PA school difficulty

[nev]

Hi...I just wanted to know about how hard PA school is. Is it crazy like Pharm and Med school?

Nev

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[3rdMolarRoller]

hmmm...I guess it depends on the program

My wife just graduated from Nova and said it was easy beyond belief. She said that their school spoon fed you the info. If you attened class and studied just a tiny bit it was good enough for a "B" avg

 

[deleted6669]

it does depend on the program and it sounds like your wife is a bright cookie, but yes, it is a lot of work with class 8-5 every day and studying late into the night for the 1st year and full time clinicals 40-100+ hrs/week year 2. I went to a top 3 program so my view might be a little skewed but probably not by much

 

[Monika]

I agree with EMED's post...it really depends on the program. The faculty you have teaching you will make a big difference on how challenging the didactic year will be. Come to think of it, I'm on the downslope of my clinical year & that same faculty is making our year of rotations just as challenging!! Even though we are in clinical rotations we are still required to do patient presentations for our PA class & faculty, write papers, pass OSCE's, etc.
Everyone has a different experience, but at some point in PA school you will likely be pushed to your limits & beyond. So far, the challenges have been well worth it though.

Good luck & if you find that the PA profession is for you...charge full steam ahead!! Medicine is a blast!

M
now off to get ready for my 4 ER night shifts coming up this week

 

[medicalcami]

hmmm...I guess it depends on the program

My wife just graduated from Nova and said it was easy beyond belief. She said that their school spoon fed you the info. If you attened class and studied just a tiny bit it was good enough for a "B" avg

 

[doogyhowser]

Hi...I just wanted to know about how hard PA school is. Is it crazy like Pharm and Med school?

Nev

my pa program was at a med school, we shared the same anatomy and pharm classes and the same clinical rotation responsibilities as the med students.
think about this, med students are in class for two years before beginning clinicals. pa's begin clinicals after one year of classes and are expected to perform as well as a 3rd/4th year med student. it's a helluva lot of info crammed into a short amount of time.
but also remember there are subpar students that make it through pa school just the same as med school. i think the level of difficulty depends alot on you.

 

[deleted6669]

doggy- my experience was similar-same instructors for pharm/anatomy as med students. also same rotations as med students with same responsibilities.
some rotations were known to be more challenging than others and the advanced students gravitated towards these(mostly inpatient) while the skaters choose lots of outpt, no call, low acuity rotations. guess who got the best jobs and board scores later

 

[melcal]

The degree of difficulty also depends on how you, yourself make it out to be. Some people in my class don't study all the time & only wait a day or 2 before a test to study and get themselves overwhelmed, while others study a bit of everything each day and keep up and don't feel so stressed out the night before a test. I choose to be like the latter... I have a Clin Med test tomorrow morning and am not too worried at all!