I took my first "Big 3" exam yesterday for our psych module and it went great! (We call it the "Big 3" because it's a combined exam for Clinical Medicine, Diagnostic Methods and Pharmacology). It feels so good to have one down, have a better idea of what to expect, and to see that my study tactics were effective.
However, I had one problem when I was studying: I had too many resources and not enough time to use them all.
I think when we're fresh and wide-eyed students, we're scared of what's ahead and grab onto any and all guidance that is thrown our way. Understandably so! But at least for me, I now have all these resources and am feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Here's the rundown of the resources I ended up using to prepare for my psych exam and the resources I have yet to evaluate (honestly, just because of lack of time.
What I used:
PANCE Prep Pearls
I mean, this is like THE resource for PA students. Universally recommended to me by basically everyone I talked to. Not going to lie, it's a little weird to read at first (see the picture below), but once you get the hang of it, it's really a drill down to the essential things you need to know. I will say, I went through the Psych chapter the day before I took my exam as a way to review all the content, and the knowledge I gained from this resource helped me correctly answer numerous questions.
Lange Q&A
One of the things I loved this summer was getting together with a couple of classmates and making up test questions to ask each other. It's one thing to have read the content, and another to put it into practice answering questions! I was feeling a little bummed out that as a distance student this semester, I wouldn't have that … but then I remembered I had bought this book! It was recommended by a former student in my program who was a guest lecturer over the summer, and I think I'll be really glad I bought it. This book breaks the questions down into each module/category, which is obviously helping when you're doing module-based learning like we are. Each section has 50-100 questions, with the answers explained at the end of the section. I was only able to do about 25 question from the psych section before my exam, but it definitely helped to build my confidence!
Sketchy Pharmacology
This was recommended to me by a second-year medical student, actually. He said it made all the difference for him learning meds in his first year. I gave it a try and watched the videos for the psych medications, and I can see how it worked. It's hard to describe, but it basically draws out a scene and everything in the scene stands for something about the medications. I only watched each video (and took notes!) once, and I think I would need more repetition to make it really worthwhile. So, while I will say it did help me at least somewhat for my psych exam, I'm still feeling out if I love it or not.
Lecture Materials
Let's not forget that you get tons of lecture slides and supplemental materials to review from your lecturers. Each lecture may have 50-100+ slides (and I had... twenty-seven lectures for this exam! That's roughly 2,000 slides!), your lecturers may recommend articles to review or provide review materials of their own. This stuff alone takes awhile to go through!
What I need to explore further:
Osmosis Medical
I love the PA community on Instagram! Everyone is so great with sharing their thoughts and advice. And some advice I've gotten recently from Kelly, a neurosurg PA on insta, that Osmosis is a game changer. This tip came in right around the time a bunch of classmates were talking about the program, so needless to say, I jumped on the bandwagon. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I've heard the huge library of videos is amazing (especially when you just can't read anymore!), they've got flashcards that help you learn via spaced repetition, and it has didactic case question, too. Sounds like a great all in one package, so I'm pretty excited to give this a go for the Neuro module.
A Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification Examinations for Physician Assistants
Admittedly, I didn't have time for this one, and it looked the least enticing of the options I had available to me (no offense). The review is written in an outline format (not ideal but I could get used to it). There's some charts and a small section of review questions at the end of each chapter, but a serious lack of pictures! I definitely don't want to write this off as a resource yet, but know that I just haven't been able to give it a go yet.
USMLE Step 2 CK
I had heard this was a good resource on some PA blogs I was reading before I started the summer semester (sorry, I can't remember exactly which blog!). So when a doctor friend said he didn't need this book anymore, I gladly scooped it up! Again, it was a lack of time that prevented me from using this resource during my Psych module, but it's a resource I think could be really helpful. It's set up very straightforward. It will name a disorder, briefly discuss the History/PE, have some bullets about the Diagnosis, and then discuss Treatment. No muss, no fuss! It includes drug charts, as well as quick mnemonics, Q&As and key facts in the margins.
In summary, I've got a lot of useful tools in my toolbelt, and not enough time to use them all! One reason I think that was a problem for this last exam was that I don't think I used my time wisely. I made flashcards for all the meds (and won't be doing that in the future), and I still haven't found quite the right balance for how much handwritten notes to do (handwritten notes are a non-negotiable for me, but I know I need to be efficient, too).
What do you think? Do you have any favorite resources or study tips? Please share!
Be well,
Olivia
However, I had one problem when I was studying: I had too many resources and not enough time to use them all.
I think when we're fresh and wide-eyed students, we're scared of what's ahead and grab onto any and all guidance that is thrown our way. Understandably so! But at least for me, I now have all these resources and am feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Here's the rundown of the resources I ended up using to prepare for my psych exam and the resources I have yet to evaluate (honestly, just because of lack of time.
What I used:
PANCE Prep Pearls
I mean, this is like THE resource for PA students. Universally recommended to me by basically everyone I talked to. Not going to lie, it's a little weird to read at first (see the picture below), but once you get the hang of it, it's really a drill down to the essential things you need to know. I will say, I went through the Psych chapter the day before I took my exam as a way to review all the content, and the knowledge I gained from this resource helped me correctly answer numerous questions.
Lange Q&A
One of the things I loved this summer was getting together with a couple of classmates and making up test questions to ask each other. It's one thing to have read the content, and another to put it into practice answering questions! I was feeling a little bummed out that as a distance student this semester, I wouldn't have that … but then I remembered I had bought this book! It was recommended by a former student in my program who was a guest lecturer over the summer, and I think I'll be really glad I bought it. This book breaks the questions down into each module/category, which is obviously helping when you're doing module-based learning like we are. Each section has 50-100 questions, with the answers explained at the end of the section. I was only able to do about 25 question from the psych section before my exam, but it definitely helped to build my confidence!
Sketchy Pharmacology
This was recommended to me by a second-year medical student, actually. He said it made all the difference for him learning meds in his first year. I gave it a try and watched the videos for the psych medications, and I can see how it worked. It's hard to describe, but it basically draws out a scene and everything in the scene stands for something about the medications. I only watched each video (and took notes!) once, and I think I would need more repetition to make it really worthwhile. So, while I will say it did help me at least somewhat for my psych exam, I'm still feeling out if I love it or not.
Lecture Materials
Let's not forget that you get tons of lecture slides and supplemental materials to review from your lecturers. Each lecture may have 50-100+ slides (and I had... twenty-seven lectures for this exam! That's roughly 2,000 slides!), your lecturers may recommend articles to review or provide review materials of their own. This stuff alone takes awhile to go through!
What I need to explore further:
Osmosis Medical
I love the PA community on Instagram! Everyone is so great with sharing their thoughts and advice. And some advice I've gotten recently from Kelly, a neurosurg PA on insta, that Osmosis is a game changer. This tip came in right around the time a bunch of classmates were talking about the program, so needless to say, I jumped on the bandwagon. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I've heard the huge library of videos is amazing (especially when you just can't read anymore!), they've got flashcards that help you learn via spaced repetition, and it has didactic case question, too. Sounds like a great all in one package, so I'm pretty excited to give this a go for the Neuro module.
A Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification Examinations for Physician Assistants
Admittedly, I didn't have time for this one, and it looked the least enticing of the options I had available to me (no offense). The review is written in an outline format (not ideal but I could get used to it). There's some charts and a small section of review questions at the end of each chapter, but a serious lack of pictures! I definitely don't want to write this off as a resource yet, but know that I just haven't been able to give it a go yet.
USMLE Step 2 CK
I had heard this was a good resource on some PA blogs I was reading before I started the summer semester (sorry, I can't remember exactly which blog!). So when a doctor friend said he didn't need this book anymore, I gladly scooped it up! Again, it was a lack of time that prevented me from using this resource during my Psych module, but it's a resource I think could be really helpful. It's set up very straightforward. It will name a disorder, briefly discuss the History/PE, have some bullets about the Diagnosis, and then discuss Treatment. No muss, no fuss! It includes drug charts, as well as quick mnemonics, Q&As and key facts in the margins.
In summary, I've got a lot of useful tools in my toolbelt, and not enough time to use them all! One reason I think that was a problem for this last exam was that I don't think I used my time wisely. I made flashcards for all the meds (and won't be doing that in the future), and I still haven't found quite the right balance for how much handwritten notes to do (handwritten notes are a non-negotiable for me, but I know I need to be efficient, too).
What do you think? Do you have any favorite resources or study tips? Please share!
Be well,
Olivia
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