Guest Post: 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting PA School

5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting PA School 

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to be able to share a guest post written by Savanna Perry from The PA Platform! :

Hey guys!  I’m really excited that I’m able to share some tips with you about starting PA school.  After the excitement of gaining acceptance, and the realization that you’re actually going to become a physician assistant starts to fade away, the nervousness about what to expect sets in.  If you talk to any current PA student or PA, you’ll likely hear how difficult and all-consuming school is.  I’m here to tell you that it can also be fun, and provide some advice that I wish I had before I started my program. 

1. Start studying for PANCE from day 1

The ultimate end goal of PA school is to pass the boards, which is called the PANCE.  I didn’t really start thinking about this until the third semester, but I wish I had used my PANCE study books from the beginning of didactic year when we were learning clinical medicine.  Because this test is so important, it’s what your exams will be based on, and the review books are great for having all of the essential information organized well.  Here's a link to the one that I used the most, but there are many others available now too. While it’s also important to study from your lectures, there can be some random ones that may not be all that helpful. Despite past PANCE rates, it’s up to you to do the work to pass the test.  

2. Put in an effort to make friends, and enjoy where you’re at. 

It can be easy to go into PA school with the mindset that it’s only 2-3 years and that there’s no need to try to make friends or become involved in the community.  Honestly, that will just lead to making you miserable.  You can either expend your energy hating where you’re at, or you can attempt to find things to do and people to do it with.  There were a few people in my class who went home every weekend, and they just didn’t connect as well with the rest of the class because they kept to themselves.  PA school can be tough and you need to have a support system close by to help you through it. 

3. Find the study methods that work for you, and stick to it.

Everyone studies differently. Hopefully, you figured out how to study well while completing your prerequisite courses.  If not, you need to find what works best for you, and do it quickly.  Once PA school starts, it moves fast, and if you get behind it can be difficult to get caught back up.  Personally, I know I don’t do great in a group setting.  I get distracted easily, and I’m not great when a bunch of people are all trying to study at the same time.  What worked well for me was getting up early, making study guides by combining information from all of my different resources, and doing lots of practice questions.

4. If you are struggling in any way, ask for help.

Your faculty and program wants you to succeed.  That doesn’t mean they’ll go easy on you, but someone is there for you if you need help.  You just have to ask!  And this can be in any sense - personally, ethically, academically, etc.  There is no need to suffer in silence and try to go through PA school alone. I always knew I could go to any teacher for help if I needed it, and there was one in particular who was there for me no matter what.  Even when my whole small group admitted we just cried instead of studying the night before we met one week.  (Totally normal.) Living at home and having my fiancé nearby helped too, but they couldn’t always understand what was so challenging or overwhelming.  Having friends in my class was so important. 

5. Make time for fun. 

Going into PA school, I thought it was going to be impossible to have fun and still do well.  I was really intense about studying, and I would turn down offers to go to dinner or hangout with friends at the beginning.  I also refused to do any wedding planning even though the date was set for the break in between didactic and clinical year. Towards the middle of didactic year, I started to loosen up a little, and my grades actually started to do better too. I met 3 of my very best friends in PA school, and we still keep in touch often even though we’re 3 years out of school.  Some of my favorite times in school were with those girls.  They forced me to go to the gym, which was actually good for me, and we could celebrate (with ice cream) and commiserate (with ice cream) together.  We did some crazy stuff like buying last minute Taylor Swift tickets in the middle of class and going to Gulf Shores for Spring Break with my family, but those are the memories from PA school that really stick with me.  

I hope this reassures you that you’ll be just fine in PA school, and if you ever need advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or anyone else who has been in your shoes.  Good luck! 

Savanna Perry, PA-C is a full-time dermatology physician assistant and the founder of The PA Platform, a website for hopeful, future, and current PAs.  If you would like to contact her directly, you can email her at savanna@thePAplatform.com.