Finally a break!

Well we finished up last week with our 500 finals... alright, alright, it wasn't that many but it sure did feel like it with all the studying.

As I look back on this semester I realized one of my biggest weaknesses in this program was time management. I have to tell you, that is going to be the biggest thing that will bite you in the butt in PA school. You HAVE to remember to do the other, what I consider "random", assignments done as well as study, what I consider the "important", stuff. In PA school they will give you all kinds of diseases that you need to learn, the anatomy, the pharmacology, the process of diagnosing, the tests you will need to run, the symptomology, etc. Oh yea, and on top of all of that you also need to write a paper on this, or read this book for some "fun" reading and write a report on it and present it to the class or do some research on this topic and answer these questions. Also, don't forget about those quizzes online. Oh yea, and don't forget to make some time for yourself to relax, you can't do this 24hrs a day after all. HA!! Well when would you like me to do it then! :-)

Don't me wrong, it isn't that I failed completely at time management, it was just that I started slacking and loosing it right towards the end there. Call it what you will: being tired, lazy, in a medical knowledge coma... I prefer to call it BURNOUT!

Whatever you want to call it, the bottom line is I put off some of the assignments/projects that we were given earlier in the semester because I was studying the actual medicine part of stuff so I could do well on the module exam at the end of the module. Well what ended up happening was I had all those "random" things due at the end of the semester and I hadn't even really started them. So instead of taking a couple hours here, or a day there, I had to basically take a whole week to work solely on those projects so I could get them in. As a consequence of my lack of planning I was not able to study the "important" stuff, and was completely stressed out because of it.

Take a lesson from me and please, PLEASE get your time management skills down now, with whatever you have going on in your life. Working on it now will pay off huge when you get into PA school.

My plan for next semester you ask? Well, so I don't end up in the same situation next semester I am going to try taking a day a week, or maybe a few hours a week if the studying is getting intense, and work on the "random" things that are coming up soon. Also, I plan to write down all the assignment/quiz/project due dates in one location so I always know where to find them and can look back on it frequently to remind myself of what is coming up. That was another issue I had. If you haven't been in PA school yet, or are not currently in a program, one of the things they love to do is change the schedule up on you (or add things to the schedule) during class. Well, if you are ill prepared to receive such news (as I was) then you end up scribbling it down on the first piece of paper you can find (or a napkin from lunch). Great, so you have it written down, that's a step in the right direction. Trouble is, will you be able to find all those loose leaf pieces of paper when it comes time to figure out what is due and when? From my experience, NO! Do yourself a favor and get a planner or something like that. My new comp has a post-it note program right on the desktop, so that is what I am going to use because I almost always have my computer with me in class.

All in all it was a tough, challenging, frustrating, confusing, up-lifting, horrible, wonderful, exciting, boring, awesome, not so awesome, and incredibly fun semester. Now that I have made it through the first semester I look forward to the challenges and good times that lie ahead of me in the next semester! Wish Me Luck!!

M-R