One of the biggest struggles of PA school is getting yourself organized and, even more so, staying organized. We’ve all been there—getting a planner in the beginning of the school year, and forgetting about it by November.
From the whirlwind of information you receive in the didactic year, to balancing PANCE prep with work during clinical year, it can be easy to fall behind schedule. With 2025 on the horizon, this is a great time to reset if you find yourself drowning in unorganized notes!
Here are 10 tips for staying organized this year, no matter where you are in your PA journey. 🤓
📚 Didactic Year
Whether you’re coming straight from undergrad or returning for your master’s degree after taking some time off from school, the demands of your didactic year will likely catch you by surprise. Your schedule will be made for you with classes throughout each weekday, mandatory labs, and multiple exams per week. Students often find this hard to balance, and wonder how to optimize their time.
These tips can help you stay organized during your didactic year:
1. Use a laptop to take notes.
I recommend coming prepared with a laptop for taking notes in class. Some schools may provide you with one, but otherwise it’s definitely worth the investment. Keeping up with the speed of lectures is nearly impossible with handwritten notes.
2. Make notes on the PowerPoints.
To take notes in class, I would download the PowerPoints (which are hopefully provided to you beforehand), and from there, take notes on each individual slide.
3. Review what you missed.
Note any content areas you miss during the lecture. Be sure to review those topics further in your book, discuss what you missed with a friend, or review a lecture recording. If you plan on recording the lecture, always seek your professor’s permission beforehand.
4. Pay attention during class!
With that being said, it’s crucial that you remain attentive in lectures. While you may be tempted by your phone or internet, place yourself on “do not disturb” and remain undistracted to the best of your ability. During class, professors will often highlight the most important points and help to guide your studying.
(As a side note, many advisors will suggest you read about topics before going over them in class. I do think this is an excellent way to prepare for a lecture, but honestly, you won’t usually have time for this. You’ll more likely spend time reviewing other subjects than preparing for what you’ll already be discussing in class!)
5. Organize your notes by category.
You should organize your notes initially under the main category and further by lecture topic and exam. For example, if you’re reviewing cardiology content, it would be: Cardiology—Arrhythmias—Exam 2.
This is a good approach because when you’re initially studying, you may organize the material by exam, but when you need to review for cumulative exams, you can easily find the section you are looking for.
6. Have another go-to resource.
I think it’s important to have at least one other resource book for reviewing didactic material to make sure you understand what you’re discussing in class. While some things may click instantly, certain topics may require more attention outside of lecture.
Most of the time, textbooks for purchase are recommended by your institution. Remember you’re not only learning this to pass a test, you’re learning topics you’ll refer back to throughout your career as a PA. Therefore, we want to make sure you’re fully comprehending them when you’re initially learning, so additional discussions of the material are just a review.
🌪️ Tame the whirlwind of PA-1 year with Blueprint PA (formerly Rosh Review)’s Didactic Year Exams Qbank with 1,800 questions for your Subject Exams and End of Didactic Year Exam!
🩺 Clinical Year
Once you get to clinical year and don’t have weekly exams or lectures to worry about, it can feel daunting “only” having to prepare for that cumulative end of rotation exam (EOR). And remember, while you’re doing your EOR prep, you also have to get ready for the PANCE. This is on top of trying to become the best clinician you can be. So needless to say, you’re going to be busy.
The good news is that studying for your EOR exams often helps the overall goal of PANCE studying, but it’s still important to plan your study schedule accordingly so you hit all necessary topics.
Here are some tips for staying organized during your clinical year:
1. Follow the blueprints.
The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) provides EOR exam blueprints and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) provides PANCE blueprints. These are set up to help ensure you’re prepared for any testable material and are an excellent resource for guiding your studying. I highly recommend using these to your advantage.
2. Create a good study schedule.
Sometimes people will waste a lot of time deciding where to start with studying. They may also miss material if it’s not organized well. The answer to this is to create a study schedule. While making one can be a time-consuming task, it’s very important. It holds you accountable and helps you meet your study goals.
Meet the “Smart” PA Study Planner!
One way to create a good study schedule (quickly!) is the “smart” PA Study Planner by Blueprint PA (formerly Rosh Review). This can help you keep track of what you should be studying daily to meet your end goals by scheduling all of your resources for you with the click of a button. You can customize it to fit your personal schedule and study habits, and it will even notify you if you’re overcommitting yourself on any particular day.
The PA Study Planner keeps you organized, takes into account the resources you have available, and saves you a lot of time when it comes to preparing to study. Plus, if you find yourself falling behind, it’ll automatically rebalance your study tasks with the click of a button, leaving you more time to actually review the material!
3. Pick up some review books.
I recommend getting one or two good reference books during your clinical year, as it’s hard to filter through all of your prior didactic notes and material. Your didactic year is for the fundamental learning of each individual disease process, while your clinical year should be focusing on review after the fundamentals are understood.
I utilized PANCE Prep Pearls and A Comprehensive Review for the Certification and Recertification of Physician Assistants, but there are many great review books out there.
4. Be sure to do practice questions.
I also encourage you to utilize a question bank as a way to test your knowledge. Test-taking is a skill in itself and it needs to be developed.
A word of caution: the resources available to clinical year students are abundant. Try not to get overwhelmed by this. Instead, pick one or two and stick to them. You don’t need to buy every question bank or every review book available to you, as you won’t have the time to utilize all those resources anyway.
I utilized Blueprint PA (formerly Rosh Review) during my clinical year to prepare for both EORs and the PANCE!
If you’re searching for clinical year Qbanks, check out this bundle deal for clinical students:
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🩺 Rotation Qbank bundle – 1,750 questions with explanations
💪 PANCE Power Packs – 600 “must know” high-yield questions for the PANCE
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Final Thoughts
While staying organized can be a challenge, if you follow these PA school hacks you’ll undoubtedly be successful in 2025! The benefits of staying organized can last throughout your career—after you complete PA school and take the PANCE, you may refer back to the material you organized in a concise way when dealing with a clinical situation you haven’t seen in a while, or even when preparing for the PANRE.
While medicine is always evolving and the first-line treatments or recommendations will change, some topics will always be relevant and worth referencing. Personally, I’m glad to have been organized throughout school, as it’s helped me in many ways as a PANCE tutor to have that information readily available. You never know when you may be thanking your past self for staying organized during PA school!
Looking for more (free!) content to help you thrive as a PA student? Check out these other posts on the blog:
