Yeah, I've been there. Regardless of the next major exam coming up during Clinical Year (and after) - there is most likely always going to be a little bit of anxiety surrounding it, no matter how much you've prepared. Though you may have really nailed down a "Grade A" Study routine over the course of the one million exams taken during didactic (or at least what feels like one million), now you're tasked to take longer exams that may be delivered much differently than they were during your didactic year. And for those studying for the PANCE or PANRE, you're gearing up for much different exams than what you nailed during your Clinical Year with EORs.

What CAN change is the process in which you prepare for all the future exams you take wherever you on on your Physician Assistant journey. Hopefully, these five tips can help ease some of your study burden and/or testing anxiety by providing a strong framework to build on for your EOR, PANCE, and PANRE preparation.

Tip #1 - Make A Plan (and stick to it)

You may be rolling your eyes at this, like, "yeah, okay, duh," but let me explain myself.

Giving yourself structure and keeping yourself accountable takes a little preparation up front, but will become second nature the more you integrate it into your study routine. Ultimately, saving you time and worry in the long run.

Seems vague. Can you give me a little more clarity here?

Absolutely.

Regardless of your next NCCPA or PAEA exam (EOR, PANCE, PANRE, etc.) the first thing to do is to download the blueprint and topic list from the PAEA website.

• If you've never done this before, click here to see what I'm talking about for EOR.

• For PANCE and PANRE blueprints and topic lists, click here.

Okay, I do this already. What else should I be doing?

Now you use it to create the actual plan.

Once you've downloaded your topic lists, use that information to create your plan based on the content percentages.

Plus, after you figure it out the first time, it can be easily tweaked for any of your next exams.

Does breaking it down like that really help?

It changed my life since starting to do it Clinical Year.

If you're like me, you focus on complex topics that may be very small percentages (aka lower yield) because you're driven to conquer the mental obstacle at hand.

Alternatively, you might be opposite and actually spend more time than you should on content you already understand well, because - let's be honest - it feels good to get things correct (and in PA school, all the little bursts of study dopamine count, no judgement).

However, without structure, either method can lead you into unconsciously neglecting other high yield topics. By giving yourself some structure up front based on the blueprint percentages, you can set up an objective accountability plan to know exactly when to put the books down (and pick the next book up).

Tip #2 - PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Practice questions are the bread and butter of learning what is high yield and how to truly learn to become a good test-taker.

This should start on day one of whatever module or rotation you're in. Regardless of how many questions you do per day, that is up to you, the more questions you do the easier it will become to recognize common trends writers use and less likely you'll get caught up on a confusing concept during exam time.

My former tutees can probably attest to this day how often they heard me say, "I would rather you get your practice questions wrong with me than wrong on the exam"

This remains true to this day.

The more questions you do, even if you get 100% wrong on the first time around, the less likely you will be to repeat missing the same question or a similar question on exam day. Additionally, it is good to know the harder the practice questions are - the easier the exam becomes (something my former tutees probably both loved and hated me for). It seems like a simple solution, but far too many students feel they should wait to start practice questions until they are "familiar enough with the subject."

I was that way my first semester too, but quickly learned

And I don't know about you, but I would rather figure out what is considered testable by seeing it for the first time in practice than waiting to see it for the first time on the exam.

My favorite places to do practice questions were SmartyPANCE, Rosh Review, and Quizlet - but you can see all the resources I have for wherever you are on your PA journey here.

Tip #3 - Visualize and Customize to Give Yourself Extra Passes

One of my routines during preparation for both EORs and the PANCE was to reformat the downloaded blueprint and topic lists into a word document for notetaking.

As I went over practice questions, I would add high yield concepts and buzzwords I wanted to remember to my word document. Therefore, adding an extra pass to whatever topic I was covering.

In didactic, I did a similar practice, but instead created my own Quizlet decks from lecture notes I collaborated on with my study group to ensure that we were covering the entire "blueprint" for the module.

As time goes on and you begin to fill up your notes, you can easily see exactly which topics you have covered (potentially excessively) and which topics you haven't touched at all. This can also give you a good visual on if you're spending too much time on lower percentage concepts and not enough on the heavy hitters (aka refer back to Tip 1).

Tip #4 - Collab Where You Can, But Don't Force It

Time is precious during your PA training. That is no secret.

One of the things that took a while for me to understand, was breaking away from what used to work for me and becoming open to truly find what worked best for me as a learner.

For example, in undergrad, I always found success with studying in groups. I thought this would be the same for me in PA school and tried to force myself to continue on this way simply because it previously worked. I learned overtime that I actually thrived studying alone and only collaborated in terms of note taking and practice question writing to save time. Some of my classmates were the opposite. They routinely studied alone during undergrad, but found talking out concepts was much better for their retention when starting PA School and had to make that adjustment.

One of the best ways some of my classmates and I prepared "separate but together" for the PANCE was to create one huge Google Doc with the PANCE blueprint, and add high yield bits we found during our individual study so others could review it as well. This became a very efficient way for us to cover a lot of material pretty quickly.

At the end of the day, the key here is to be open to changing your routine until you find what works best for YOU.

Tip #5 - Have A Reward in Sight

Remember how I said study dopamine was super crucial during PA school? Yeah, give yourself a reward to keep that dopamine up!

This could really be customizable for you, but for me it was allowing myself a 5-10 minute break after getting through 10 questions or 45 minutes of studying (whichever came first) and always giving myself a cut-off time to unwind before bed.

For others in my class, this was by putting in 100% 6 days a week, but giving themselves an entire "day off" each week to recuperate.

Whatever you choose to do to reward yourself, make sure it is enough of a motivator that it encourages you to stay accountable with your studies (again, refer to Tip 1) but also keeping accountable with self-care (which is equally as important and often neglected during PA school and beyond).

BONUS TIP - Rinse & Repeat

As always, consistency is key to create and maintain a process that helps you succeed in your PA career.

Regardless of how you customize it, as long as you're creating a plan and sticking to it, practicing your testing skills, upping your passes, creating flexibility to be your best (and rewarding yourself for it), you should start to see some pretty awesome results.

Thanks for joining me in today's review of my top 5 tips to improve your preparation for exams.

I hope you enjoyed the post and learned something along the way!

Safe travels,

Becca