 if I could say one thing it's that if you've passed PA school and you haven't been like hanging on for dear life the whole time you've been even like somewhere around the middle of the pack you really do have everything in your head that you need in order to pass the pants and just trust yourself love yourself and understand that you do know what you need to know so I just want you to know that I've been there I was a really average student and I passed the pants with a pretty comfortable margin so hey guys I'm Boris I'm a position assistant back here in my rolling studio my car as you can tell it's packed to the rafters it's packed all the way to the roof with all my stuff I'm uh I'm moving back up to Syracuse where I went to school at Lemoine college for PA school and it's where I got my first job which actually starts Monday today's Saturday so two days excited nervous kind of terrified but definitely mostly excited and just like super stoked super happy to start this first PA job really happy about it but I talked about that in a different video so I'm not gonna not gonna talk about it here I'm gonna spare you and in my last video I talked about my experience taking the physician assistant national certifying exam the pants or pantsy as some people say uh so today in this video I actually want to tell you how I study for the pants I'm gonna say pants if you say pantsy sorry pants I'm gonna go with that this may not make it into the video because it doesn't matter but anyway I'm gonna tell you about how I studied for the pants so I took the pants about two weeks give or take about two weeks after graduation after my last rotation ended so after finishing the program I gave myself about two weeks to kind of recuperate take a little time off and also really hardcore study for the pants so when we're talking about studying for the pants it's this massive exam you know it takes you two three years just to prepare for this exam which is your PA program so I can't really say you study for it I can more say that you practice for it here's what I mean there's no way I don't care how smart you are how good you are at studying there's no way that you can learn that much material in one night in one week in two weeks even in like three months there there's just simply no way that's why it takes two years to finish a PA school program so you're not really studying you're not learning a whole lot of new material what you're doing is you're practicing you're practicing using the material that you already know maybe learning one or two new things that like you're just really deficient on that might be important like reviewing EKGs or something like that but mostly you're just practicing using the knowledge that you already have perhaps the knowledge that you may have maybe used on your first rotation your second rotation or stuff that you haven't seen since didactic years so it's been a while since you've used the information but you have already learned it you've been tested on it it's in there have faith that it's in there in your brain you just kind of have to practice pulling it out of your brain and choosing the right answer and as I said in my how to study video which which I'm going to link right here I honestly think it's a good video I really did some research on how studying works how learning and recall work and I kind of broke it down into a very easy to understand format and it helped me understand how I study myself so I think it might help you if you want some information on studying but one thing that's really important I think from that video is is the concept of queued recall so just because something's in your brain just because you know something doesn't mean you're going to be able to pull it out you have to practice doing that and that's what's called queued recall you see something on paper you see a question or you see a patient or whatever it is and that's your queue to pull out whatever knowledge you need in order to treat that patient correctly or to say the right thing or to get the right answer on a test so you're practicing using the association of the knowledge you have with the queue that you're going to get on a test or in real life and essentially that's most of what I did for those two weeks before the pants one really common piece of advice that PA students especially kind of later in their training so second year PA students especially after they've had a couple of rotations under their belt and they're really starting to think about the pants seriously because it's coming up one really big piece of advice that we always get is questions questions questions do more questions do a thousand questions do three thousand questions as many as you can and there actually is a lot of reason for that I know some people wouldn't agree but there is a lot of reason for that and that is that that piece of advice assumes that you've done a great job through didactic year learning everything that you need to learn that knowledge base and now you just need to practice using it you need to practice taking questions so you're not even really using the questions let's say in the rush review or the you world or whatever question bank you're not really using those questions to learn things and maybe fill in the deficiencies you're mostly just practicing your test taking strategy and I think there's a lot of validity to that I think there's a lot of credence to that but it's not everything so anyway let me get to what I actually personally did those last two weeks between graduation and actually taking the pants so on the screen right now you should see a little schedule if anybody watching this actually knows me in real life you know this is what I do basically every day I wake up in the morning I maybe meditate or whatever it is just to kind of get my mind right unless there's somewhere I'm like rushing off first thing in the morning and then I set what's called intentions or plan of the day I think this carried over from the navy where we have a plan of the day I make a plan of the day for things that I really really need to accomplish and things that I really want to accomplish of course it's prioritized things that have to happen and then things that I would like to happen so for these two weeks I was very regimented I was very organized I didn't work I didn't really have anywhere to go I didn't really do any social activities I was actually staying with my parents just so I could hang out with them but also so that I could be away from everything and just kind of isolated and to do my work and focus on really parking for this pants as well as I could because it's a really really important exam if you don't pass this thing then you can't work and then why did you go to PA school in the first place right so it was really important to me to pass this thing on the first try and I did and I'm happy to say I passed but that was in the previous video so anyway as you can see on the schedule which I don't have it in front of me I might make some mistakes but I basically memorized it because this was my life for two weeks so first thing you see is meditate slash earth what is earthing if you're kind of a you know hippie earthy crunchy kind of person like me you probably know what earthing is but for those of you who are not who might be a little bit more normal people um earthing I highly recommend it just not in the winter earthing is basically going out and just like standing in the grass barefoot I don't know if there's a whole lot of science to this it's supposed to like ground you with the electromagnetic pulses of the earth or something like that I'm not going to explain it scientifically because I don't know it scientifically what I do know is that it works it grounds you it just calms you down it just like regulates your breathing not medical advice at all I don't know if there's any scientific basis to this whatsoever it just works for me it like it just grounds you it makes you feel at peace it makes you feel calm so I highly recommend earthing you don't have to stand out there for an hour especially if it's cold you know your feet are going to get cold and it's you know unpleasant and kind of annoying but just for like even a few minutes just stand there if you're in a safe quiet area like my parents backyard for instance just stand there take some deep breaths close your eyes listen to what's going on around you assuming it's like peaceful noises you know like birds chirping stuff like that if you're in like the middle of Manhattan I don't know what to tell you there's probably nowhere to earth because there's no grass uh unless you go to central park but I don't know if I go earth and central park because there's like I don't know man I don't live in a city I can't tell you but the point is if you live somewhere with access to like clean nice grass in a peaceful environment highly recommend earthing totally random tangent if you don't like earthing do whatever do something just relaxing first thing in the morning so for me I also like to meditate not necessarily like sit there and listen to myself breathe but just kind of sit there with my eyes closed and just like sensory deprivation and just kind of notice my thoughts not really judge them not really try to push them down or get rid of them but just but just kind of sit there just let them come and go notice them notice what's going on in my head because those thoughts are going to be there anyway so you know they deserve a witness they deserve to be noticed and respected even if I'm not going to do anything about them just kind of sit there and be with yourself my favorite way that I've ever heard meditation described is just to be with yourself you deserve to be with yourself for 10 minutes for five minutes however long you meditate you know I started with like two minutes just because I couldn't take it and then five minutes and now I'm doing like 10 maybe one day I'll be a total guru and uh you know meditate for half an hour sorry I'm trying to pass this Jeep Wrangler here who's going kind of slow I'm like I said I'm driving down the highway that's why I'm not uh not looking at the camera that would be unsafe but yeah so I like to meditate if it's not something you'd like to do I wouldn't maybe start a new practice two weeks before your pants I probably wouldn't do anything stressful or try to change any habits do whatever it is that just grounds you that just makes you feel calm at peace supported happy don't jump right into studying don't jump right into doing note cards or test questions just straight up just wake up and chill don't even go downstairs or wherever your family or friends or roommates or anybody lives don't talk to anyone just wake up and spend a few minutes just relaxing I promise it'll make you feel better for the rest of the day it'll just give you like a more grounded more relaxed just internal environment is the best way I can describe it a nice relaxed internal environment to kind of uh sorry um to kind of just do everything else on and I think it makes a big difference so anyway not to beat a dead horse I think we're good there moving on so after my meditation and or earthing whichever one just get nice and grounded the very first thing I would do before even making coffee or doing anything else I would do 60 questions 60 rush review questions or you world or a couple days I did those uh NCCPA practice exams that are 60 questions whatever it is it's just very important to do 60 questions as fast as you can do them for speed don't do them for uh content so like if you're familiar with rush review you know you could do tutor mode that'll give you one minute per question or you can do um oh sorry you could do test mode that'll give you one minute per question or you can do tutor mode that's unlimited time and then it gives you an explanation once you've answered your question correctly or incorrectly so all of that I highly recommend in this regard to do test mode so you're practicing actually doing those 60 questions fast as if you would do them in an exam as if you were taking the pants and the reason it's 60 is because as you probably know the pants has five 60 question segments so basically what I'm doing is training myself as soon as I wake up to just get in that mode and do a 60 question segment it's just it's important to me to think of the test not as 300 questions not as five hours but as 60 question segments also I've noticed I looked at my phone here and it's uh it's kind of dark is that better that just looks weird how about that it's got some light going on here how about this is that that looks weird too you know what it's a little dark I'm sure you guys can handle it um yeah we'll go with that and I'll try to wrap this video up in less than like an hour because I keep rambling but okay so moving on so first thing I did meditate or earth second thing I did before even having coffee or talking to anyone or doing anything is knockout 60 questions as fast as possible then and I think I'm sticking to the schedule I wrote down here then I finally went downstairs I live you know I lived in my parents spare bedroom upstairs while I was staying with them for these two weeks and then I went downstairs I would allow myself to you know say hi to them talk to them chat with them whatever just you know live like a normal person what you'll notice is later in the schedule I say phone on so that means this whole time my phone is off I do not wake up at this time at least wasn't waking up and looking at my phone checking emails checking Instagram checking my youtube views whatever like no phones off until the afternoon every single day no distractions I wanted to wake up drown myself be like really relaxed and then knock out 60 questions just be in that mode then I'd finally go get my coffee I go downstairs if my mom or dad were down there I'd go say hi to them I get my coffee I'd make it make you know make it with half and half the way I like it just enjoy my coffee bring it upstairs maybe make some breakfast whatever if I felt like it eggs or oatmeal or something whatever it was and then I'd go upstairs and then I would keep working so I would review if I if I could I would review the questions that I just did looked at the ones that I got wrong especially see why I got them wrong not just try to memorize the right answer but actually see like okay what do I not understand here about this drugs mechanism about the pathophysiology like what is going on why did I get each of these questions wrong I do that then I usually look at the ones that I got right just to make sure that I didn't just get lucky and guess the right thing I wanted to actually make sure that I remember things properly all the way through I understand everything the pathophysiology the treatment plans the demographics that these diseases affect everything I wanted to make sure that I remember things properly and then maybe in the schedule you see what I wrote down as three by 15 I have this giant stack of note cards that I made basically out of everything that I didn't know from the 3300 questions and rush review the clinical question bank everything that I got wrong I'd make note cards out of it and so before I knew it I had a massive stack I'll probably show you a picture of it but it's like it's bigger than this I mean it was like this tall so what I would do is three by 15 minutes so three sets of 15 minutes Pomodoro technique focusing on nothing else except for doing note cards so do that for 15 minutes set a timer you know take five minutes break listen to some music lie down whatever chill out and then do another set of 15 minutes and then take another break and then another set of 15 minutes just really intense just focusing on putting a 100% of my mental effort into doing these note cards that's Pomodoro technique very powerful okay so that's what three by 15 note cards means then what I would do is I would usually do some more questions and usually now I'm doing them in tutor mode so I'm not really practicing I'm not really training myself to use my test taking strategy I'm more just looking at content practicing applying it and also just reviewing it as it comes and sometimes I do Pomodoro technique like I do this for 20 minutes and take a break 30 minutes take a break kind of being nice to myself and seeing what my attention span was so if I'm just like really not able to focus after 15 minutes I take a break and then do 15 more minutes if I'm really gung-ho that day and I could do like 40 minutes without taking a break do it take advantage of it and then take a break and then go again so whatever it is on the schedule that I wrote down that's what I'd usually do in the morning so quick review very first thing doing some meditation or some earthing some way to ground myself some stretching some relaxation of some sort then before anything else 60 questions fast simulate the test pretend you're taking the exam then make my coffee make some breakfast relax a little bit and do some more questions now in tutor mode not in test mode do some note cards and review everything that I got right and everything that I got wrong that morning so that's my morning and that's between two to maybe four hours total something like that then I would go to the gym every single day for me personally the gym is just my place to feel at home my place to feel relaxed I know where everything is I know what I'm going to do I just I really enjoy being there so I wanted some sense of normalcy and also just like something to take my mind off of studying and off of all the stress about this exam that I've got coming up in two weeks so I made sure to go to the gym every single day I didn't lift every day some days I'd lift some days would be just some cardio but either way I made sure I was in the gym every single day now we're passing a semi-truck and yeah I'm looking at the camera it's really really dark now I don't know if you could even see my face but I'm gonna keep going because I think this is an important video to to put out for you guys then I'd have my afternoon shift so what I described to you just now was the morning shift the afternoon shift was different there was some testing so sometimes I do like 60 questions in test mode again but basically these 60 questions in test mode again are not really about the content they're about practicing my test-staking strategy which I've described in other videos but it's very basically read the last two sentences first then read the answer choices and then read the rest of the question kind of skim the rest of the question as needed and if you want a really really detailed explanation of how that works and why I do that watch this video right here where I totally describe my test-taking strategy and how it works and why it works and all that good stuff so anyway afternoon shift I would do some more questions probably another three to four hours of work of mostly just reviewing note cards reviewing stuff I already know doing more questions in tutor mode just really being with the material not trying to force more information into my head but just repeating stuff that I already knew maybe stuff I knew months ago and that I just kind of need a refresher on and that's essentially it I did the same thing for about two weeks I'm not sure if I'm going to flip through my pages and take a bunch of screen shots of these schedules because they did change like for instance on Saturday I did you know my earthing my meditation my 60 questions and maybe like a couple hours of work I didn't do as much and then on Sunday all I did was my first three things the earthing the meditation and the uh the 60 questions fast in test mode and nothing else and then you know on Monday I started back up and started working you know six to seven hours a day uh like I just described to you so be nice to yourself if you feel like you're getting a little burnt out you know take a day off it's totally fine be comfortable knowing that if you pass PA school you have all the information that you need in your head you've learned it I promise you just need to learn a little bit maybe on test taking and you need to kind of just like sit with the material and practice pulling it out of your head but you know everything that you need to know I really do promise that and for me like I just said even on the day off I still made sure to hit those 60 questions first thing in the morning in test mode that is the most important thing that I did personally to prepare I think I was going to say a few more things about this but honestly I just I can't really remember what I was going to talk about if anyone has questions about how I prepared for the pants or what or why I did any of what I did or just how the pants was or whatever please shoot them in the comments shoot me a message on Instagram whatever you want to do I'll be happy to respond help you guys out as best that I can I know it's a really stressful thing is uh preparing for this pants so I just want you to know that I've been there I was a really average student and I passed the pants with a pretty comfortable margin so watch my last video if you want to know more about that but just if I could say one thing it's that if you've passed PA school and you haven't been like hanging on for dear life the whole time you've been even like somewhere around the middle of the pack you really do have everything in your head that you need in order to pass the pants so you just have to focus on really perfecting your test taking strategy getting really comfortable with it and doing the same thing over and over again for every question and just trust yourself love yourself and understand that you do know what you need to know okay guys if your pants is coming up soon good luck if you're a PA student you have a few months until the pants you know good luck to you as well and uh yeah thanks for watching see you guys in the next video