PA school is intense. In just over two years, you’ll go from learning the basics of medicine to applying that knowledge in real patient care. Between the rapid-fire didactic classes and the hands-on clinical rotations, it’s easy to feel like you’re just trying to survive the next exam.
But PA school isn’t just about passing exams—it’s about building a foundation of knowledge that will stick with you for your entire career. If you want to make it through without constantly forgetting what you’ve studied, you need strategies for long-term retention! (Spoiler: you’ll probably have to leave behind the last-minute study habits you relied on in undergrad.)
In this post, we’ll break down practical tips to help you remember—and truly comprehend—the material, so you’re prepared for both exams and real-world practice.
Navigating the “Didactic Whirlwind”
During your didactic year, information comes at you fast. We call this the “didactic whirlwind.” You’ll constantly be preparing for your next assessment, and it becomes challenging to think much beyond one test at a time.
While getting through your exams obviously matters, it’s also important that during this time you’re studying for long-term retention of the material presented to you, rather than just memorizing to pass the test. This is not only because there are many important cumulative exams on the horizon, but also because you’re building up your foundation of knowledge that’ll be used to care for patients in the near future!
So you’re building up that store of knowledge and not just cramming to pass exams during your didactic year (and beyond), we’re going to share some tips that’ll help you retain information in the long run.
Here are some tricks for remembering what you study during the whirlwind of PA school.
6 Tips for Retaining Information During PA School
1. Spread out your review.
Studying for the next exam shouldn’t start the day or even the week before test day. You should begin to review the material right after class. This means incorporating study time into your schedule well before the exam date. Doing so allows you to spend the appropriate amount of time with each topic, and makes your pretest reviews a bit less cumbersome!
Waiting to study until closer to the exam leads to cramming. While you may be able to pass the test with this method, it does nothing to promote long-term retention. If you opt to cram, you’ll find yourself struggling by the time the cumulative exams come around. This is because instead of reviewing the material at that time you’ll have to relearn it. So do yourself a favor and spread out your review. The best way to do this is by reviewing material right after class.
2. Practice active learning.
Passive learning involves sitting back and taking in the information. Relistening to lectures, reading your notes, or even listening to review podcasts are all examples of passive learning. While this kind of studying isn’t a bad way to initially review the material, it won’t do much for retaining it long term.
A better approach is known as active learning, which requires you to be involved in the review. Great examples of this include completing practice questions, summarizing material, and discussing content. These tactics allow you to think about the material in a deeper way, and force you to test your comprehension.
Of course, you’ll do lots of active learning during your clinical year, too! This entire year is meant to strengthen your knowledge and allow you to practice hands-on medicine. I encourage you to make the most of this experience and quiz yourself during patient encounters. It’s also a good idea to do differential diagnoses and have some treatment options lined up before discussing them with your preceptors.
One great way to practice active learning is with a question bank (Qbank) that aligns with the content blueprint for your upcoming exam!
Try out a Qbank for whichever exam you’re approaching next:
3. Dive into the pathophysiology.
It can be hard to remember something that you don’t understand. Diving into the “why” behind a disease process may not be necessary to answer a test question correctly, but it can really help you comprehend the medical issue in question. This kind of in-depth knowledge makes it unlikely you’ll forget what you learned moving forward.
4. Study with a friend.
In my experience, one-on-one or small group study sessions are a great way to prepare. That said, they need to be done the right way. While you never want to exclude anyone from a review, it’s important not to let them get too big. For example, if six students in your class are looking to study together, I’d recommend splitting up. This helps ensure you get more time actively participating in the review session, rather than just listening.
It’s also important to find people you study well with. Sometimes it may take some time to get into a rhythm, but ultimately you want to work with individuals that help you as much as you’re helping them. You can summarize topics for each other, ask one another questions, and hold each other accountable.
5. Get enough sleep.
When people are busy, they often start to neglect their health. No matter how hectic things get while you’re in PA school, set aside time to exercise, make meals at home, and get enough sleep. All of those things will help you be successful.
In particular, studies have shown that sleep plays a vital role in creating long-term memories. This means that as much as you may want to stay up late to cram before an exam, it probably won’t help you much in the short-term and it definitely won’t help your long-term retention of the material. So make sure you get enough sleep each night—it’s necessary for transferring what you’re learning into long-term memory!
6. Get the reps in!
Few things are as good at encoding information in long-term memory as the tried and true tactic of repetition. So don’t be afraid to review things a second and third time!
Fortunately, PA school is set up in a way to have you covered with the repetition component of long-term retention. Every time you learn a topic and take an exam, know it’s not the last time you’ll see that material. Following that content-specific exam, there’s a good chance what you studied will show up on the final.
You may also see some overlap in special populations courses (pediatrics, women’s health, and geriatrics). And needless to say, you’ll review many topics once again in preparation for the PANCE. This repeated assessment of your understanding will naturally aid your retention, and allow you to build a foundation of knowledge that’ll make you an effective PA upon graduation.
Final Thoughts
If you stick to a realistic study schedule, you’ll find this all becomes a little more manageable. Now, that’s not to minimize the difficulty of PA school in general! And trust me, I know it’s difficult.
I mention study schedules just to remind you that having a plan to reach your goals is always the best place to start. If you adopt a study schedule and start applying these tips early on, it’ll save you a lot of time in the long run. You’ll be reviewing material for cumulative exams, while some of your peers are focused on grasping concepts.
Try your best to stay ahead of the game and you’ll find long-term retention comes faster than you’d think. Best of luck on your PA journey! 💙
