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PA School Essentials

We're about to embark on one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, journeys of our lives, but we're gonna need some essentials.


After asking around a few current PA students, I've come up with a list of PA school essentials:

  •  Planner
    • I think is the crown jewel of all PA school essentials. I mean, who doesn't love to be organized? The type-A person I am loves to physically cross off things on my list :p With the busy schedule I'll have in PA school, I know it'll be easy for me to forget little things and writing them down will definitely help! I also feel most productive when I can plan out what needs to be done each night. For example, getting through 2 powerpoints one night, and another two the next night. 
    • I use a @plumpaper planner and I absolutely love it (so far)! It's so easy to customize it to your personal needs. I start didactic year in June and end in July 2018 and was able to make my planner start and end in that time frame! I also customized it to allow for horizontal notes and to have my name and PA-S next to it :)
    • I also bought a weekly calendar "all in a week's worth" from thimblepress to help me organize my individual days down to each hour! 
  • Coffee maker
    • Another holy grail for the PA student. I recently (today) invested in a keurig! I wasn't the biggest coffee drinker in undergrad, but I know that's definitely going to change in PA school. The amount of times I'll be drinking coffee will definitely make the investment in a keurig worth it instead of just buying a coffee on the way to school each day!
  • Comfy clothes
    • When you're going to be sitting in class from 8-5 every day and then studying for another few hours after you get home, you'll want to be comfortable! For me, being comfortable is an essential part of studying. I love wearing active wear to class because I can be comfortable without looking frumpy. 
  • New, updated laptop
    • This has been the one solid piece of advice that every PA student has given me. Your laptop is going to get a beating over the next few years so it's best to start with a new one with good battery life and plenty of storage on your computer! Be aware that every program may have different laptop requirements. Some require PCs, some ipads, and some macs. For me, my school didn't have any requirements so I was lucky. 
  • Padded backpack
    • I'm planning on walking to school every day since it'll be a nice little way to get in a little exercise. In addition to my laptop, binder/other school supplies, I'm sure I'll also be carrying around a ton of books. I didn't have a big enough backpack in undergrad and the shoulder straps weren't padded which left me with sore shoulders and marks every day. After doing some research, I though this backpack would be the best fit for me: https://www.thenorthface.com/shop/womens-recon?variationId=DH
  • Colored markers
    • Another staple I love to use! Writing in color makes me remember things more easily and also helps me organize better. For example, writing all origins in blue, all insertions in red, all actions of a muscle in green. You can never have too many of these!
I'm sure when I start PA school I'll have an updated list of new essential study items!





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