Today is a great day for a physician assistant FAQ frequently asked questions now thank you everyone for responding I have a lot of material today so this is going to be a two-part video so be sure to give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss out on part 2 we’re gonna dive right into this first question personal statement tips and your tips and my experience in that process so personal statement tips think about it the admissions office is getting thousands of applications a day are they going to read your whole essay probably not so most importantly nail the hook now the hook is the first few sentences of your essay so start off with a quote make it interesting draw them into your paper so they will read the whole essay and invite you in for a POA school interview now your personal statement is selling your selfie you want to tell a good story use real people real experiences adjectives emotions make your story seem larger than life be yourself tell the truth don’t make stuff up but present yourself in a way that missions is thinking hey this person seems pretty cool I want them like them back I want to meet them in person and hopefully offer you a spot in the PA program as far as interview tips I have a previous video I’ll link it below going in detail about that and I experienced in the process that is a great video idea so I will say that for the feature I be asked about finding shadowing opportunities this can be kind of difficult an easy way is volunteering at the hospital hospitals always need more volunteers and it looks amazing absolutely amazing on your application you have volunteer departments that allow you to have hands-on experience if I got a lot of my hours in the ER and also in the pharmacy and the other thing you can do is ask your doctor I asked my ortho hey I’m your patient is it okay if I shadow you and it was one of my favorite opportunities something else that looks great do some research doing a medical mission trip you’re changing lives in third-world countries that’s usually where they’re located again life-changing experience really exposes to you and shows you how lucky and blessed you are to live and have such great privileges in our country and also looks great on the resume lastly I would email reach out to random small clinics in the area you’d be surprised a lot of them are pretty willing to take on students or let you shadow because again as a provider I love telling people about my profession and getting more people into medicine rebecca asks about ways to improve and stand out as a reallocate so I got into PA school on my second try most people I talked to it’s pretty common to get in on your second try you’re competing against thousands of people the class I applied to I believe had five thousand applications which is pretty increasing pants what I would recommend is in your application prove to the school especially if you’re applying the same program and how your application is different than last year what steps you took to improve and try to bump up your GPA try to prove to them that your package is different than last year and that you should get a second chance and getting invite to the program this is a great question Corey asked about note taking techniques / time management etc survival tactics one thing I learned the hard way is that they go through a gazillion slides in an hour which is crazy but realistically it’s not uncommon to have a hundred slides per one hour lecture so for me there was no way I could handwrite that fast so my top tip is probably to have a computer I found it easiest to type on the bottom of the slides and trying my best to review the slides that same diaper if not the next day so it’s fresh in my brain something out some points you remember you’re in school from 8 to 5 you’re already exhausted and you’re going to go home and study for a few more hours and be more exhausted so if you’re not retaining any information it’s better to take a 30-minute break recoup go on a walk so knowing when to take a break is probably my biggest tip for survival as far as time management making a checklist it feels so satisfying to check things off the list that way you have a list of daily goals of course you’re probably not going to get through all them but just knowing how to plan out today how did partition your time is super helpful in time and management another big tip of mine is to just keep looking forward to the future my friends in PA school will make a joke how many sleeps until the next break so five sleeps until Christmas vacation two sleeps to the weekend just something fun to look at so remember how lucky you are to be in school and that you’re chosen out of thousands of people so don’t worry he got through the worst of it getting into school the end is near same brand asks about how to beef up your GPA most efficiently post-grad so for PA school minimum needing to be above of course you don’t want to be just at the minimum try your best for a As so I would say anything that’s below a B you definitely want to retake things like Anatomy med term that’s gonna be super helpful in PA school anything that’s borderline B B+ I would probably retake as well to boost up your GPA so it’s really important to have a strong foundation in anatomy in microbiology medical terminology you can even take some farm classes to the show that you’re getting a jumpstart into the PA school curriculum this is my last question of the day is how to deal with anxiety now PA school is going to be one of the most stressful experiences of your life it was definitely super stressful for me and remember you’re not alone there are a lot of people who ended up going just temporarily on anti-anxiety medications or seeking counseling does not mean you’re crazy it’s actually okay and healthy to go out and get help so again if you feel like this is you it is not uncommon and it’s important for you and for your sanity to do that what I did to deal with anxiety is to make sure to always do something that makes me happy I did continue to teach figure skating part time just a few hours a week you know it was crazy to work during PA school but in my mind it was better to work three or four hours a week teaching figure skating and doing something I love rather than spend two to three hours staring at a textbook not rotating any information wanting to throw my textbooks out the window other things people like to do yoga hot yoga dancing music writing any type of hobby that you still love just remember to take time to do it and then I think that really helps was just getting away from school just going home on the weekends hanging out with non PA school friends i love-love-love on my PA school friends but one role that we would joke around about is getting together not talking about PA school not talking about tests or studying anything stressful we wouldn’t even have this joke if you talk about it you gotta take a shot so just try not to talk about stressful things and try to keep things light hearted hanging out with friends not frumpy a school or family from home just to you know just don’t you that’s how school is going just keeping your mind off of it just staying calm most schools also offer fun things to do they may have something like intramurals a great way to meet up a friend another program to the school and get some energy and endorphins out and just relax so that’s all the time we have today for these frequently asked questions about PA school and the PA life stay tuned to part two of the video where I answer my questions and see you guys next time
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