you guys? This is Adana. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you guys so much for joining me today. If you haven't already done so, take a look around. If you like what you see, go ahead and subscribe, okay? And go ahead and follow me on Instagram as well. So I had a question that was posed by Ashley Eaton and she said, hey Adana, thanks again for yet another great video. Very informative. Thanks girl. I appreciate that. She has the question and she says question. What advice would you give us pre-PA students who are taking prerequisites while working full time? Trying to juggle raising a family or even those of us who are single parents. I'm currently taking those necessary prerequisites over because I have a non-traditional bachelor's degree that isn't science related. Any study tips on how to get through them all? Thanks a bunch, Ashley. All right, Ashley, thank you so much for this question. I think it's a question that a lot of people have because you know, you're busy, right? Like you're booked and I honestly, I know the feeling, you know? For me, one of the biggest things that I could possibly say that was super, super helpful and this is not for like your single parents but specifically for somebody that has a partner is leaning on that partner, right? I worked full time and took prerequisites and had a newborn. When I was going to apply to PA school, this was like starting back in 2015 when my daughter was just, just born my second and it was hard. But literally, like I would be at school at, I think it was like an evening class. So I'd be taking that class and then we would have a break and I would like run outside because my husband would have brought my daughter to us and I would breastfeed or like to express my milk because I was still actively breastfeeding because she was like a couple months old at that point in time and it was wild. The things that we as single mothers do, I guess you could say or just mothers in general. I wasn't a single mother but mothers in general that we do to provide and make sure that our family is right, you know? And so for me, leaning on my husband, leaning on that spouse, that partner or whoever it is that you have in your life is really, really important. But my tip number one for those of you that are really trying to make sure that you're taking these prerequisites and you're doing a good job and you're able to ace them is making sure that you kind of get yourself on a schedule and compartmentalize. So for me, I know that that was extremely helpful. When I was studying for my prerequisite tests, when I was studying the second time for the pants and the boards, even the first time as well, I had a regimented schedule. I knew exactly what I was going to be doing from day to day. I planned it out from hour to hour. If I was studying for two hours and then I was taking a quiz or a test for 30 minutes and then reading for another hour, I had that planned out. And for you, I think it will be essential, whatever it is that you're studying for, but specifically prerequisites. If you know that you have an exam that's coming up at the end of the week or in two weeks, make sure that you are making yourself a study guide and you're going through and making sure that you're studying this schedule that you have. Be it study, then test yourself, then read, study, test yourself, read. That I think is very, very important. And the second tip is repetition. So as you are going through this material, repeating those steps, like I said, making sure that you're taking lots of quizzes, doing lots of questions, is essential. There's so many different quizlets out there on different topics. So if you're in genetics, if you're in a particular section in genetics, you can Google that stuff and you'll come up with quizlets. Take the questions at the end of each section, at the end of each chapter to make sure that you're getting the material. If your teacher gives you like a practice exam prior to it, make sure that you're running through those practice exams to see exactly, you know, how the test may be asked. And then from that, you can also go back and make sure that you understand why you may have gotten the question wrong that you got wrong. I think it's important to do that review because it helps you in your thinking. It helps you understand, okay, well, this is why I thought that it was right, but this is actually the reason why it was wrong. And so you can go through and make sure that you don't make those mistakes on the actual exam in the future. Another thing is if you are like a visual learner or anything like that, spatial repetition. So if you're going back and you know exactly where something was, you know, for me, when I was studying for all of my pharmacology exams, I had these bubble maps. And I don't know if you guys have seen me with those bubble maps or I did it like years ago. I showed you guys like my bubble maps for farm. But if it was spatial repetition, I looked at those bubble maps on a consistent basis and I would be like, oh, okay, like, yeah, this answer was here or, you know, this particular bacteria was up in the right hand corner and it was in yellow and it had this because that helped me visualize in a much easier manner exactly where each thing was. And I was able to pull back on that spatial repetition because I would go back to it and see it in that same corner and pull it back for the test. So definitely compartmentalize and schedule yourself, go back and do any type of like studying in terms of questions that you may get. Spatial repetition is essential and important. And then ultimately, I think at the end of the day, once you make yourself a really decent good study guide, so, you know, talk to your classmates that you may have in your class, see if they have study guys that they're using and then you can compare, right? You're a study guide and they're a study guide and you take from it because sometimes people see things in a different way than you do. And it's important to kind of lean on and gain from others that are in the class with you. So I know when we were in PA school and we were doing all of the various different tests, but also when I was in my undergrad and just randomly taking prerequisites through the community to college, there was a group of us, there was a group of three of us that would always kind of study together. We would go through, we would make our own study guys and then we would come together like three or so days before the exam to study. And look at each other's study guys, take from it, make copies and then we would go in a mean study at home. Now, obviously when you're raising a family, if you have kids or you're working full time, it's a little bit more difficult to plan that out. But maybe you're able to meet, you know, an hour before class three days before your exam or something like that. There are ways for you to actually kind of make these different adjustments to fit your life and your schedule. I mean, we're in a world of electronics and Google Meet and Hangout and Zoom and FaceTime and WhatsApp and all of these various different like video, meetup type of platforms. So there are other ways that you can utilize if you cannot necessarily meet in person, but it's really about just scheduling that time out. You know, this is important. It's something that you want to succeed at in terms of the course because you're trying to get to another step. And since that is the case, you want to make sure that you are putting in the work. And so sometimes there are going to be sacrifices that you may have to make. You know, maybe it might be your sleep, so you might have to get up a little bit early or go to bed a little bit later than usual. But there are things that you're going to have to sacrifice to ensure that you are accomplishing the goals that you have set for yourself. OK, so hopefully these tips help you. I can go through and make like a more like concise kind of like maybe five tips or so that can help you really ace your exams or ace any exam that you have to take. But for sure, I believe that the tips that I've just given you, those are things that I utilized when I was taking my exams and my boards when I passed. And so I believe that it will be beneficial for anybody that may be struggling in terms of like retaining material and understanding the material that they're learning. OK, thank you again so much for asking me that question, Ashley. I really appreciate it. If you have any other comments or questions for me, you know what to do. Leave them in a comment section below. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram at Adam the P.A. and on Instagram at Get That See University. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. Thank you guys so much for watching. I will talk to you guys next time. Bye.