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From “uncertain, unconfident, and scared” to “confident, assertive, and ready”
Madison started 33 Days at the end of didactic year feeling like a lot of PA students do:
- One exam he’s on cloud nine, the next is a 70 and he’s thinking, “I’m done for. Maybe I should just quit.”
- Identity completely tied to scores. Anything less than an A felt like proof he wasn’t good enough.
- On top of that, he wasn’t the “free time” student: didactic year, married, dad to a 3‑year‑old, Navy Reserves.
The idea of adding one more thing felt insane.
He was skeptical too. In his words, there are so many “coaches” now that the default reaction is, “What’s the angle? What are they trying to sell me?”
In this episode, Madison breaks down exactly what changed:
- Time & capacity: How he fit 33 Days into didactic year, rotations, family, and the Reserves without 6‑hour study marathons.
- Confidence: The moment mid‑program when he took a ClinMed exam, got an 80, and realized the anxiety spiral was gone. Same test pressure, totally different emotional response.
- Test‑day performance: How he used the break strategies on his pediatrics EOR so he was still thinking clearly on question 120 while half the class was mentally cooked.
- Framework, not just “PANCE cram”: Why he says he’d almost rename it a “PA school framework” and why he thinks students should do it early in didactic or clinical, not just 33 days before PANCE.
- Mental health: The contrast between him and classmates with “more time, fewer responsibilities” who are burning out while he feels steady and able to actually live his life during PA school.
His line that hit me the hardest:
“33 Days helped me go from uncertain, unconfident, and scared, to confident, assertive, and ready to see where I could go in medicine.”
If you’re a PA student who’s working hard but riding the score rollercoaster, or a faculty member wondering what real support for at‑risk students looks like in practice, this is worth 30 minutes of your life.
And if you’re a didactic or clinical‑year student listening and thinking, “That sounds like me,” you’ll hear exactly how he navigated the same doubts you probably have about time, money, and “one more thing” on your plate. This is proof, not theory.
