There’s a very old story about a group of mice. These mice were tormented by a particular cat. The cat would pounce out of nowhere and pick off members of their little mouse community. The mice were understandably upset. These mice loved the house they lived in and did not want to leave, but they had to do something about the silent terror they were facing every day.
One night, the mice had a meeting to come up with ideas for how to deal with the cat.
A very smart mouse got up and offered his thoughts, “The biggest problem we have is that the cat sneaks up on us. If we knew he was coming, we could run away. If we put a bell around the cat’s neck, we’ll be able to hear him coming and our problems will be over.”
The mice cheered and danced: “What a brilliant idea!”
Then an old wise mouse stood and said, “Excellent, which of you will volunteer to put the bell around the cat’s neck?”
The mice fell silent.
The bell was a great idea, but really hard to implement.
Let me tell you another great idea that is REALLY hard to implement:
Studying every day.
Sure, you’ll remember more if you study every single day, no questions about it. Breaking up your sessions into smaller chunks is the way to go. Three hours on a Saturday would be better split up into 6 thirty-minute sessions spaced through the week.
It sounds easy.
“What a great idea; I’ll just do a little every day”
And the mice cheered and danced.
But you’ve probably found out that it isn’t that easy. We tend to think that we are doing more “work” if we sit for long periods. No one thinks they are accomplishing anything in 30 minutes, let alone 15. Our skepticism makes it very hard to implement.
I believe in this so much that I created two resources just to help you study a little every day:
-The Physician Assistant Exam Review podcast
–The Final Step
Both are designed to make it EASY to study every day in small chunks.
Brian Wallace
