When I was a high school biology teacher, I used to proctor the SAT. It was a few hours on a Saturday morning. It paid pretty good and wasn’t much work. Just watch a bunch of kids take a test.
But I would feel terrible for these kids. For some of them, their lives depended on this exam. They’d been studying for months or years. It was a HUGE deal.
And when they got there at last, one would be so worked up he’d be throwing up in the trash can. Now, you can’t do your best if you’re throwing up. You can’t do your best if you’re so nervous that you even think you MIGHT throw up.
Anxiety and brains don’t work well together. Pretty much the opposite. Anxiety like that shuts down the brain, stops it in it’s tracks, and sends all the blood rushing to your muscles.
But this problem started long before test day. Studying and knowing your stuff is important, but there’s a lot more to getting a passing score than content knowledge. I’m sure you’ve found that out. You can know the info forward and backward and still get stuck with a crummy score.
I go into it in the October issue. This may be the most important day of your life, being prepared for it is key. You’ve worked too long and too hard to waste it.
The October issue of the PAES newsletter is going to teach some major test taking skills. We’re going to walk through questions and vignettes and answers. I’m going to help you get the most out of what you know.
*** A note about the newsletter. This month’s issue will be valuable to you if you are ever taking multiple choices tests.***
See you inside.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace
P.S. The PAES newsletter is a monthly PRINT newsletter that is mailed directly to your door covering topics in a much deeper and more thorough way than I possibly could in an email. If you get something out of the email content, you will LOVE the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletter.
