PA school - All done, time to get to work

[Q5XX29]

It's more competitive than med school these days.

Dirk

Totally different applicant pool. But competitive, certainly.

[Dino]

It's more competitive than med school these days.

Dirk

Totally different applicant pool. But competitive, certainly.

Yes very true, it is a different applicant pool.   


Made some dumb mistakes on my patient assessment quiz again; had 3 wrong out of 22 so around 86% but that's still above the needed 82% so all is well!   

Anatomy lab exam was damn hard! Six cadavers that were tagged on structures which we had to identify and answer questions about. It's easier to identify the color coded structures in text books but on a body it all looks like spaghetti! I got a 92% though so I'm very happy with that. Now that I know how these exams will go I'll be better prepared for the next one!

Anatomy lecture exam is on Tuesday. That's going to be a tough one. There's loads of material to cover and the entire exam will be multiple multiple choice questions. Those suck!

The big exam we're all dreading is Friday: clinical medicine. The amount of information is insane. I have hundreds of power point slides and several chapters in books I need to know. It's all dermatology and psychological behaviors. This single exams is also a third of my total grade for this class so I have to do well. Those will all be case based questions and we have to pick the best answer. Oh boy...

Oh well, back to work!      

[b5blue]

Have a nice Memorial Day Dirk! 

[Dino]

Thanks Neil!

I had to spend it studying unfortunately. 

Hope you had a good one.   

[Chad L. Magee]

Are they expecting you to know the chemical structures of each of the drugs (on top of what they do in the body) in the clinical medicine exam?  If so, I can see why most people would be dreading it....
 
(One of my former students that graduated from pharmacy school had a class like that.  He loved it while everyone else hated it with a passion.)

Good luck on the exams!

[Dino]

Thanks Chad!   

No we do not have to know the chemical makeup of the drugs for clin med. Different story for pharm but it's expected there. For clin med we are responsible for knowing the main treatments for a given disease and some values for the most common ones so in that aspect it's pretty basic. The tough part here is having to know a ton of detail on dozens and dozens of derm conditions in addition to knowing a lot of behavioral disorders. There's just not enough hours in the day to learn it all. With 20 credits this semester we have lots to do for every course so the trick is to pick out the most important parts but I haven't mastered that yet. It's amazing how fast these 4 weeks have flown by. I really don't have time to do anything except study and then still I feel like I barely touched the surface.

The material is very interesting and all this is really cool, but there's just lots and lots of it. I can see why some people choose to spread the didactic portion over two years instead of one like I'm doing.

I'll get the hang of it though.   

[Dino]

Time for an update...although a 17 hour nap would be better!   

I'm starting to get into the groove. It doesn't mean I'm passing all the tests, but I'm getting better and my grades are on the rise. The big difference here is that I can't just memorize this stuff for a test and be done with it, this material needs to stick and I need to understand it through and through. I can't just forget 70% of all this like in undergrad and hope to be a good PA.

We've been doing a lot of physical exam stuff lately. Ear and eye exams mostly. Very cool but a little weird to look in half of your classmates' ears and eyes!

Anatomy lab was awesome as always. I removed a heart and lung while my lab partners removed a kidney and the spleen. We then cleaned them up and cut them open to see the internal structures. Very cool stuff.   

It's getting a little easier on the muscle front, not nearly as many muscles around the abdomen as there are in the upper body and arms. But damn there's a lot of nerves and blood vessels to know!     

Midterm lab exam is on the 24th and the lecture part on the 20th so wish me luck!

Two exams this coming week as well and actually I think I have one or two every week from now until...mid 2017. 

I'm going to take a few minutes right now and uncover the Charger and just look at it. I miss that thing!

[b5blue]

Good luck and keep it going! 

[68 BENGAL R/T]

Sounds exciting but strenuous Dino. Wash the Charger and take a nap in it to relieve the stress now and then. Keep up the good work and good luck on the tests.
I'll keep watching your updates.

[Dino]

Thanks guys!   

Tests went great, my grades are on the rise so I guess I found my rhythm. This was one crazy ass week!

Two more exams this week, three huge ones the week after. Yikes!

I'm seriously missing the car though. I wish I could take it out for a spin but alas it's a project as it sits. I won't be able to finish it for who knows how long. It might take another two years before I have the time to finish it which sucks but first things first. Gotta get school done and done well.   

[Dino]

Well I finally screwed up...   

I totally bombed a very important exam and in order to pass the class I will need to score 96% on my final exam. Not impossible but damn hard to achieve. If I don't make that then I will have to go through a remediation process. This is where the instructor gives you another test or assignment or whatever. In order to continue in the program I have to score at least 82% on that test. If I don't then I will be removed from the program. I can also have no more than two remediations for the duration of the program so the heat is on!

So I have a few options:

Admit defeat and leave, or study my tail off and go for 100% on that final exam. I choose to fight!

If I score below 96% then I will accept that and try my best to do well on the remediation portion. If I don't make it then at least I can't say I didn't give it my best. That would be hardest part to accept.

The final exam is in 5 weeks and will cover everything on pulmonary. Not the easiest subject in the world but dammit I'm going to do whatever it takes!

There are 9 exams left this semester plus one practical exam. Five weeks of nothing but eat, study, sleep. Rinse and repeat. I can do this!

[b5blue]

You picked this for their tough standards! Get in there and make us PROUD! 

[Chad L. Magee]

Good luck on the final, you can do it! 

[Dino]

Thanks guys!   

[68 BENGAL R/T]

You are driven!
You can and will do whatever it takes to achieve this goal!
Keep up the hard work -it will be worth it!!!

[stripedelete]

Well I finally screwed up...   

I totally bombed a very important exam and in order to pass the class I will need to score 96% on my final exam. Not impossible but damn hard to achieve. If I don't make that then I will have to go through a remediation process. This is where the instructor gives you another test or assignment or whatever. In order to continue in the program I have to score at least 82% on that test. If I don't then I will be removed from the program. I can also have no more than two remediations for the duration of the program so the heat is on!

So I have a few options:

Admit defeat and leave, or study my tail off and go for 100% on that final exam. I choose to fight!

If I score below 96% then I will accept that and try my best to do well on the remediation portion. If I don't make it then at least I can't say I didn't give it my best. That would be hardest part to accept.

The final exam is in 5 weeks and will cover everything on pulmonary. Not the easiest subject in the world but dammit I'm going to do whatever it takes!

There are 9 exams left this semester plus one practical exam. Five weeks of nothing but eat, study, sleep. Rinse and repeat. I can do this!

Q: You what they call the guy who finishes last in his class at med school?
A: Doctor........

[Dino]

I'd very much like to not finish last or even close to it!   

2 weeks to go...7 exams, 3 assignments..I can do this.   

[68 BENGAL R/T]

How did your final couple of weeks of your first semester go Dino?  I hope everything went well and you have had a couple of weeks to recover and rejuvenate.

[Dino]

Ups and downs. Failed clinical medicine miserably which pulled my gpa below a 3.0 so I'm on academic probation. I have three months to reach a 3.0 which will be fine as long as I do well in the next semester. The other classes went fine despite having two more really bad finals. We've lost another three people totaling four for the first semester. Pretty depressing.

We're done with anatomy and physiology though and that one took an enormous amount of time so that'll help. I doubt that the ethics class taking its place will be this time consuming. As long as I can change my study habits for clin med positively then everything will be alright. If not then I'll be looking at a different career. Something I don't even want to think about right now!

My break will be over in a few days but I'm glad I had some time off, I needed it.

How's your daughter doing in her application journey?

[68 BENGAL R/T]

First semesters always seem to be the hardest and that it was a spring/summer only makes it harder to keep your focus.  Glad to hear your sticking in there. It will take a lot of hard work, but now you know what is expected and the commitment that's required to succeed and you can do it.  How many students are remaining in the program now that 4 have dropped out? Are most of the students just out of undergrad programs or are they coming from other established occupations?
My daughter has sent out initial applications to 6 or 8 schools mostly in the MI/OH area and has gotten replies from all of them for further information. Ideally she would like to be accepted to Wayne State or Eastern Michigan and commute. Hopefully she will get news in the next couple of months if she will get interviews. She just started working at DMC Children's Hospital in Detroit as a CNA for the meantime.
Your probably back in school by now, it took me a while to reply, but good luck and I'll keep watching for your improving progress.
Chris

[XH29N0G]

Hey Dino,  Sorry I missed the last part of this thread.  Yes, you should definitely do all you can to hang in there.  All I can say it to use all the strategies you can think of to do this. 

You probably already have some of these figured out, but it took me until I was teaching in school to realize that there are only so many decent questions I can ask of the students.  I wish I had realized this as a student because I probably could have figured out what the key things were to study and how to use time efficiently to know the important things as well as the supporting details that would be needed.  Draw on any and all resources you can get your hands on.

Just so you don't dismiss this as coming from someone without warts - I almost didn't make it through grad school.  I was asked to leave one place and went to the next on probation.  My advisor told me to focus on doing everything right, and that mindset helped me change things.

It sounds like you are in it for the long haul and I admire that attitude. 

[Dino]

Thanks for the words of encouragement gents, I really appreciate it.   

When I failed the final clin med exam (14 out of 29 failed it) we met with faculty who went over the entire exam with us. It was clear that I needed to focus one the core clinical stuff and not the countless irrelevant details. It's tough to figure out exactly what is relevant and what is not, but this was never supposed to be easy. I'm doing pretty good compared to a lot of my classmates, but this class was my Achilles heel. I say was because I have changed my strategy and so far I'm kicking ass in this class! I know it's still early but if I can keep this up I'll be alright. I know attitude is very important here and I'm not going to give up. I may not make it but dammit I'll give it my all!

Turns out a fifth student decided not to come back after the summer semester. I don't know why, I can only imagine he was beat down too much and I can certainly understand that.

We're down to 25 students now. I would say the majority are too young to have had an actual career. Some came straight out of undergrad while some held a job for a few years. There are a few of us that did have a career though. There are a few others that are, like me, in their 40s. One of those failed though and he was a smart sob. Firefighter/paramedic. He had everything needed to make this work but this is a brutal program and it didn't work out for him. Others have used up their two allowed failed classes i the first semester so they cannot fail another for the remainder of the program. I have one under my belt and hopefully it's the last.

I hope your daughter lands the spot that she wants. I'm not sure when EMU is conducting interviews, but I think it'll be fairly early this time. I had mine in January which was pretty late. I interviewed at Toledo as well but I didn't like it much. Wayne is a solid option though!

Shoot me a pm if she's interviewing at EMU, maybe I can give her some advice to increase her odds.

Thanks for the advice XH, a lesser man would not have admitted what you've gone through. How did your advisor worded doing everything right? I'm curious to hear and I can always use a mind boost!    

[XH29N0G]

He told me in a serious tone to focus on the things that would get the grades.  I needed to play it a little smarter, work to my own strengths and be careful of (avoid) my weaknesses. I had a tendency (still do) to take risks with things just to learn and could easily get off track with the next interesting thing.   He knew that and just said it straight.  I was lucky. 

[Dino]

That's good advice, I'll take it! I am my own worst enemy as well so I've been having a lot of chit chats with myself on how to increase my performance by having the right mind set. I'd love to learn everything, but I do need to focus on that which will give me the grades to pass. Or all of this will be for nothing.

[Dino]

Hey Chris in case your daughter wants to know, EMU has started sending out interview invitations.