 It's below an 80 then you know you can't get so many scores below an 80 before you're kicked out. Typical PA school they just start you right off with an exam. Hey guys I'm Boris I'm a position assistant this is. I'm Elijah I'm a first-year student over at Rutgers. First-year PA student. Yeah well I started this week but I had my orientation last week. Oh so orientation's done. Yeah orientation's done I already had my today was my second day of class now. Really? Yeah. Oh man how's that going? I went well we had an exam the first day of class. Typical PA school they just start you right off with an exam. Yeah it was it was midterm and a lot of this my second years were saying like it was it was going to be easy but it was actually a lot harder than I expected so I made sure to study just in case like to study extra hard and I got the grade I wanted I got like a 92 percent. Well that's spooky I got a 92 on my first exam too that was also medical terminology. I'm still kind of caught up in what I got wrong I really want to know. You sound like such a PA student. Oh my god I have to know it through the feature I don't want to use the wrong terminology on like one thing that I missed. It's definitely true I'm just going to say Elijah already sounds like a PA student because he's freaking out over like the little things that he got wrong and not going like all right I got a 92 next let's move on to the next exam he's just like no no I need to know I studied so hard I have to know what I got wrong what's wrong with me. And like and everybody in my program was the same way so like you'd go outside little known secret of PA school as soon as you're done with your exam you leave the room and then everyone like congregates in this little circle outside the room like whispering because you're not supposed to talk and everyone's whispering like oh what'd you get for number one what'd you get for number two and like sooner or later we all figured out because like photographic memories all around everyone's like figured out exactly what they got wrong and then you go like oh shit really that's what that was yeah like me and my classmates did the same thing but after our exam we took it and then we all kind of got into a circle and they were like oh I put this for this and I'm like oh did I put that yeah right like oh I hope I put that shoot I think they were really leaning on the grading too because there's like multiple answers for certain like prefixes suffixes and like combining forms so I haven't looked at my actual exam yet I don't know if they'll show us but I think they graded pretty leniently but the content was a little tough like there were words that were definitely not used like I was in the field when I was still working getting my PCE sure what was I gonna say oh yeah about like everyone figuring out what they got wrong and right it's like you almost know your score before you even get your score and so of course you're freaking out like trying to figure out what my score is because like if it's below a 90 or an 80 it's an 80 it's below an 80 then you know you can't get so many scores below an 80 before you're kicked out right so it's like everyone kind of freaks out it's important but it's just yeah I think it's like the same attitude I think our cutoff was like 70 and if you got below 70 you'd have to retake it but I think the class average was around like yeah like 80 82 so I think most everyone passed yeah it's just funny how like I don't know I mean I finished PA school two years ago at this point and it's just funny how it's like the exact same thing that Elijah's going through right same kind of type A people same exact like first day of class as a test it's like I don't know it's just like Groundhog's Day in PA school it's like uh it's like um almost like college but like everyone like literally everyone is like almost exact same way with regards to like grades it's like college but with only the top like two students right everyone's a top like like the top of their class yeah everybody you're with has been at the top of their class their whole life and that was crazy for me because even at UCLA everyone was the top of their high school classes and now like PA school is like everyone's the top of the top like yeah everyone's just super smart yeah literally and then there's guys like me and Elijah that just took a little longer hey but I'm still competing I'm so there yeah yeah we're I mean I made it through like it's totally possible but it's just like we're not those people that were like four point our students like all the way from like first grade on which is like most of your classmates you know especially the young ones like they've been they've had their like study routine like ingrained in their brain since they were like two they were just like ready to go oh yeah me and Elijah are like shit we're just trying to figure this out now like in our late 20s and 30s but it's like I don't know I mean we're still here and we made it it sucks to take a little long but it is what it is it sucks and it doesn't suck you know it's like when you get out and you're a little older you don't experience that whole thing where like the patients don't really respect you because you're like this young kid right you're obviously an adult so they like they open up to you more they like want to tell you more you don't have that pressure that like a younger PA would have right so it's good yeah I think I don't know if I feel that I feel like I'm around the age of of my classmates like everyone's like around like 25 26 and I'm 27 so I'm barely there but I have that extra thing where it's like I have a kid and yeah like a lot of classmates are like what he has a kid oh my god wait so your your PA school class is mostly like 25 26 yeah I think our youngest is like around 20 122 and our oldest people I'm not too sure I'm really bad with age I want to assume like mid 30s early 30s yeah that's so interesting because we had a lot of like little teeny boppers oh no yeah we had a lot of people like around my age yeah that's how it should be I mean like the average age of a PA students like 27 and then I got there and everyone's like 22 and it's like what the hell where are these kids coming from what is happening you're like the only bald guy there was I the only bald guy I think I was I definitely wasn't the only old guy but I was definitely the only bald I don't think I have a bald guy in my class you should change that no I like my hair man I know I'm already gonna be bald when I'm older so are you sure yeah yeah my my maternal grandfather uh is bald okay catch it it's not the worst in the world but yeah you definitely should just hold on to it it's your best feature right now when I start splitting out I'll think about it but I'm holding on I'm holding on to it you should I don't know I've saved so much money on haircuts in the last like 10 years oh man don't get me started I'm like it's hard transitioning from being like a full-time worker like I not only did I work full time I worked overtime so I was like bringing in a lot of money for my job and to go back to being like a student like I don't even think I can afford a haircut anymore I mean this is free buddy it is I would just have to buy the clippers I'll send them to you I'll buy them for you I think I'm too broke to even afford clippers that's true hey look if you want to join the brotherhood I'll be happy to but yes we got another one okay anyway I think the thing that we're going to call this video is uh PA school orientation for two one Elijah just went through orientation so those people that want to get into PA school it's like living vicariously right it's like I want to get my acceptance letter I want to be an orientation like knowing I'm going to be a PA so like they just want to know what that feels like and two for people that have orientation coming up they might be like all right well what should I expect right okay so Elijah how's the orientation for PA school been oh man well I guess I'll start off with touching down in New Jersey right because a lot of you are going to be like how to state applicants some of you may be in state and that's awesome like you're already familiar with the area but in my case like I touched on in New Jersey and I'm originally from SoCal I went from SoCal to Arizona to now New Jersey and for me I was more excited than scared my whole family was more excited than scared um because it was a new experience a new state the weather is nicer than in Arizona um so yeah like we got the whole experience of seeing a new state and just going on campus for the first time it it almost felt like I was a new sitting in undergrad again like when I walked on to UCLA's campus I was like whoa like what's all this like these buildings and I'm still getting that same surreal feeling now with the new campus at Rutgers yeah over at Rutgers yeah it's beautiful over here that's like Arden State so so green yep yeah because Rutgers is a pretty prestigious school uh yeah I think I think the rankings just came out this past year we were originally like in the 20s not that I care about rankings because I personally don't think it doesn't matter it matters I think what matters is like the faculty and the staff and how the program runs itself but yeah we kind of jumped up there we went from like the mid 20s to like number seven hmm as in like PA schools go yeah like in rankings like there's like a ranking if you just look at uh look up PA school and rankings on google you should be able to find it I'm actually kind of curious about that could we look at that yeah yeah how do I share my I think Duke should be number one still they've been number one for a while now yeah since uh 1965 or 67 or whatever because they're the first program Duke's always been number one oh yeah I think even their med program too it's pretty solid yeah Duke's a really good school are we talking about this one yeah yeah there's two of them but that's the one I look at oh crap it's trying to tell me to turn off my ad blocker no way all right there we go um Duke Baylor I've heard of Iowa for some reason okay and there's oh you guys are like you're seven there we are that's pretty sick so you're going to like our top tier PA school yeah I was even more surprised when not even when I interviewed because even then they were like in the mid 20s and I was like wow this is actually like a good school that wants to hear my story yeah that's awesome congratulations thank you so there was like a little bit of like I was like proud I was like oh my goodness top like seven and I like posted it on Facebook I shared it with my family uh because a lot of them know my story know that I you know a lot of my friends too know that I had a kid really young so for them to see me like succeed now even though I'm like later in my life kid they were all just very proud and I I felt it I felt the love from them yeah that's awesome I'm really happy for you thanks man I also want to know where the heck my school ranks because I haven't seen it yet well in school did you go to again I feel like a college in New York lamo it's spelled m-o-i-s-e uh lamo so like l-e space m-o-y-n there it is number three two New York oh that's oh Syracuse okay that's far north for me okay wait a minute hold up are like the bottom hundred all number 142 because there's a lot of ties here yeah there's a lot of ties some school and I don't know how they gauge this at all I don't get that either but it's like look we're tied for number 142 with like with like 10 15 different schools how many like yeah a bunch of schools look at this I think it's more than 10 or 15 like they're all 142 I'm not even too sure who who's in charge of these rankings like I know it's based on like like various factors like faculty staff how the programs ran and like I think like reviews from students are like past students interesting so Elijah is going to the number seven school and I graduated from a school that's tied for number 142 and we got both got 92 on our midterm exam so it was like the same exactly so it does not matter what school you go to you could go to number one you could go to number yeah nobody knows yeah like it's like your patients are going to be like oh what PA school was your like school ranked it's like they don't even know what a PA is they just think you're the doctor oh is your GPA in K school what's that oh what was your GPA in K school 3.0 oh really yeah everybody has everybody gets a good GPA because it's like first off it has to be above 3.0 and second problems like a straight A student so it's just like it's impossible not to um each school's score reflects its average rating on from marginal to outstanding based on a survey of academics at peer institutions all right we can get into this another time yeah there's like a lot of a look I'm not turning off my my ad blocker it's not happening but yeah so there's a bunch of things that they rank you on anyway I even know this like extra stuff was here yeah interesting all right well maybe my school can get it together and get a little higher on the next year but I I'm just gonna reiterate no matter what school you apply to don't even look at the ranking if you don't do it you're gonna be a PA in two years so yes as long as you're in an accredited program don't worry about it like don't even think twice about the rankings just get into a school mm-hmm yeah 100 so anyway how was the orientation oh man um magical man magical policies all that policies oh that sounds exciting um so my first two days of orientation uh went well uh we mainly went over like policies um we had some tours we toured the school and we didn't really go far my whole program was really dislocated on one floor one floor one lecture hall for my next three years so so that's that um meeting on my classmates we all look a little nervous at first everyone's like that's some nice business casual um but my program did it really well they like threw in an iceberg here like right at the beginning with introductions so we all just kind of introduced ourselves and it was really fun getting to hear about everyone's like stories like because they ask you things like what did you do before uh you applied uh like where did you graduate um where where did you get your PC what did you do work wise mm-hmm things like that and there was a variety of backgrounds and I I know that that's what Rutgers does really well is have people with very diverse backgrounds and I think half of our class were like attestators like me so I was glad to know that I wasn't alone there cool so what was the icebreaker what was the question um so yeah basically just tell us a little bit about yourselves um what you did before PA school uh where you graduated from and tell us a funny thing about yourself or an interesting thing that you want everyone to know about and the cool thing is that we didn't introduce it ourselves we have to get to know someone to introduce it for us I like that one that's a good one yeah so it was pretty nice because they got everyone laughing and then there's obviously some people reading and like making like funny snarky comments so it was really fun uh really lighthearted it really opened up everyone that's a fun one when like you get paired off with some random person then you have to ask them all the questions and then you like present them and they present you exactly yeah that's solid what was your funny thing about yourself uh I don't know if I said a funny thing I think the thing I said was that I'm a little shy at first uh but like my silly side will come out and some of my classmates have already seen it like we're we're already laughing um making jokes tracking jokes at each other you know all like complaining about how hard Facebook is already even though we're like two days in we already have a test oh yeah the test trust everyone now man yep what else do you guys do you get fitted for your white coats we did uh some people opted to order it online because I think they kind of knew what size they were already but I kind of wanted to try it just in case so I already had my long white coat for anatomy lab and we got fitted for a short white coat so that's gonna have our school and our name engraved on it oh that's cool I don't think ours did oh is that not common I don't know I've definitely seen some schools do it I don't think mine did oh yeah huh you might have when you just haven't busted it out of the closet yet I'm just trying to think no I'm pretty sure the one they gave us for school was just plain white like it might have had like lamoin on it like the patch but it didn't have our name and then when you graduate they give you the one with your name and like PAC and stuff oh so you do eventually get one yeah eventually but like there's no name and what not on your first one not cool I think I think they required us to have any money because we we do pro bono clinic here it's called the whole clinic um so oh sorry uh forgive me it's not pro bono we we um deliver healthcare to those and under certain communities so those who are like uninsured um you know like it's a town literally like 20 minutes away uh it's a population that really needs medical practitioners and we go there as students as first year students third year students and uh we have some faculty working there as well uh so we need that name tag there so we can be easily identifiable sure that's cool that's really good that you guys do that yeah it was really cool it's one of the reasons I really was proud of being accepted to this program because I really wanted to do something like that at least experience it during PA school yeah I think there's another there's a pre-PA student that I work with that has like the same kind of thing happening like his mom and a lot of his family get uh get medical care at this like underprivileged clinic and then a school that he's applying to like runs that clinic basically it was a little bit deja vu I was like was I talking to Elijah about that or somebody else it was actually somebody else there's someone else yeah so it sounds like a lot of PA schools are kind of partnered with a clinic like that where they get to provide care to underprivileged folks which is wonderful right absolutely so what else do you guys do introductions white coats introductions white coats I got my medical equipment that I dropped too much money on um I wish I talked to some of the upperclassmen a little earlier yeah because they they're getting rid of theirs and I paid a lot I paid a lot for it what did you get like the autoscope and a phalmoscope and stuff yep the diagnostic yep the autoscope um my stethoscope I got gifted from a friend so thank goodness when I got that um thermometer and I already had one at home but I just thought I just because I wanted to be uniform with the rest of the set right um I got this cool little jacket actually too with my name on it I'm gonna bust it out of my closet yep so I picked up this jacket my school offered it to us via an apparel sale online before we started the program so it has my face my school logo on it and then that's my money and it's like one of my favorite brands it's pedagonia so I really like that too I feel like every PA at the hospital has a pedagonia hoodie or like jacket like that or like a vest that's probably why I like it it's probably subconscious I think so because like every PA I see at the hospital has one of them like outpatient it's totally different but in the hospital everybody's got a pedagonia yeah and it's really nice because it gets really cold in the hospital so yep I can't wait to rock it wait it's still a little hot out so I haven't busted it out yet but I've been wearing it like here in my house because it feels so official dude that is so cool I really love that uh the Rutgers logo and it's got your name on it oh yeah and it's like big for official physician assistant love it cool man so they got you all geared up I'm just gonna keep it on for now too because I'm kind of a little chilly yeah solid cool well what else is going on in orientation was that it um what else did we do so we did tours like I said we just stayed on one floor and our lecture hall that was the first day yeah so we can cut that there uh that was just my first day of orientation and I was super excited for even day two um but day two was kind of a little bit of like oh god I don't want to say the boring stuff but like like you know just the things I have to go over like like sexual harassment uh school policies you know all that fun stuff they went over basically the overview overview of our program uh just went over everything they went over what our roles were in the hope clinic uh that we would be there as first years and third years um and we got to do another fun thing we got to practice vitals on each other so that that was pretty cool cool yeah because um apparently we're gonna get tested on it tomorrow oh god yeah I've worked long enough I know how to take a manual because yeah I left all my stuff in my locker in school and it's like a 20 minute walk from here so oh you're walking yes so I do walk to school yeah man they were testing on vitals I'm trying to remember if that's how we did it because we definitely started with a medical terminology exam I think vitals might have been first and like the uh what do you call it not the anatomy lab but the other lab um it's like the lab where you learn all your like physical exam physical diagnosis oh it oh gosh I know what you're talking about I think that's during my second semester or second year I forgot when it should be now it's like whenever you learn all your physical exams oh no that I think that I think that's our second semester for us oh interesting yeah huh I'd be curious to look at your uh at your syllabus but like how your program's organized because ours like ours being a 24 month program everything was basically the same like every semester we'd have a physical diagnosis we'd have clinical medicine we'd have pharmacology and there would be like maybe one or two classes that were slightly different but everything was basically the same like the whole time you know what might be different between our programs was yours two years yeah 24 months okay so mine is almost three years it's like two and nine months so that's probably where it differs so I believe it's a little bit of a slower pace um so for I I'll be a little uh transparent with my first semester so I right now I'm taking anatomy uh microbiome biochem uh intro to scientific inquiry which is like a research class um oh and there was one more I haven't gone to that class yet I don't remember it right now but if I remember it later I'll I'll mention it so I think I'm taking like five classes that sounds about right yeah yeah that's pretty standard yeah then research is always part of it yes yes yeah I feel like that's something a lot of people don't know is that like you have to do a research project in PA school and so like I don't know how your program does it are it was basically like a like a one credit class we have every single semester and there's a standard I don't know like standard way that you like go through it and basically you check all the boxes and you get your you know your research project but because it's a master's I think some law states that it has to be a research project as well I think they have been they've introduced it to us the master's project they told us like it was a thing but they haven't I don't have a class that actually is geared towards it besides that research class I think they're trying to teach us how to do research first and like write a few like papers first before we actually delve into um that project at the end of it you're right it could have been like just second year I can't remember I really can't remember anymore it's such a blur and you know I'm getting so overwhelmed so much info not just from classes but like orientation that everything's like a blurring me like I wasn't able to retain everything so I'm just taking it day by day right now yeah yeah it's gonna just kind of be like that isn't it it has to be all right so if you had to give one thing you wish you would have known before making the move and starting orientation like you already kind of like gave us the thing about the medical supplies because your program is going to give you like a list of medical supplies and it's like a thousand bucks or everything but you'll end up using like a few things so Elijah's first piece of advice would be like don't get the expensive stuff that you don't actually need right yep try to reach out try to like if you're in those Facebook groups like just say it out loud like hey I'm going to this program are there any upperclassmen that are in this group that are selling their set because upperclassmen for me didn't start selling it until they actually graduated and that was like right before the program started so it would have been nice to know I would have saved like 500 bucks or something yeah so that's one option is like you could buy a buy it used or you could take the cheaper out like I did and just not even buy it because like the lab has autoscopes and ophthalmoscopes and that thing is like 600 bucks or 700 bucks and it's like they already have it if you want to practice just go to the lab like I didn't have any reason to buy my own and I still don't have my own like I don't know why you would but like I don't know does your program does your lab have those for you or do you have to have your own we do have a simulation lab and I'm not sure if it's provided we were told to buy I haven't gone that far yet and I haven't really talked to too much of my upperclassmen about it yet okay I think they do use it though that makes sense in that case yeah yeah because for us it was like the standard shopping list the same as for you but our lab had them and the lab is always available to us oh that's that's really nice yeah it is but like they still told us to buy them and then all the upperclassmen told me like why would you possibly buy it you don't need it so that's just like save money uh then like the school will have you order like your sepiscope and everything like through them which is more expensive so you can get everything on amazon it'll be cheaper I don't know just trying to save a few dollars for like I got lucky I my friend my friend got it for me he it was like his congratulatory gift for me for pH yeah so that was nice I didn't have to spend like what 160 or 150 on it or something on what the stethoscope yeah oh what did you get uh the cardiology for nice yeah he he offered the echo and I'm like dude no like I'm just a student yeah like don't get any me anything that's over like 300 that's that's way too much don't buy allies anything over 300 dollars yeah I have to learn how to be poor you can't spoil me with good things what while I'm poor I actually I think I've heard of the echo I think that just came out yeah so um I think it's like wireless or it's an attachment so it's a completely different stethoscope it's an attachment and I think you can listen to it through like earphones and it's supposed to be like oh I thought I thought they call ended um so it's supposed to be like the best stethoscope there is out there especially if you're in something like cardiology you know the pulmonology so you can really hear those um so you can really ask we'll take for those long sounds and hear those um hear the heart echo core that's the one oh my god it's 430 430 for this part and then it's like 330 for this one uh digital stethoscope core digital stethoscope I don't know the difference here oh this yeah I never really looked into I didn't know there's two different ones I think those are two completely different ones just with different attachments and then there's like a an attachment that's 200 bucks and I think you can connect connect it to your phone via wi-fi oh wow yeah because you can record you can actually record what you hear and then like for example if you're consulting with a physician or a co-worker you can let them hear it too instead of get them having to go on their oh that's cool I like that oh you're gonna get one now huh well no I don't want it I'm my cardiology master that I've had forever uh but no that's cool that you can record that and like send it to a cardiologist and be like is this what I'm hearing you know that's pretty sweet uh if you're in like some super specialized field I could see that being important or if you have very bad hearing that too um I would just recommend the classic three or the cardiology four for any prepay students the classic three is perfect like there's so many different colors and you can get it engraved get your name one in it yep uh litman classic three yeah that's the one that I use in PA school and like the two uh two stethoscope giveaways I had I always need this one away but yeah right it comes in so many colors look at this like you can get so many different things that neon green right that's the kind of like the one I had the last one you were on this one uh the lot before that kind of like that but the cardiology four version got it like it shouldn't matter what color it is but it kind of matters it's like this one's mine if you leave it like it's definitely mine and it's just like it makes you happy that you picked it out but that's the thing there's so many people that will get the same one as you and you're just like what the heck there's like 50 colors online yeah I would recommend it like an engraving or something I engraved every single like item that I have like from my apple pencil to my stethoscope like I've engraved everything just just in case you know never know how are you gonna take notes are you gonna do the like iPad thing with the notepad so things are a little different now for my undergrad and my master's before starting pay school like I had a pc for like eight years and that thing was beautiful like if any of you like ever get into the pc realm like pc is awesome like you have two screens you have three screens the thing is awesome like you can drag different windows to different screens that's what I use um but since I had to fly here there's no way I could bring something that bulky with all the other important things we have to bring here so I opted to just get an iPad because it was required for my program oh okay yeah I think my program just started recently doing that just having it be required uh the iPad because it used to be covered in our tuition but now it's it's more like like you get to have more of a say in which iPad you can get versus just getting whatever the program throws at you yeah and then you can get it used so you can save money exactly yeah I think a lot of people in my class did that like they pulled up the uh the PowerPoint slides and then they were able to like scribble all over them and draw all over them oh yep that's exactly what I'm using and I just learned how to use it yesterday took me like an hour an hour an hour during my lecture so I was learning how to use the thing while while in my lecture and I don't recommend that I recommend know how to know how to use your apps before you start your first day because it's important um but yeah uh it's called notability so that's something that I in a lot of my classmates use people use one note I use notability I like it a lot I did pay for the membership I think it's completely worth it um so basically the membership just allows you to have full access to the app and you can you know use it unlimitedly if that's a word unlimited use of it that's actually a good point because like how are you going to take notes in PA school because everything goes so fast you can't really take detailed notes you can try it's not going to work so like you just have to kind of find your rhythm and figure out exactly how you learn and like the first few weeks just try everything out if you happen to get a bad grade because like your strategy doesn't work this is the time to do it is like in the beginning and then try something different and then like when something works stick to it just like stick to that one method you know yeah so like know your study methods even though people say you're going to study differently in PA school there's some things that are going to overlap with how you studied in undergrad or in your post back um for me the iPad was a completely new thing I'm a laptop guy I'm a PCI that's all I had that and I had to learn something new and I don't recommend learning it on your first day of PA school because I was struggling I was figuring out notability one note on key quizlet even last night I was what was that are you going to use on key that's the thing like I was researching it last night like and that took me another hour right I could have been studying for my anatomy class but I was looking up oh how do you use on key because on key available on the iPad and I in the end I found out you can't fully utilize on key without a laptop or PC or Mac so and I have an iPad so so there's that you can use it on your phone you can use it on your phone but making the decks are a lot easier it's a lot user-friendly on like a PC or laptop you can definitely make cards make decks on the phone but I found it to be hard it took me like an hour to figure it out and I was like oh I'm just going to use quizlet yeah I feel like quizlet was a big one okay so I'm getting distracted because I'm trying to upgrade zoom so it doesn't kick us out in 10 seconds oh that's right it's like it's probably just going to kick us out that's okay yeah let's just let's just start the new calm down then yeah let's just do that because this is actually a good thing to talk about this could be a different video for you too if you want this or like a like a short or something we'll see yeah see where it goes okay it said less than a minute for like two minutes maybe it's just gaslighting me I say let's play it safe and just yeah yeah do the next call all right we're back from our little intermission Elijah had something very important to say what is up guys now I'm just kidding trying to be like a super high-energy youtuber they always have that kind of inflection too like what is up guys it's your boy that's so not my personality but it could be yours no I'm not gonna do that I have to be professional now I'm a professional now I don't know man I don't know the youtube thing is interesting because like so many people get so much benefit out of just either us just talking about just literally how PA school is because like a lot of people get like this advice and like how it's going to be from their friends their classmates but some people are just kind of like lone wolfing it and just doing it on their own yeah you know and they don't have anyone to give them advice or tell them how things are going to be and then they find out on their own like a semester in and they're like well shit I wish I knew this like months ago so I feel like youtube kind of fills that void for a lot of people that don't know a lot of people you know and then even if it's like it's not like information it's kind of like camaraderie right like we're all going through the same struggle right now yeah like we've either been through it or we're going to be through it or we're going through it now and it's like just like putting something that like that on in your car as you like drive to class or whatever it's like you're not alone going through it oh trust me I've played your videos like all the time while I'm doing dishes while I'm driving to work wants to fall asleep my shit's boring no it was great man it kept me up there's like a couple of your videos that I kept watching over and over which one um I think you talked about like why why pre-med versus pa because wait one that I deleted or one that well so I made one of those like maybe a month or two ago but I had an old one from years ago I've watched all of it then I probably watched the more recent one okay yeah like I remember back in Arizona I was I was watching that one in my car yeah yeah I'm about to make another new one actually about that because that one actually got big that's my biggest video right now over the last couple months because I feel like that's a huge choice people have to make because like either one is going to spend like years of your life trying to get there right so it's like which path am I choosing do I want to go all in on md do I want to do pa you know so that's just like revamping revamping that that topic so uh full disclosure so the first one um the first one I made was like years ago and it was when I was still married and like I basically told like the audience like I chose pa because I want more to my life than just medicine I want like a family I want this and that and then I showed like a big uh photo for my wedding and so as soon as I got divorced I was like I'm taking this video down like we're definitely not gonna talk about this let's just let's make a new one uh so that that's full disclosure why that video is no longer there in case the memories the memories really it's just like I just don't think it's appropriate to show it now um but the new one I'm just sitting there like by my car in my backyard like all right this is why you know it's been a cup of coffee and just talking kind of kind of it's like why do we do this it's like one to like deliver information absolutely but also it's just like to keep people going right yeah yeah but like just the transparency that we're bringing to the audience here you know absolutely for the for those few that watch you know that are going through like the people that watch your channel are people who really like are looking for information out there right something to kind of segue their their journey into being a prepay and I think we're kind of unveiling like the oasis here you know and just showing them like oh this is what it's like you know unveiling the oasis yeah here it is so like what do you call it like the harp whatever whatever I can't remember um what that sound effect is like but yeah it's just I think it's a good thing to do it helps people out you know like when I was a prepay driving my like rusty old car to post back like not even sure if it's gonna make it or not like just hoping to get into school one day like I put on like the dawn of the pa and like john belisky and like just listen to them like not for any answers but just like okay they've been through it they got there you know maybe you know you watch it on it too she's she's one of the ones I watched a lot I did like in her earlier stuff back when she was still kind of like giving a lot of information I'm not really sure what she does anymore she's still doing the same thing now she used to be a trauma pa uh when she was a new grad a couple years ago and now she does obi I think oh yeah yeah it's weird I'm already like a pa student but I still watch a lot of like prepay videos and podcasts and stuff but you're kind of in the community yeah yeah I and there's a lot of people like that ask me like on the flight there's a lot of people that ask me like stuff on the forums uh we'll ask me questions and I don't want to give them like any outdated information so I just kind of keep keep up you know while I'm walking to class yeah good time yeah I mean you're like it's been a big like part of your life like in this community trying to get in what's just handed to you it's a big part of your life and now you're like on the other side of it helping other people you know so I think it's a good thing I mean you did that for me and I'm just I'm following your shoes so yeah absolutely I'm passing the buck to Elijah I don't know I'll probably keep doing this I would imagine uh but I don't know it's kind of nice to do it with somebody else and like pass ideas back and forth instead of just be more like a conversation versus like a like a script right yeah the problem with that is I don't think we've talked about anything substantive for like the last 40 minutes I think you're we're just cut shooting the shit okay I don't know I mean like let's make it more of a podcast I guess sometimes and then like I'll clip smaller videos out of the big ones but okay sorry I'm making you we're making your job a lot harder here my job oh no I don't think so yeah because you're the one editing it I I'm just talking and then I'm gonna go literally I mean I don't know it's gonna get outsourced eventually if we ever make any any income from this thing full disclosure like this video is not monetized none of this is monetized yet like none of us are making money off this uh the only way me and Elijah make any money out of this venture is if you guys pay us to edit your essays or buy my book yes buy the book I might as much as we can talk about it like voice has a lot of stuff in there and I've taken a good look at it too yeah it's good stuff it's uh it's gonna help you get in but this is not an advertisement so anyway uh oh so before zoom kicked us off because we uh we crossed the magical 40 minute threshold uh before zoom kicked us off we were starting to talk about like different study methods yeah and so like a lot of people use on key some people use Quizlet you know just read the chapter like a crazy person I don't know what are you gonna do so I think I've opted for like Google Docs Quizlet and notability those are the three that's my link those are gonna be my golden three because that's what that's what works for me now if you were to use Anki you know how to use it that thing's amazing there's spatial recognition and memorization it's it's amazing like use it if you know how to do it yeah but if if you haven't delved into it and you're about to start probably stick to what's comfortable with like for you like if Quizlet's uh good for you then just use Quizlet you know because you're at the end of the day you're all learning the same information just in a different style right you don't want to study the same way as someone else studies because it may not work for you right there's so many of my classmates that write down every single thing but that's just not the way I learned I'm very visual I like to actively recall in my head that's the way I learned so I don't think those guys are gonna be able to keep up oh yeah where are we getting flooded right now yeah that's what I used to do and like post back and everything I would literally write everything out and then I would condense it and write it again and then make it shorter and write it again uh-huh in PS will you just don't have time there's no way you can get through that much information and then if that's how you're trying to study you're going to stress yourself out be like well I can't keep up well you can but just change your methods you know that just doesn't work no more um also I think you were saying something about how you were like learning how to use notability while you were in class what while I was in class I was like oh how do I erase things uh-huh you know like little technical issue yeah yeah well and it's nice so here's my apple pen so wow oh yeah yeah I got my naming grave done it just like where's my camera up over there so cool just in case I drop it man you never know but so yeah like I was like what the heck like how do I erase something and there's a feature on the apple pen where you just like double tap and it'll go to that erase feature or you can like just click it on there but that took me like three minutes right and the professor is talking fast there's we don't know a whole lot of knowledge and even just the span of like five ten minutes you got a really like when you're in class you really have to just pay attention because you can't be dozing off you can't be daydreaming like you have to be actively setting in your head as they're lecturing just really like trying to ingrain it into your head because you're gonna want to go back on those slides later on and be like okay what do I remember what do I not remember right so ideally like the optimal way to do it is to read the slides ahead of time you can do that yeah they do have it so I think those programs should have your slides up so that's like the best way to do it is like what they call it like a three prong method or something or the three repeat method or something where like the first time you go through it is like you don't know anything you're just kind of skimming through and like okay I know this I don't know this maybe I'll maybe I'll circle or highlight things that I don't really know and that's what I really want to pay attention before class so like you just skim through all the notes five ten minutes just skim in class then you've already seen it so that's the second time and that's when you like take detailed notes on like something that you really don't know right excuse me and then right after class the best time to review everything so if you can get it three times that day you won't really need to study and plan much so that's the optimal way nobody does it that way because it takes a lot of discipline or I'm sure you can do but I didn't end time yeah but so most people they leave it towards kind of the end and they like cram and they try to like take notes later but like that's the best way to do it skim the notes pay attention in class and then review right after class even if you're tired and then you just kind of have it you know ideally I didn't do that because I wasn't disciplined yeah so for PA student pre-PA students and students who recently got accepted just know know how you study try it out see if it works you know some stuff will work some stuff is still working for me as of right now I'm on day two so I don't know yet but but I feel my experience yeah yeah but I feel comfortable with it um I'll let you guys know how my first exam goes but so far I'm retaining material and remembering things from my past classes from my period classes and it's been working for me so stick to what you know and then adjust adjust throughout the semester you have to be adaptable that's what being a PA is hey that was good Fonzie I just remember I had this one classmate Edgar who sat behind me and he was all into Anki he was like kind of a younger guy and he's all into tech and he was trying to teach me Anki and he was all excited about it and I like my brain was like spinning I was like I'm focusing more on how to use this technology than the actual material and that's not like I'm not doing Anki but like he got a lot ton of benefit from it because there's a lot of slide decks already made you know so I don't know find what works for you and if it just feels wrong just don't push yourself don't do it just do something else and I was telling Boris earlier I don't know if this is in the recording but last night I was upsetting until I think close to 3 a.m and that's because it took me like hours to figure out how to how to use Anki and in the end just not end up using it right I could have used those hours to study for anatomy but I got caught up in how to study and how to utilize these softwares right so that's why it's important for you guys to really figure out before PA school like if you have like six months until your program starts or even if you have a month left just figure out figure it out right now so then you're not struggling during that first week I have the opposite advice oh I actually have a video from years ago that says like what should you do and study before PA school starts and nothing like there's that too yeah I feel like you kind of have to be doing it to figure out what works for you so if you're going to speculate and try to pre-study or whatever you're just going to stress yourself out and you're going to be so stressed in school I would rather you just like spend that time chilling right like just be stressing before because you're going to sell your soul exactly just like spend time with family eat drink have fun sleep get some exercise just like be in the best state of mind when you start school and then just know that you'll figure it out because you're smart and you're capable and they chose you for a reason so you will figure it out so I would rather you like not even freak out about it before school starts and then once school starts then you freak out about it and then you don't stop freaking out for two or three years and then yeah I did actually take that advice I think before school started I did nothing I was spending time with my son I was playing video games I was watching TV watching my shows um but I think too much to the point where it's like I think I should have started at least a week before I think that would be okay that's what I should have done maybe a week just to figure out my tech like my apps that's true that's true yeah not necessarily studying anything substantial um you know even though I had an exam my first day of class like don't study anything substantial yeah like don't study anatomy like three months before your class starts like no point they're gonna teach you they're gonna teach you it in class you know so study it when you actually need the material because by the time if you if you're studying it like three six months until your program starts you're gonna forget by the time your program starts you're gonna forget and you're gonna spend all that time studying something that may not be on the test exactly so like there's a lot of anatomy in there they're not gonna test you on the entire book they're gonna pick and choose what they want and if you're not studying a bunch of stuff that's not on there you're gonna be like well shoot you know right like I would just rather you chill have fun like Elijah said and then just like hit it as soon as you get to school and you'll do fine and also buy the book yeah I think you'll be fine buy that book or buy your textbooks I didn't buy any textbooks yeah I'll be honest I I didn't either and you probably want to cut that there I don't know my program wants to hear that they're not gonna get a crap as long as you pass I mean yeah I talked to the director today um and she oh god I was like waking up so she I walked out of the elevator and she was like congrats and I was like what yeah like like I like what 8 30 a.m. and I was like oh what and she was like you're scoring the midterm like you did really well I was like oh oh thank you I was like yeah and she was like oh what did you do did you use the book and I was like to be honest I use it only on terms I didn't know my classmates read the book and I studied off their flashcards yeah mm-hmm oh that brings up a good point one yes be awake and caffeinated when you're talking to the director because actions are important and they they hold all the cars they pull a lot of strings oh yeah so like I know it's not supposed to be this way but if the staff and the faculty like you then like things are just better right so there's that I'm not gonna say much more about that um the other thing is groups studying in groups is phenomenal because it's like like at the end of the day you're the one that has to get it into your brain and learn it but like the hard work such as like making a quizlet out of chapter one maybe Elijah makes a quizlet out of chapter one and I make one out of quite out of chapter two and then I don't know Sophie makes a quizlet out of chapter three well now I don't have to read two chapters now I only have to read one chapter and I can just like use quizlet that other people made for me right we did that we had Mason he was like the king of quizlet and like before classes even over and you're like shit how am I gonna study this mason's like I already made a quizlet and we're like damn mason how'd you do that but it was just like everybody's good at something someone's gonna be the quizlet person someone's gonna be the funky person someone's gonna be just like the recognizing when everyone's stressed out and they like by nacho's person like everybody's got a role so find your find your team by your tribe yeah like really utilize your classmates you're there's so many resources you can use for pay school but your classmates your cohort they're the biggest resource that you could use that there's a reason why you were picked by they were picked you know everyone's collaborative that it's a collab it's a collaborative field that you're going into you're gonna want to work with them you know you gotta settle it start learning how to work with people mm-hmm yeah a hundred percent it's so helpful and even if it's not like necessarily like doing like the hard work like they'll keep you accountable or they'll just motivate you like for instance we had a group I was in a group where we just like every sunday we got together we made dinner bullshitted and then after dinner we would study exactly two of the kids in that group were like way too smart one of them yeah Byron was like he just I don't think he even studied he just knew everything and then the other two guys were like really hard working and then there was me and then like occasionally like one of the girls would join and like just even being around them being like holy crap they like they already know everything and I haven't even started or I'm like halfway through like just pushes you right better you know right so yeah be around other people as possible it's really hard to lone wolf the whole thing yeah like knowing where you stand with a group it's gonna want you to strive to be up here right and then they're gonna they're gonna feel that then they're gonna want to go you know it it sounds competitive but at the same time it's also collaborative right it is it's like when it's something that hard you have to see other people doing it and you have to see yourself kind of falling behind to like want to run and catch up and then like sometimes this is a little bit more shitty I guess but it's true if you feel like you're falling behind or you didn't do as well as you wanted there's always someone who is struggling more right you know like you would bring people into your group and they're like dude I failed the last two tests and you're like shit I'm feeling bad about like barely passing the last two tests exactly and so then you feel a little bit better about yourself and then you help them and then like there's no better way to learn than to teach so then you end up both like getting better so just don't try to do this by yourself I definitely am throughout the years I've been the type to study alone right I think likewise yeah my only study partner is my wife and now we're not classmates anymore um we're classmates in our undergrad and our masters but now we're no longer classmates um so I'm I have been kind of lone wolfing it but I'm slowly starting to integrate myself into study groups I think it's because of my personality as as a study year like I like to go at my pace and you know do all the rope memorization alone and then later on I like to you know then collaborate with other people and say like hey like you know can can we talk about this can we talk about this for me that works best yeah now if if you're coming right out of a lecture and like going over like a specific topic that may not work for you like to just go into a group right away right because no one really knows anything right right like you're gonna go off into a conference room or study room and you're all gonna kind of be lost together right and you're not gonna really focus in our pinpoint on what you should be studying so from I don't know what may work for you guys but for me I want to study alone first at least the first day and then maybe collaborate with someone later I feel kind of the same way like I kind of want to be ready for the study group because otherwise I feel like I don't get anything out of it right sometimes that's not true like you get there and someone's already done a lot or they have experience so they like know a lot so you just kind of get like a head start um the other thing is sometimes in a study group people end up like bullshitting and just like chatting and yeah not studying and then that's like counterproductive right so just be careful everyone has a different style you gotta find your style you gotta find your group of people and you got you gotta like I said earlier just adapt yeah yeah find the people that you work best with and like sometimes you'll just like you'll feel like studying with one group and then you'll be in a different mood like the next week and you'll like want to do a different group it's just just like be open to that I guess I don't know find your people find your people and just like be ready to just like jump around and just yeah try to try to have multiple people even for prepos if you're doing pre-rex find your people you know there's people in community colleges and like universities that are that have like similar aspirations so just yeah find your people no matter where you are literally I just remember in my post back we were sitting at the dairy bar I was part of this like group of three it was me Jackie and security Jackie's finishing up med school now she's gonna be an ER doc security last minute decided that she doesn't want medicine anymore she went to law school and I think she already graduated but so it was me Jackie and security and then like everybody else and so like we were studying one night late at night at the dairy bar for endocrinology and like I just realized that the amount that we were talking about science like went less and less and the amount they were talking about Kim Kardashian was going more and more and like it was starting to annoy me like one out of 10 and then it started annoying me like three out of 10 and then finally I just kind of like held it in until I couldn't focus anymore and was like guys I'm freaking done with Kim Kardashian let's freaking study some endocrinology you know how girls getting up on you they like both like dropped what they were doing and they were like Boris you go sit over there and I was like I will and so I went and went like sat by myself like a few tables over and just like studied endocrinology and then like an hour later we all reconvened and I was like so how'd you guys do they were like well actually as soon as you left we started going back to science I was like come on there we go come on I was so over it but like I don't know we kind of remained friends afterwards for a little while like it was all good you weren't voted off the island yeah I was sort of voted off the island but I also kind of like swam away from the island myself because I was like I'm not like getting any benefit out of talking about Kim Kardashian right now I don't get it and then like as soon as I leave they start talking about school again but you know what that's those are the memories that stick with you right the one I'll never forget it yep it and this is something that I'm gonna try to take with me throughout my program so my my faculty mentioned like multiple of them mentioned the greatest memories that you'll make during PA school aren't the aren't all-nighters studying you're not gonna remember that oh that one night who I spent you know I pulled an all-nighter the memories that you're gonna make are those of your classmates the connections that you make with faculty just like stopping by their office talking to them yeah or going to a concert with your friends or going on a picnic with your classmates you know those are the things that you'll remember not necessarily how hard this test was or how exactly I studied for this test oh like I remember like all these years ago this is how I studied and that was so memorable to me no you're gonna you're gonna remember those fun moments and that's something that I want to keep with me throughout PA school that I'm already trying to start now just making memories with my family um and that's the advice that I want to give to PA students about to start like you're gonna have all the time in the world to study you know but make time for yourself yeah make time for yourself and I would also say especially to a guy like Elijah who happens to like have a wife at home who moved with him and a kid it's going to be really easy to like isolate yourself from your class and just like deal with your family um and then you kind of lose one those connections and those memories yeah through those study resources and three I would say even more importantly just like being in the know about things going on in the program right you know because like some things aren't necessarily like emailed out or spelled out for you it's just like oh you haven't heard so right and I feel like I kind of fell into that because I like I was married I had a wife um at home at that time and well she wasn't at home she was doing a PhD program but like she was you know if I was trying to spend spare time with someone it was usually with her so like I made an effort especially early on to try to be friends with people in the program and I feel like that like really fell off uh after you know semester or two and so like kind of towards second year I started noticing that like just I didn't know things and I wanted to and I didn't really know who to ask like oh we're meeting where for this or wait I didn't even hear that we had to be at this thing or whatever like I don't remember specifically or like I didn't realize that the exam was moved because I didn't read one of my 10 000 emails today but like everybody who talked to people already knew so it's just like it's very important to prioritize being around your classmates even if it's not just studying just like socially listening to whatever bullshit's going on in their lives just like just being around them because they they help in a lot of different ways that you wouldn't even realize like I kind of noticed that in myself today as well I work I used to be the type to I want to work is work lunch is lunch I would veer off and take my lunch somewhere yeah and I almost did that today but I said you know what I'm gonna eat lunch with my classmates you know we all kind of microwave their food together I'm not gonna walk away and everyone's kind of like gathering you know at least a close group of guys that I'm talking to and I'm you know having fun with so yeah I stayed with them and you know what like we talked about the funniest things like operation paperclip like conspiracy theories world war the possible world war three you know like wait what conspiracy theory well um operation paperclip which one operation paperclip no no yeah it's the one where um they talk about how they believe there's no not that they believe it's a fact um so there's a lot of uh not um Nazi Germans at least their descendants that are in South America or something uh yeah South America like what do I yeah you know what about one of my classmates actually has a beach house there and he confirmed he was like oh yeah there's like Germans up there I don't like what really not just any Germans yeah oh yeah well descendants descendants so I don't know if they carry the same values but oh geez yeah so there's that okay let me look on a map and check off one place I'm never gonna go you know being Jewish and everything should probably stay out of South America yeah so back to the point I was making this that's the memory that I'll remember you know even just like a simple like dinner table lunch table conversation like that you know so like Boris said earlier and I just want to reiterate make time for yourself but also make time for your classmates yeah 100 and also like talk to your partner about how important that is yes she's never going to see you she's going to be like you're either studying and like now you have free time and you're spending it with like Joe and whoever like what the heck you'd be like you don't get it like it's really important to be part of this community but I'm very transparent with there I'll tell her like hey there's this Asian guy I met in my class and he's like cool yeah or like hey there's this guy that's from California I've been talking to him nice yeah like I would update her like I'm very transparent like we share everything about our days and I think that helps her a lot too for sure yeah I don't think that you would ever hide anything it's just like physically the amount of time you're spending just with her versus other people just that she needs to understand that it's very important yeah and you know it helps she's also like really busy so she's taking care of her son she's applying for job she's applying to med school she's still fixing up everything in the apartment and it's looking beautiful right now so thank you for thank you Gaya for that um Gaya yeah yeah like Gaya thank you Gaya yeah so yeah he's busy as well so her day is kind of just going by you know so that helps her too yeah 100 I can't remember exactly but I think so we had a class of 75 and out of the few people that were in relationships when they started I think like half broke up and then half got married that's scary it's like yeah it's either going to like bring you closer and it's just like we got through this thing together or it's going to be like okay this isn't working uh because it's just it's like any other like I wouldn't say trauma but difficult thing that you go through it's just like it's either going to bring you closer or it's not right because preschool takes a lot out of you so much time yeah but anyway so we talked about orientation briefly yes study and talked about the importance of your classmates anything else you would really include in this one that you could um just take take it as you go you know if if you if you got your interview yeah do the research on it but also like you know take time for yourself if you got into PA school great you know take it one day at a time no matter where what you're doing just take it one day at a time I'm in PA school right now I'm taking it one day at a time right because I'm not going to stress about the exam that's like three months ahead right or the exam that's next week I'm gonna do what I can now make sure I can sleep knowing I did the best I could today studying wise spending time with my family you know doing the things that are important to me my priorities in life and if I can get all that done before I go to sleep then I'm happy and if not then you don't go to sleep if I'm not then I don't go to sleep until I just like last night 3am baby it's also like midnight in California so you're still on that time schedule yeah I'm kind of jet light still just slightly a little bit going east is harder than going west yeah but we're gonna doubt yeah it'll be fine all right y'all so that was a good one I think we talked about some important stuff so me and Elijah will try to do these I'd say weekly it would be good you know just literally get together talk about whatever if you guys have questions you know definitely post them in the comments email me email Elijah you know go to my website you have contact for both of us there anybody needs help getting into PA school we're there for it anybody needs help writing their essay and getting into PA school by the book by the book I think we're out and we're out thanks guys all right y'all have a good one see you next week I'm gonna just stop recording here