What PA school is actually like, from someone who lived it.

This one came out of my webinar series. I walk through didactic year in detail, the testing schedule, and the emotional side that nobody posts about.

It's hard. Your classmates are a big part of what gets you through.

What I cover:

• The didactic curriculum, from anatomy to pharmacology to clinical medicine
• How fast material comes at you and what testing looks like
• The learning curve in those first few months
• The emotional toll and how to handle it
• Why your classmates end up being your lifeline
• What I'd do differently if I started over

Resources:

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

One-on-one pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Welcome to episode 40 of the Pre PA Club podcast and the first of our webinar series.

Today you're going to hear what PA School is really like.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys, my name's Savannah.

I am the host of the Prepa Club Podcast.

Thank you so much for joining me on episode 40.

So we've made it this far and.

If you aren't already subscribed to the podcast, if you want to get episodes downloaded straight to your phone, you can subscribe on itunes.

They also upload each week to the PA platform.com podcast podcast, so make sure you don't miss that.

And if you've enjoyed the podcast, go ahead, give us a review on itunes.

It helps more people find it.

But I'm really excited for what we have coming up for the next few weeks.

If you're just tuning in, then I should inform you that I am very pregnant.

If you've been following me on Instagram, you have probably seen that.

But in the next few weeks, I.

Will be having a baby girl and.

Going on maternity leave.

But I don't want to leave you guys hanging because you guys need information and luckily I have some really cool stuff for you.

Alright, so for the next few weeks, as I am preparing for this baby, I am going to share some content with you that I've actually created over the last year.

I did some webinars on YouTube and they're still there.

The links will be in the descriptions for each of these, but.

And if you've listened to other ones, you can probably jump ahead a little bit.

But I've done different topics ranging from pre PA stuff, talking about PA school, talking about being a dermatology PA and there's some really good Q&As at the end and just great information.

So I wanted to integrate that into the podcast.

So for these next few weeks, you're going to hear those webinars and if you'd rather watch them on YouTube, you can do that.

Like I said, it's in the description.

But they're a little bit long, they're longer than normal episodes.

They're about an hour.

I say that, but a lot of my interviews are an hour or two.

But anyway, I try to keep it at 30 minutes.

I know that doesn't really happen.

If y' all need me to do.

Better, let me know.

But if you need to Break it up.

Just know they are a little bit longer and.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to share these with you and I felt like it was a good time to introduce them since I'm going to be a little preoccupied.

But I hope you enjoy and we'll just jump right in and then I'll still hopefully be around on social media and reachable by email and those types of things.

So if you need me, I'm there.

And I hope that y' all get a lot out of these webinar episodes.

And then we'll be back with interviews and all kinds of stuff.

Really actually fun stuff this summer.

So I'm excited, but let's jump in.

Okay.

Thanks for joining.

My name is Savannah, if I'm assuming you know who I am if you're here, but I run a website called the PA Platform, and I've been doing these monthly webinars.

I really.

I think they're a lot of fun.

I get to talk about different things and kind of answer questions and get to know you.

Thanks for letting me know you guys can see me.

Sometimes I just sit here and don't know what's going on.

But tonight we're gonna be talking about PA school, and I'm going to share with you guys what my experience in PA school was like and give you an idea of what you can expect when you get to that point.

It's also really important that you know about PA school before you get there.

And even for the interview process, schools want to know that you understand what you're getting yourself into and that you know what's expected of you and that you're really ready to take that on.

So we're going to talk about that.

I have a presentation I'll go through.

It has a lot of pictures from when I was in PA school, and then I definitely want to answer any of your questions.

So use the chat box, even throughout the presentation.

Go ahead and put your questions in there.

And then afterwards we'll go back through and I'll answer any further questions you guys have or about anything that I didn't cover.

Just a little disclaimer.

I've only ever been to one PA school, so that's all I can speak on.

I know PA schools do things a little bit differently, but for the most part, the experience is going to be very similar.

So let's get started if you guys are ready.

And I'm excited to kind of reminisce with you.

It was fun thinking back through and then also kind of hard to remember everything.

But let me get the presentation going and then we'll get started.

So, like I said, we're talking about PA school for this webinar.

So I introduced myself a little bit, but I'm Savannah.

I went to the University of Georgia.

Here's some graduation pictures.

And I've been working in dermatology for the past three years since I graduated.

So I'm not going to talk too much about the application process for PA school, because I've done that in the past and I can definitely share that link if that's something you're interested in.

We're going to talk from the point of getting accepted.

So you get the call, the letter, something that says you're accepted, and then you just not sure what to do next.

You've done all this work, you've gone through the application process.

What does that look like?

What does school look like?

What do you need to do?

And so we'll cover all of that.

And this is a picture, actually, from last weekend, two weekends ago when I got to meet Ugga, who is the UGA mascot.

I thought that was fun.

Okay, so once you get to PA school, my advice before you get to PA school is to relax as much as possible.

Enjoy that time with your friends and family, because once you start, it is intense and you won't have much free time.

Also, make sure that your friends and family are aware of that.

So didactic year, that just means the year in the classroom.

So MPA school, typically it's kind of split in half.

And the very first half is your didactic portion and the second half is your clinical portion where you're on rotations.

My didactic year was four semesters or 27 months.

We went straight through.

We got little breaks at Christmas and spring break and a little bit in between semesters, but for the most part, we went straight through and you really did have to hit the ground running.

So we started with anatomy, and I'll go through the courses that we had in my program in a couple slides, but started with anatomy, which was just.

It was pretty difficult and it was a lot.

Right at the beginning, we were in class four days a week in the mornings from 8 to 12, and then half of the class would have time in the lab.

So my school had a full cadaver lab, and it was really nice.

We had eight students per cadaver and we would split, switch off in groups of four.

And so our group of four would go in and do part of the dissection and then the next day the other group would come in and do their part.

And.

And it was a really, really cool experience.

And I'm really glad that was something that was part of my program.

But beyond anatomy, we also had some other courses during that time.

And so there was a lot of studying, a lot of adjustment, a lot of time spent in the lab trying to grasp all the concepts and the material.

Then after that first semester, we got into something called clinical medicine or clinmed.

And that's where we broke down each subject and learned based on a different area.

So cardiology, pulmonology, and I'll talk about that a little bit more as well.

But that was also pretty intense.

Once we got into that fall semester, it was a little bit different because we had a more set schedule.

We were there Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am to 5pm and it was sitting in class listening to lectures and learning.

During all that time, I was in a classroom with no windows and it was very cold, but it was fine.

And then on Tuesday and Thursday in the morning we would have biostatistics, and sometimes we'd have a random lecture, just depending on our lecture schedules.

And then we would have small group, so we were in small groups of four where we would learn things like physical assessment and how to actually do the physical exam that we would be needing to learn how to do as a pa. And so we, we would do that weekly.

And then a little bit later in didactic year, we actually would go into clinic with our precept or with our faculty members and preceptors to practice the skills that we had learned in physical exams.

So we did get some of that clinical portion in the didactic year.

And I think most programs are trying to do that now to actually get you hands on with patients during that year.

And we had things with standardized patients where people would come in and prepare, pretend to be the patient, but that's not too realistic.

And we did simulations with mannequins, but the best practice was actually getting in there and talking to real patients.

There are so many tests during didactic gear, I felt like I had a test.

I mean, I think I did have a test every week.

So usually it was at least one.

Every once in a while we would have two or even three.

I remember one particular week during fall semester where we're in the Medical middle, middle of physical exam and trying to learn and go through an entire exam.

And then we also had an ortho test, which orthopedics was pretty tough.

And we had a great.

Like, I love my orthopedics teacher, but she was very.

She had high expectations of us.

So we had to make sure we studied very hard for that.

And I think there was another test or assignment due that week, and it was that.

That week was the worst week of PA school for me.

It was just so much.

And I was exhausted and overwhelmed.

And I just remember at night just kind of like crying and not being able to study because I was just so stressed out.

And when I get stressed out, I tend to cry.

And it was funny because the next day in small group, my small group leader was the teacher of the orthopedic section.

And she asked how we were all doing.

And I was honest.

I said, last night I could not study.

I was so stressed out, I just sat there and cried.

And.

And all three of the other girls in my group were like, me too.

So it's okay.

You'll get stressed out in school.

Just know how to handle your stress.

Which is also something that comes up in interviews because they want to make sure that you can handle that and handle those tough weeks.

We had a dress code in my program.

It is not obvious in this picture, but we did have to wear business casual attire.

The program has since kind of changed, and now they do scrubs, and they all wear matching scrubs.

And I think it looks really nice.

I was there a couple weeks ago to do a lecture, but we did have to dress up every day.

The only time we could wear scrubs was when we were doing anatomy.

Or sometimes on Fridays, if you paid a dollar, you could wear scrubs.

So we did that as a fundraiser.

I think it was good because it kind of got us in the habit of dressing nice for rotations and they could make sure that we understood how to look professional.

But.

But in my job now as a derm pa, I wear scrubs every day.

So I got rid of a lot of my professional wear.

Okay, this is a list of the courses.

And it looks like a lot.

And when you look at actually the hours, it does seem like a lot.

So the first semester, we did all of these classes here throughout the whole semester.

So it was just a summer, so it was quick.

It was only two months.

We did anatomy, physiology, an introduction to pharmacology, genetics, and then medical terminology, which med terms is required for most PA programs.

And it was Required for mine.

The first week of school, we actually took a test.

And if you passed, you could take the grade that you got on the exam as your grade.

So if you got an A or a B, you could take that as your grade.

But if you didn't pass, you had to actually take the course.

The second semester is when we got into that Clin Med.

And this is all of the classes we had.

So these are broken down into different amounts of time, the minimum being two weeks.

So dermatology, it's not a big part of boards.

It's only 5%.

And so that course was only two weeks, whereas orthopedics was four weeks and infectious disease was four weeks.

Ophthalmology was only two weeks because it's not a huge portion.

So it just kind of depends on how much emphasis is on that subject on the boards.

That translates to how long you're in the course for.

So during that time they have lectures come in that we have pharmacology, and they try to make it so that you're learning about the medications that are relevant to whatever section you're learning about.

So it's kind of systems based.

And we also had biostatistics during that first or that second semester.

Third semester got pretty tough.

This is where we had a lot of the more difficult classes like cardiology, pulmonology, hemoc, which is short for hematology, and oncology.

And these were just more, I would say, more intensive sections.

And so a lot of studying went into that.

By this semester, I feel like I had figured out studying a lot better and I had some good techniques.

The first couple semesters I was a little too intense.

I wouldn't really do anything extracurricular.

I wouldn't go out to eat, I wouldn't hang out with my friends or anything like that.

So by this semester, I felt like I had a good handle on it.

And actually when I loosened up and didn't go crazy with my studying, I actually started doing better.

So I learned a lot.

We also had surgery during the semester, which was one of my favorite courses, partly because it was my favorite teacher.

But we got to practice suturing and learn about how to scrub into an OR and get some experience there.

So the fourth semester, that was our last summer semester before going into clinical.

So it was another kind of quick semester of just a couple months.

And we did psych, pediatrics, ob, gyn, endocrinology, which I actually really enjoyed, Emergency medicine and then some more physical exam and pharmacology.

And this is also where we started learning about writing and evidence based medicine.

So my school had a master's requirement because it is a master's program that you had to write an evidence based paper and or review article and try to get it published.

So during this part, before we went off to clinicals, they kind of started to teach us that and we went through some exercises to learn about how to research that and write it and citations and all that fun stuff.

So one part of PA school is that you learn things on each other.

And I don't know if this is true for every program, but I know it's true for a lot of programs.

So I did not love this.

I don't really like having my veins poked, but it was kind of fun and definitely a bonding experience for the classmates.

But.

But we learned venipuncture on each other.

So taking blood, we learned how to do injections, intramuscular, subcutaneous, intradermal, and then we also learned how to start IVs on each other.

I have some more pictures for you guys.

So this is on the left.

Me gain an IV.

I hate getting IVs.

I really just don't like the way the needle feels in my arm.

So I did not really enjoy that.

And at one point, I actually had IVs in both arms at the same time because I had to practice on two people.

And if you have to practice on them, they get to practice on you.

So my first guy had some vagal reactions and started wanting to pass out, so I moved to somebody else.

I did have to poke him a few times to get it, but it was interesting.

And yeah, so we, we did practice on each other.

And then I want to talk about some of the fun stuff we did in PA school.

So we did intramurals.

I'm the one on the right.

I am not an athlete.

I was the worst player on our entire team.

But some of my friends were doing it and they convinced me to play too.

So we did flag football.

And I can proudly say that even though I was terrible, the PA team beat the PT team.

And that was a huge accomplishment.

So.

Because they're all athletic and all that, but.

But it was fun and it was definitely a buying experience.

A great way to relieve stress after a long day.

We just all went and could play flag football.

One of our classmates was our coach.

But it was really fun.

Other stuff my class did, we did a lot of potlucks where we would all bring different dishes and have a big lunch together.

And that was a lot of fun.

Other Class events have some pictures on the next page.

But I made some of my best friends in PA school and we had so many, so much fun together.

Here's some, some of my examples.

So if you followed me for a while, you probably know that I love Taylor Swift.

And so in the middle of class one day we all bought tickets, last minute tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.

And they just happened to be floor seats that were really awesome.

And so even though we had a test the next week, and even though we were stressed out, we just needed to do something fun.

So we did around Halloween in October, we all carved pumpkins, as you can see on the bottom.

And then we had, we all dressed up for Halloween.

So I was Mr.

Potato Head there, if you can see that.

My friend had a costume I got to borrow.

But it's fun to loosen up in PA school and do things with your classmates and just have fun while you're there because it can be stressful and you don't want to get too caught up in that.

So, yeah, kind of one big happy family.

My class had 44 students and.

And you think of being a PA as being a team based profession and even PA school is very, very team based.

It's really important that you get along with your classmates and that you participate in the class so you come in with these skills.

PA school requires you to have some type of experience and you want to share that with your classmates.

So when we were learning that venipuncture and IVs, the EMTs in my class were really the ones who were teaching us and helping us the most because they were pros.

They'd been doing it for so long, so it was really nice to have that.

And then one of my best friends in the program, she had been a dermatology ma so during the derm section, she would help me to understand the medications and learn about them because she'd actually seen things and been involved in this area that I had no experience in.

So we would go to class, we sat in the same seats.

This is actually, I put that you can celebrate and grieve with each other.

So this is when I got married.

They had me a little shower, they bought present and we had cake.

We always any excuse for cake.

And I can tell that this was a test day because I'm looking rough.

So on test days I would get there super early in the morning.

I would get there around 5, 5:30 and study until 8.

I just, I'm a morning person.

So I would go in really early and Study until the test and just look over things last minute and then take the test and then go home and go to sleep.

So I cannot stay up all night, I cannot pull all nighters at all, but I can wake up early.

But during class we did have some people who lost family members or had family members pass away, and we would get flowers for them and support them through that.

So it was nice to have that support system kind of built in during PA school.

One cool thing that my program did is we actually had a clinic that we ran and it's called the Christchurch Health Clinic.

It's still going on today.

And it was in downtown and it was in an underserved community.

We would go there monthly.

Basically, you kind of signed up for a shift.

I was on the kind of organizational board for this and so that was my way of getting involved.

We did have class officers.

I was not one of those, but I did help out with the clinic a good bit.

So we would go in, you would take vitals, just kind of practice your skills.

You weren't obviously practicing medicine yet because you were still a student, but there was always a PA or a doctor there.

And if something, let's say somebody had a crazy high blood pressure, we would make sure that they got a referral to go get the help that they needed that we weren't able to provide at that time.

But it was nice to kind of get out in the community and get involved and learn about the needs where we were.

Um, we also did a 5K fundraiser as a class, so that was fun.

We organized that and got people to sign up and have prizes, and it was a big event.

So that was just something unique that my program did.

All right, let's get to clinical rotation.

So after the didactic year, you survived that.

And we can talk more about study skills and things like that if we.

If y' all want to.

But our clinical rotations were three semesters, so one full year.

We did get some choice in our rotations.

When you look at the list on the right hand side, we had two electives and we had two adult medicine or internal medicine rotations.

So we did get some say in what we wanted to do for those.

And then if you wanted to be in a certain area, they tried to make that happen.

Now, the school that I went to was a public school, and so they do prefer that you do your rotations in Georgia, since Georgia is basically paying for part of your schooling.

I think now they even prefer that more.

But each of our rotations was four weeks Long.

And then at the end of each section we would have a test.

Sometimes people ask about the testing or if you have to write essays in PA school, you don't really have to write a lot of essays.

We had to write that master's paper.

But other than that, it was just note writing basically that we had to do.

But then you did have these tests at the end of each section.

So the rotations that we had were surgery.

I did my surgery rotation with a general surgeon who focuses on breast surgery for breast cancer patients.

And it was my hands down favorite rotation.

I loved it.

I love the surgeon I was with.

I got to be very hands on suture.

I was basically his first assist.

He.

I mean, we'd do mastectomies and he would do one side and I'd be working on the other side and finishing up.

It was really cool.

And he was just a great doctor and he actually ended up getting me my job in dermatology.

But I loved that rotation.

I guess the downside to working with him was that I didn't get to see that large of a.

Of a variety of different surgeries because he really at the time only did that.

The breast surgeries, cyst removals sometimes, or lipoma removals and then gallbladder surgery.

So I did see some laparoscopic gallbladder removals, but.

And assist with those.

So.

But yeah, I love that surgery or that rotation.

Adult medicine.

Those are what we call internal medicine.

So I did one four week rotation with an internal medicine doctor and I got to do a lot there.

And then I did one four week rotation in endocrinology, which I actually loved.

I thought I was gonna hate endocrinology, but I did love it.

I kind of wish I did a cardiology rotation because I would say that's an area that I was weak in, that I could have used more direct.

So that would be something I might recommend.

But during my endocrinology rotation, they actually let me go for a week on a medical mission trip as part of it.

And so that's what this picture is from.

I went to the Dominican Republic with some of the med students, including my husband.

Yeah, we were married at the time and so.

Well, he's still my husband, but we went to the Dominican Republic and started clinics there.

And it was really cool.

This is me giving deworming medicine to the kids.

And they just.

Anytime there was a camera around, they just flocked to it.

Like they loved the cameras.

So that was a really cool thing.

I love medical missions, family medicine.

So just kind of a general family medicine rotation.

I was with a great doctor for that.

He was really awesome.

And typically on rotations, the ones I had, anyway, you go, you get kind of acclimated.

They get to where they trust you a little bit.

And that kind of depends on how hands on you are and how willing you are.

I would say for me, during, usually the first week, I was seeing patients on my own.

And so then they would kind of release you.

I would go in, see the patient, do a history, do a physical exam, come up with what I thought was going on and what I thought for a plan, and then I would come back to the doctor, present my patient to them, tell them about what I thought, and then they might ask more questions.

They would come back in with me and we'd see the patient together and come up with a plan.

Sometimes they agreed with me, sometimes they didn't.

A lot of times I learned things from them.

But the people I was with were very.

They were very willing to teach, and they wanted to teach and they wanted me to learn.

So that was awesome.

Emergency medicine was the same way.

I was in a smaller er, but they.

I was technically with one doctor, but all of the providers there, the PAs, the other doctors, they would all come and get me.

I was the only student there, so they would all come and get me if something cool came in.

I got to suture up a chainsaw wound.

I got to remove a fish hook from a guy's neck with a big pair of pliers.

I got to see some pretty intense codes.

I got to see a hip dislocation being put back in.

I got to help put a dislocated shoulder back in.

They asked me to.

A kid came in with a broken arm.

They asked me to set it, and I almost passed out.

Broken bones are not my thing, hence why I did not do an ortho rotation rotation.

But I loved my emergency medicine rotation.

I learned so much on that rotation.

So that was one of my favorites, Pediatrics.

I was with a great pediatrician, and we actually had a lot of Hispanic patients, which was cool.

I am not that great at Spanish, but I did get to kind of practice that a little bit while I was there.

And he would try to teach me things.

But I enjoyed pediatrics a lot.

My psych rotation, I actually did not enjoy.

This was my least favorite rotation.

And I think when it comes to rotations, your opinion of something can depend very much on your experience there.

So I was on an inpatient ward for four weeks, and inpatient Wards can be very sad and intense, and there's some very sick patients in there who just have a lot going on.

So this was a difficult rotation for me.

I. I did not really like it.

I was ready to be done.

And this was actually my first rotation.

Women's Health, OB gyn.

I was with a great surgeon for that, too.

I went in thinking I wouldn't really like OB gyn, but actually really liked it.

And we had a record, I think, 14 births that I got to be a part of during that month.

And some of those were C sections, some of them were vaginal births.

But I got to see a lot and help out, and that was really cool.

Electives.

So electives.

We were pretty open.

You could choose whatever you wanted.

So mine, I choose, chose dermatology because I'd already gotten a job.

So I actually did my electives at the place I was going to be working.

And that worked out really well for them because they got free training for me.

So I actually kind of planned that.

When I picked my schedule, I tried to make it so the electives were at the end just in case I did have that job.

So that worked out.

And then we did have a teaching elective, which I think is really unique.

One of our four week blocks was actually at the school where we helped out as teaching assistants.

And we were with a couple sections, a couple teachers, and just kind of helping them work on test questions and do lectures.

And at the same time, we were writing our paper for our master's project and working on getting that submitted to a journal.

So I really enjoyed that rotation.

I think it helped me to understand the administrative side of things.

Oh, this is a fun picture from my mission trip to the Dominican Republic where our bus got stuck in a ditch and we were there, I don't even know, at least an hour, maybe two.

But yeah, I don't.

I think they eventually, like, pushed it out or somebody came to help us, but yeah, it just got stuck.

Whoops.

All right, let's talk a little bit about finances.

In PA school, most people are going to take out loans unless you have, like a college savings account or you've been working and saving a ton, or you have a spouse working who can help support you.

You're probably going to have to take out some loans.

You do want to try to be as frugal as possible and try to save money so that you will have less loans if possible.

And look at the program costs.

So my program was a public, so it costs less.

Whereas another program I was Looking at with the cost of the program and living expenses would have been four times as much.

That's crazy.

So overall, the amount of loans I took out was around 45,000 for tuition and fees.

And my parents did help me out a little bit with fees.

My living costs were low because I was living at home for part of it, but then I ended up having to pay back, with interest, about 75,000.

So this diploma I'm holding, that's a $75,000 piece of paper, but it's significantly less than what a lot of other people have to pay.

So let's talk a little bit about relationships in PA school.

And I don't know if my husband's still watching this, but there he is.

So they can be hard.

And I went into PA school with a fiance.

We were plan on getting married in between the first and second year of PA school, and we did, and he was in medical school at the time.

So he was also in an intense educational process and kind of going through a lot of the same things I was and studying all the time.

So I think for us, that made it a little bit easier because it was just whenever we were able to hang out, we just studied or we grabbed lunch or dinner after school.

That was a little bit easier for us.

I think it's more difficult if you have somebody who's not in medicine or in school because they're probably just going to be bored without you, you.

And they may not understand the intensity and demands of PA school and what exactly they're getting themselves into.

So there's a lot of hours, like I said, you're in Class 8 to 5, typically, and then you got to come home and study.

So you may struggle there.

And I think that's going into PA school with just a good expectation of the time that you'll have available and just making that very clear.

But relationships will happen.

Some of my friends met their husbands in PA school, and then breakups will happen, too.

So my classmates broke up with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

So it can definitely be tough.

But just know that it's possible you can make it.

This on the right is actually a picture of us at PA prom, which was fun.

That's something our program did each year after the summer semester to kind of help wind down and give everybody a fun night.

All right, that's the end of my presentation, so I'll go to Yalls Questions, but here's my email address.

And then if you don't already follow along on Instagram, make sure you follow along.

At the PA Platform so that you won't miss out on future webinars.

And you can always ask me questions there as well.

Okay, we're back.

All right, I see some questions here, so I'm gonna go back through, and then.

Okay.

Glad you got it figured out, Kylie.

But, yeah, if y' all got.

If y' all have any other questions, please send them in the chat.

Okay.

Erica says, what was the most difficult part of PA school?

Ooh, the most difficult part.

I think the most difficult part for me was really just balancing my time, learning how to do that without being too stressed out.

And I think what it came down to was me figuring out that, to be honest, it didn't matter.

And not to say, like, you don't need to do your best, but it didn't matter if I got an 82 on an exam or 98, because I just needed to pass and make sure I learned the material.

And if I felt good about the material, then I was doing what I needed to do.

And so I think studying from the beginning, kind of having my mind.

I'm studying for boards.

I'm studying for the pants.

And also learning that taking time off from studying actually benefited me.

So, like I said, the first couple semesters, I was living at home with my parents, and they would.

My mom's probably still watching.

She can probably remember how I.

They would be like, oh, you want to go grab Mexican?

And that takes, what, like, 30 minutes to go grab some food?

And I'll be like, no, I have to study.

And then every night, I would just sit in my bed reading books for PA School and just fall asleep studying, which I don't think was very healthy.

And I love reading for fun.

Like, I read so many books, and I love reading.

And while I was in PA School, I didn't read a single book for fun.

That's not good, I think.

Just don't lose sight of your interests and your hobbies, and don't let PA school become the only thing in your mind.

What resources did you use in PA school?

Handbooks, references, YouTube channels?

So I mostly use books.

And I.

For studying, I love doing practice questions.

That's my best way of studying.

I think it's just how I learn.

I have to see if I can apply it and then learn from my mistakes.

So I had.

There are a lot more books out now than when I was in PA school a couple years ago, but I use the Comprehensive Guide to the Pants exam, and it's on Amazon.

I can put a link in the description But I use that book a good bit and I would.

It's not super in depth, so I would always use that as a guide.

And if I need more information, look it up in other resources.

But I.

Or like the textbook, whatever book we're using for that section, I like having real books for studying purposes.

So I would always get the books.

But I use that book and then the morning of the test I would always just read back through.

Because PA school is preparing you to take boards and so they want you to be able to grasp the material that is important and that's actually on board.

So that's what this book kind of goes by.

So that it makes sure that you're focusing on the right things.

Other things I used.

There was a anatomy website I used.

If you type in I believe it's Anatomy Michigan questions, that was what I used.

They have cadaver practice questions and just really good stuff as far as applying the knowledge that you learn anatomy.

Anatomy and PA school is a lot different than anatomy in undergrad is much more difficult, much more detail oriented.

So you'll think you like learned it all in undergrad.

And then you get to PA school and you're like, oh, there's so many more structures I need to know.

So I use that during anatomy.

And then I would use.

There's a Lang question answer book I used and I enjoyed that.

They've come out with a new one and the new one, I've heard not as much great things about that.

Maybe some of the stuff in it is not updated or is wrong.

I haven't started studying for boards again yet, so I'm not exactly sure about that.

Then I used the Kaplan test, bank of questions, but I did not like it.

I wouldn't recommend that.

I felt like it wasn't specific to PA school.

I felt like they took a lot of med school step one questions and just use those.

And it's just.

It's a different testing style.

So I didn't love that one.

But I've heard some good things about some different pants review sites.

But I just like the pants review stuff because that's what you're going to be learning or needing to know in the future.

Step up to Medicine was another good book that I used.

Let's see, Lizzie says, is it just one course at a time or all of those courses at once?

So some of them you'll have the entire semester and then some of them are just at one point.

So things like ethics and statistics and professionalism, those were all semesters.

So It'd be like one day a week.

We'd have one or one.

One or two hour lecture.

But then the, like, the Clin Med courses like orthopedics and dermatology and pediatrics, those were just one at a time.

So you do all orthopedics for just two weeks.

So you have tons of lectures on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, basically all day of just that subject and then the other subjects kind of like sprinkled in throughout.

Did you and your classmates have time to work out and stay active other than intramurals?

Fun question.

So I had three really good friends in PA school.

And one of them.

Okay, well, two of them, but really, one of them had been an athlete in high school or college.

And so she.

And then the other one would make me go to the gym.

Like, they would be going to the gym.

And so they would say, samina, we're going to the gym.

You have to come.

And I never wanted to.

And so we'd go and they'd run.

And I would, like, refuse to run and only walk.

I don't love working out, obviously, but I was really glad that they actually made me do that.

So, yes, we did have time.

We had to make time.

If they hadn't made me, I probably would have just studied forever.

But I was glad that they made me do that.

And it was good stress relief.

But, yeah, a lot of people worked out.

They would go in the mornings.

Our school had a gym, so if that's something that's important to you, you may want to see if that's something they have because they go in the morning.

Sometimes we go at lunch or if class got out early or just after class, too.

Oh, Brianna, I'm glad Augusta's on your list.

Yeah, the clinic was a lot of fun.

It was a really cool experience and just kind of getting to.

To see a different part of the city.

I mean, I had never really been there or learned about that, so it was really cool.

Let's see.

I have an interview coming up.

Any good advice you can give me?

I've been waitlisted two times, so I would go back and watch the interview preparation webinar from last month, I think.

No, two months ago.

Last month was during pa. Go back, watch that, and then check out my website.

There's lots of questions on there and all kinds of interview help.

Aaron says, did anyone in your class not make it all the way through?

So, yes, it is not uncommon for people to drop out of PA school.

We actually.

So we had one person in our class who was from the class before ours, that he had actually gotten kind of sick in the first couple months of class and had to defer to the next year.

So he joined our class.

And then unfortunately, he didn't make it through that time either.

But we had another person who within the first couple weeks actually dropped out.

And after that, we didn't lose anyone else besides the one from the class above us.

But.

But it is speaking to the people at my program.

It is not uncommon, people.

And this is something I always talk about in interview prep.

You want to make sure that you like the location and that you're going to be happy there.

Because it is not uncommon to get somewhere, especially if you have kids or a family and you get there and you're away from them, you're busy, it's harder than you thought it was going to be.

And people leave and you.

I know it's crazy.

You think we've worked so hard.

How could somebody leave and give all this up?

But it happens, and it happens very, very commonly.

When you're looking at pants rates, you can look and see how many people actually took the pants compared to how many people they accept in their program.

And that should give you some indication of how many people drop out and what their attrition rate is.

And then we did have, out of 44 of us who took the pants, we had three who did not pass the first time.

Then two of those retook it and passed.

And one of them, to my knowledge, has not passed and is not working as a pa. Talk about my professionalism class.

So my professionalism class, it was a very short class.

I think it was like one hour, two hours.

But basically we just would talk about.

And it was kind of with ethics, but we would talk about different scenarios and how to present yourself and how to deal with patients in a professional manner, how to deal with, like, preceptors and just kind of different scenarios.

I think we had a book we had to read for part of that class.

And then they would bring in some different people from the university to teach us about different subjects and relating to patients in different ways.

So it was a good class.

I mean, to me, I feel like most of it is common sense, and so I didn't feel like it was very difficult, but we would do scenarios and kind of practice things, and that was fun.

See, Connor, you're full of questions.

Did you have any online courses?

Oh, gosh.

Did we?

Not particularly.

So I would say part not in the sense of like, doing lectures online.

There were some that were more like self guided.

So my physiology course there, you could go to lectures, but you didn't have to go to lectures if you wanted to just study or I think they even recorded them.

Listen to the lectures online and then study and take the test.

You could.

I went to the lectures.

I felt like that was beneficial to me to get the extra help and to learn it firsthand instead of trying to just teach myself because that was while we were in anatomy.

So it kind of held me accountable to go.

But that one was more on your own and then trying to think med terms was on your own.

Basically.

I think that one was an online one.

Again, I didn't have to take take that one because I had passed the test.

And then throughout the rest of it, I don't think we had anything else that I would call online or even self guided.

How many schools did you apply to?

So I applied to four schools.

I was really only qualified for two of them.

And the two that I was qualified where I did interview and get in the other two.

I didn't have enough hours.

But I was planning for the next year in case I needed to reapply.

I wanted to be able to show them that I had improved and what I had done better.

The other program that I was going to go to, it was more expensive.

They didn't have a cadaver lab, which to me I kind of wanted that experience.

It was a bigger class size too, which I don't think that really mattered to me.

I mean, I would have been fine.

I think you kind of find your little group of people and you know everybody, but you kind of stick with that group and that just, that's your study group and all that.

So those are the main differences in the program.

But yeah, I was, I was very happy with my decision there.

Let's see, did I miss any.

All right, any other last minute questions?

Let's see.

Next month's webinar is going to be about different types of interviews.

So a couple months ago I did the how to Prepare for interviews webinar.

And so in the next one, I just kind of want to break down all the different interview types and talk about those a little bit more in depth so that I can kind of clarify some things and help, you know, how to prepare for different types of interviews.

I don't have a date yet.

I'll post that on the website this week.

So be on the lookout for that for sure.

All right, got some more questions rolling in.

Were you stressed playing a wedding and going to school?

I actually have a video about that, if you haven't seen it.

I think it's called How I Got Married in PA School.

But gosh.

So I actually did not put a lot of effort into planning at the beginning.

During those first couple of semesters, I was living at home, and I remember my mom, who's my may or not May or may not be watching still.

But she would come in and she would say, savannah, like, what do you want to do for this part of the wedding?

And I would say, I cannot talk about that right now.

I'm studying.

I just can't even focus on that.

Which was a little bit bratty.

But without her, I think my wedding would have been not as great.

So I didn't really focus on it during those next couple semesters.

As it was approaching, I did focus on it a good bit more.

So it was a little bit stressful.

I think the biggest stressful thing and I talked about in the other video is that they changed our schedule, and then it made it so it.

They wanted us to start back during when I'd already scheduled our honeymoon and booked flights and all that stuff.

Stuff.

But I'd gotten clearance on the dates, like, before I even started school and talked to them, and so they were very nice about it and able to adjust for me.

But, yeah, that part was definitely stressful.

Oh, okay.

Did a lot of your classmates have family or.

Families or pets?

Yeah, a lot of them did.

I mean, a lot of pets, and then a lot of.

Let's see.

We didn't really have anybody with little.

Little kids.

Maybe some in, like, elementary school.

No.

Really?

Babies.

But, yeah.

It's not uncommon for people to have families, and you just have to make sure they understand that you're gonna be working a lot and that you may not be super available at all times and how important that you're studying is during that time.

Also, Erica, I am emailing you back tonight.

Ivy says, what has been the toughest class you have taken and what is some advice you'd give to pre PA students so they can prepare.

Prepare for the rigor.

Okay.

So I would make sure as a pre PA student that you have your study skills down pat, like, know how you study, know the methods that work for you, and stick to them.

I think starting PA School, it's easy to try new things and try new study habits, but if you already know what works for you, don't try to change it, because then you'll just end up doing poorly.

Um, so try to figure that out before you get to PA school and just know going in that it's going to be tough.

Even as tough as you think it's going to be, it probably will be harder at times.

So just kind of be aware of that.

The toughest class for me was absolutely pharmacology.

If you can take a pharm class before PA school, I'd recommend it.

I don't really know how much it will help you, but it can't hurt.

In pharmacology, it's very hard to learn about drugs and medicines when you're not actually practicing seen and using them and seeing them in action.

And so it's more just memorization.

And that's basically all you can do with it.

And so that class was very hard.

I failed the first exam barely.

I got like a 72 because I just.

And our teacher, I didn't really understand his teaching style at first and it was just difficult.

So FARM was.

Farm was a struggle.

I got better at it.

I learned.

I would make charts, I would study.

I would do these crazy, like, charts on huge whiteboards at the library.

And that just helped me to kind of put it all together and see how things fit together.

And I ended up doing fine after that.

But yeah, that was definitely the hardest course.

What is a good GRE score?

Study tips.

I'm assuming study tips for the GRE.

You want to shoot for about 300.

That's not a hard and fast thing you have to stick to, but most schools, if you got 300, you're good to go.

As far as study tips, I recommend doing both strategy and practice problems.

So I would start by getting a strategy book and studying the strategy and then take that to a problem practice problem book and practice it.

And I do recommend doing like a pre test, like a.

What's the word?

Practice test ahead of time to see where your deficiencies may be and then do another one after you've been studying to see, see where you still need to focus.

And then don't wait to the last minute to try to learn vocab because it is impossible.

So go ahead and get maybe an app or something to be studying vocab on a daily basis just to make sure that you're learning as much as possible because you just can't cram it.

It's the most difficult thing to try to study at the last minute.

I says, any advice on students interested in surgical pa?

So, yeah, I mean, there are some programs, I think they're moving away from this, but that will have a surgical focus.

UAB used to be one.

I'm not sure if they're still doing that.

I've heard mixed things, but you can absolutely be a surgical pa.

I think it's best to go into school with an open mind and just maybe know that might be where you're headed and where your interest currently is.

But be open to other specialties because you may find something that you love more or you may find that you don't really like ortho, so.

Or I say ortho because that's my, my surgery thing I don't like.

And I was thinking that I liked it going in, but I really didn't.

So yeah, think about where you want to be, but don't be like stuck on that because you do want to be open if, if it's possible.

Make sure your electives are in surgery and kind of make that desire known if that is something you're interested in, so that you can get more experience in that area and then hopefully get a job in that area too.

After graduation.

Erin says, did you have a lot of shadowing experience hours when you applied?

So I had about 200 shadowing hours and only about 250 hours of experience because I had worked as a CNA full time really just for a summer, so for a couple months.

And so the schools I applied to, one of them, schools I got into, one of them did not have a specific healthcare experience requirement and the other one had a 100 hour healthcare experience preference or requirement.

So that was.

I didn't have a ton of hours.

I really didn't.

And my plan, I had my CNA license.

If I didn't get accepted to PA school, I was going to work and get those hours the next year if I needed to.

Does medical research count for hours or anything for applications?

It depends.

And it depends on the program.

It depends on what you're doing.

So if it's clinical research, where you're working hands on with patients, taking vitals, taking blood, getting histories, really working with that patient, then yes, that will probably count.

You'll still have to check with the programs and make sure you describe it very, very well in your application.

If it's more like a lab type thing and you're not really interacting with patients, you can include it on your application under research, but it's not going to count for patient experience in any way.

What did you not like about ortho?

Oh, gosh.

I learned that I cannot handle broken bones.

Maybe if I was around them enough I could, but bones and joints, they just freaked me out.

If I'm being honest, I.

When they asked me to set that broken arm in the er, I mean, just hearing it and feeling it, it just made me like, oh my gosh, I, I almost instantly blacked out.

So it was bad.

And I've even shadowed an ortho PA and it was kind of the same experience, like he was doing joint injections and I had to excuse myself, step out and go lay on the bathroom floor so I wouldn't pass out.

The same thing happened to me the first time I saw a biopsy, a skin biopsy.

I actually got kind of lightheaded, but I recovered from that and now I do them all day long and it's not a big deal.

So I did get used to that.

But still, something about broken bones and joints just, I don't like it.

What did I mean when I said that PA schools are moving away from surgery?

So you're not moving away from surgery.

You will always have, most always have a surgical rotation because a lot of times it's required.

But the ones that have in the past said like specifically that they are a surgery based program.

I feel like now the focus is more on being an unlike serving the underserved and being a program that reaches out to rural areas more so than being more like we're a surgical program.

And so that's where like UAB used to say that they were a surgical PA program.

But I think and all that meant was that they had a little bit more focus or a little bit more lectures on surgery because they still the, the governing board of PA programs has all these requirements that PA programs have to meet and they're typically the same.

So no matter where you go, you're getting the same content, the same, same subjects.

Even if it's a program that claims to be a surgery based program.

But one of the requirements is a surgical rotation.

Typically unless they have something worked out where they have you in like super rural areas.

But yeah, you'll definitely get exposure to surgery no matter what PA program you go to.

And I don't think that'll change.

Okay, I think that's all our questions, so I'm going to head out.

But thanks everyone for watching and I hope that this has been informative.

And if you come up with any questions, feel free to email me or reach out on Instagram and then hopefully I'll see you guys next month at our next webinar.

A couple other things.

Make sure if you aren't already in it, you join our Facebook group.

It's called the Pre PA Club, and lots of great people in there asking questions, answering questions, helping each other out.

And then also I've recently started a podcast, so if you haven't seen seen that, it is on itunes under the Pre PA Club.

I'm covering a lot of different subjects, and next week's will be about personal statements.

So make sure you subscribe to that, give me a review just so that I'll know if I'm doing good, and then I hope to hear from you soon.

All right, thanks for watching, guys.