 So, I was able to succeed in that class by just doing those two things and using the three hours of that class to do other things because you don't have that much time and you've got to be efficient. Your study methods from undergrad no longer work. Why is this? Mainly because there's just much more information. So basically, talk to somebody who's a second year or had just graduated from the program and ask them specifically about each class, how you would study. Hey guys, welcome to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Boris. I'm a board certified physician assistant and today's video is about studying in PA school. So the video was actually inspired by a conversation I just had with a first year PA student. She's actually one week into her first year so naturally a little bit worried about what's going to happen, how she's going to study, how she's going to make it through this very difficult graduate program that of course I myself made it through so I had some advice for her and then I'm going to share with you as well. So basically four tips for getting through PA school as far as studying goes. Tip number one, your study methods from undergrad do not work anymore. Tip number two, you don't need to know this stuff forever, it's just for right now. Tip number three, different classes and different topics require different study methods. And tip number four, ask somebody who's been through the program what they would suggest. Not the things that I'm giving you in this video generally, but things about the specific program that you're going to go through. So specific examples, specific topics, specific ways to study for different classes because let's be real the programs don't really change all that much year to year. So if you find somebody who's a second year going through the same program that you're about to start, ask them. Somebody who's been through it maybe two years ago, ask them. Someone who's been through it maybe three to four years or more I'd probably stay away from and try to ask somebody who's been through it in the last couple of years because like I just said they usually don't change the curriculum that much year over year but they might make changes you know after two years, after three years, after four years and so on. Okay, so let's go back to tip number one. Your study methods from undergrad no longer work. Why is this? Mainly because there's just much more information. In PA school there is simply much much more information than you ever had in undergrad. I don't care where you went, I don't care how many credits you took, you simply will have way more to learn in a much shorter amount of time in PA school than you did in undergrad. So for instance for me I went through a very intense post-bath and there was a ton of information that people there were very smart. I had a lot of pressure on me to do well so of course I had a lot of information to learn and my solution was to basically do this. I would make a study guide out of all the power points and all the notes I had you know for that section and then I would go through it and condense that study guide into another study guide that was more condensed and then after that I would write it out you know by hand every single thing that's just like been distilled down after making those two study guides and then I had it you know I got an A in almost every class that in PA school no longer works you literally don't have time to write things out by hand you don't really even have time to make study guides and then condense them into a second study guide you just can't you just do not have time you have to do things much more efficiently and what I'm going to talk about in tip number three is actually going to kind of help you with that so yeah that's just the main thing you simply do not have time to do the things you probably found a lot of success with an undergrad so don't be attached to those things when you realize that you just don't have time for that don't get upset just understand that you have to pivot adjust and find a way to be successful in another way I promise if you keep an open mind and you just keep grinding and hustling and trying different things you will find something that works for you you will find a way to be much more efficient at studying but just understand that it's going to take some trial and error in the things that have been tried and true for you for like one year or two years maybe all through PA school or sorry maybe all through undergrad and maybe even all through high school maybe even studying the same way for like 10 years and suddenly that doesn't work anymore don't be upset about that just understand that that's everybody's experience and that you just need to pivot and find something that works okay tip number two what I said was you don't need to learn this stuff forever it's just for right now that might be a little bit controversial just a little bit controversial because you're no longer an undergrad you know you're not in like microbiology having to memorize all this junk that you probably never have to use or in I don't know pick another class in undergrad that you think okay this is like cool for right now but it's not like my forever career no now you're in PA school every single thing that you're learning is something you're gonna use in your career yes very very very very true as somebody who's been in practice for close to a year now I can definitely confirm that that being said if you freak out and try to learn every single thing like it's life or death and you're gonna start practicing you know tomorrow you're gonna fail it's like too much pressure it's entirely too much to learn all at once so what I'm telling you right now is what you're learning currently in your current unit or current class just learn it for right now just focus on getting to the test through the test and onto the next test okay it's the same thing all the way through school and then through the pants your goal in PA school is not to learn every single thing there is to know about medicine and every single thing that they're teaching you all at once your goal is to pass every test you have and then pass the pants then you kind of start learning from the ground up once you get your first job sorry my eye edges probably gonna cut this out of the video but my eye really pitches okay anyway I'll get over it okay so I know like I said that's controversial and my one of our main professors in my case will say you know this is important that's important everything is important learn everything and again I'm gonna confirm that because things seem to bubble up through practice and I just remember some things some things I have to look up enough to date you know that's a resource for you while you're practicing you know I use it every single day but a lot of things just come up to my memory it seemingly out of nowhere and my supervising physician even says a lot of times like where the heck did you learn that you have no business knowing that as a you know physician assistant with less than 10 years of practice how do you know that and I was like well doctor okay I'll say Dr. J you know the main professor at my school Dr. J taught me oh yeah Dr. J taught me that yeah this was on one of the slides Dr. J taught me and a lot of stuff that you like comes up randomly through practice you end up remembering but don't count on that my point is you don't have to learn every single thing don't freak out about learning every single thing just learn enough to pass this current test that you're studying for and then move on okay I promise it's not being a bad practitioner it's not being a bad PA student even to just focus on this test you know and learning everything as quickly as possible so you can get through the test and then on all right so don't put so much pressure on yourself just learn enough for this test and then move on I know I've said it like five different ways but it's very very very critically crucially important to not put too much pressure on yourself and just do what you can right now to get through this current test tip number three different classes and different topics in each of those classes required different study methods so if you're for instance someone who makes flashcards for everything you know you got a stack this high I actually did when I was studying for the pants I think my stack of flashcards was about this high and I knew every single one of those damn flashcards but my point is if you're someone who makes flashcards for every single thing you can't do that anymore if you're someone who makes you know diagrams and study guides the exact same way for every single topic in every single class you probably can't do that anymore if you're finding successful that you know sweet this is just my experience and I think some people in my peaceful class actually did kind of do the same thing for everything and they found success that's cool you know there but they're not making this video and I am what I found was that you can't study the same way for every single class and even within one class for every single topic in that class so for instance most PA schools have a clinical medicine it's going to be your biggest class and there's such a diverse array of topics and the way that they're presented that I've had to use multiple different study methods just in that one class but then other classes like pharmacology and he I found that I kind of did the same thing throughout the whole year okay so my point is different study methods for different topics understand and accept the fact that that's probably going to be the reality so for instance flashcards are really good for something called Q'd recall when you see something in that q something in your brain so basically a equals p so it's good for memorizing for instance like a medication name and then it's one side effect or it's multiple side effects and then the medication name and its contradictions and then maybe the medication name and I don't know it's brand name or whatever like just memorizing two item pairs that's something that's really good for flashcards but when you have for instance I don't know 20 different medications to learn that suddenly starts becoming too cumbersome and you just don't have time to make flashcards for every single medication and every single thing that you have to learn about every single medication that's when something called serial recall is much more impressive and important than Q'd recall Q'd recall is flashcards a equals b serial recall is memorizing a list of things in order and then you end up actually learning that list in order and you end up learning things where they are like in that list and then also kind of things around it I know that's not the best way to explain it if you look at my video how to study how I memorize everything in PA school I go into much greater detail but basically using serial recall for longer things such as list of medications and different things about those things is the way to go so a really good example of how to do that is by making acronyms so let's say you have five medications in a class of medication you would make an acronym for how to arrange those so for instance my example from the from the other video was Pantoprazole, Lumeprazole, Lansovrazole and Esomeprazole the reason I did that is so I could use serial recall because now they're in order so you think, you know, you think heartburn, you think GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease, you think Peptic ulcer disease, PUD, you think you need a PPI. So how do you memorize PPI's? Well, PULP, P-O-L-E is my acronym for PPI, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L-E, P-O-L and so you memorize it in that order because now you have those four medications memorized in that order and now everything you memorize about them is also in that order. So for instance, if you want to learn their brand names, you memorize them in that same order. You want to memorize their contraindications, you know, same order, X, Y, and Z, and then basically it helps you memorize long lists of information instead of, you know, doing paired items of information like you would for Q to recall with flashcards, you end up doing serial recall with acronyms and lists and that helps you a lot more with long lists of information. For things like anatomy lab, you know, none of that's going to work. Flashcards aren't really going to work, acronyms aren't really going to work. That's just straight up rote memorization and visual memorization. So you have to go to the lab and look at pictures over and over and over and over and over again and then eventually that just like sticks in your mind. So that's just straight up practice, getting your hands dirty, looking at the same body part on all the different cadavers so that you can understand how it looks in different ways. And then eventually, after several hours in the lab, you know, you just get it, you get your way around, you've learned your way around. It's kind of like learning how to drive in a new neighborhood, right? You just kind of learn your way around. So basically, what I'm saying for tip number three is you need to practice different study methods for different kinds of material. And last but not least, tip number four is talk to somebody who's been through the program before, particularly your program and particularly within the last couple of years, who can kind of give you insider tips on, you know, how the classes are structured, what you should buy, what you should not buy, what kind of books you should read, what kind of books you should not read. So for instance, in, you know, a particular class, they might really get a lot of the exam questions out of the textbook. So for that particular class, the person might tell you, you know, definitely focus on the textbook. In another one, they might tell you don't even bother, don't open the textbook, just look at the PowerPoint slides. In other one might tell you a lot of times, you know, they make questions for the exam off of what's said in the actual lecture. So yeah, the textbook might be important. Yeah, the PowerPoint slides might be important, but definitely absolutely make sure you attend every single lecture and focus on, and focus on writing down things that are particularly not in the PowerPoint slides because you could be totally screwed if they make a question out of something that's not in the book and not in the PowerPoint slides, something that you have to be there to find out. So basically, talk to somebody who's been through the program recently and ask them for insider tips on how they found success and what they would specifically do, how they would specifically study for each of the courses, and even more specifically like how they get exam questions. Do they get it from here? Do they get it from there? Do they get it from the PowerPoint slides? Do they get it from what's said in the lecture? Do they get it from this particular book? Or maybe supplemental materials. In my program, every single one of those was used just for different classes. So for instance, one class, there's supplemental materials that are never really talked about in lecture, they're never really spoken about, but then half the questions on the exam are from the supplemental materials. In this particular class, I actually learned about the supplemental materials and started using them like halfway through the semester. In my grade, just shot up from barely being a B to getting consistent A's in that class. Just because I started using the supplemental materials that I never even thought to use because nobody ever talked about them, they were just like on the drive, they were shared, but no one really told me to use them. But as soon as I started using them, you know, my success skyrocketed. That's one class. Another class is I found that almost everything said in lecture was essentially useless and I ended up using the class time. I know this is kind of, you know, I don't know, controversial because it's not being a good student, but whatever. I ended up using the class time to write papers and study for other, you know, other exams because I found that every single thing that was on the exam was in the PowerPoint slides and in a particular book. So I was able to succeed in that class by just doing those two things and using the three hours of that class to do other things because you don't have that much time and you've got to be efficient. So, you know, that's another tip. Another thing is another particular class. The PowerPoint slides were very important. There wasn't really a book, but the professor really was a great lecturer and a lot of topics came up during the lecture that weren't exactly spelled out in the PowerPoint slides. So that was a particular class that was very, very important to go to class and write down every freaking thing that the professor said because a lot of it found its way onto the exam but was not exactly spelled out in the PowerPoint lectures and there was really no book to speak of. So basically talk to somebody who's a second year or had just graduated from the program and ask them specifically about each class, how you would study. Now, if that person struggled and that person wasn't really good and they barely passed didactic here, yeah, you know, maybe don't, you know, talk to that particular person, talk to somebody who did well, got a good GPA, ended up not struggling too, too much in didactic here. Okay? So guys, that's my four tips for studying in PA school. Let me know if you have any questions and I will see you in the next video.