Do you know people who complain all the time about their workload?
“It’s so dumb we that we need to know this.”
“I can’t believe I have to do this.”
“There’s just too much to know.”
Are you one of them?
What you’re doing by thinking and speaking this way is creating excuses for yourself. Excuses not to study, and excuses just in case you don’t do well. If I say I think it’s dumb from the start and then I don’t learn it, then it was my choice to learn it. I could have done ok if I wanted to, but I chose not to.
You see how this goes?
What’s worse is that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You say it’s dumb and you shouldn’t have to learn it, and then your brain hits the snooze button and you don’t retain as much as you would’ve had you been engaged.
Now you’ve made studying harder, your grades drop, and you have a built-in excuse for all of it. It’s dumb too, remember? The problem is when you don’t do well in class, or you don’t pass your PANCE, it’s the same result whether you thought it was dumb or not. Whether you put your all into it or you didn’t.
Your teachers and the NCCPA aren’t going to accept a note from your mom explaining the material was silly, and you didn’t do well because you didn’t think you needed to know it.
Do you remember this?
Master Yoda is training young aspiring Luke Skywalker on Dagobah after Luke’s ship crashed into the swamp. Luke wants to be a Jedi. He went to find Yoda to train him, but he is constantly whining and complaining.
“It’s too hard.”
“You want the impossible!”
One day at training Yoda tasks Luke with the difficult job of using the Force to lift his X-wing out of swamp it crashed into.
Luke complains again.
Yoda sighs, “Always with you it cannot be done.”
Luke whines, “Alright I’ll give it a try.” (Do you see the excuse built into that response?)
Yoda, “No! Try NOT! Do or do not. There is no try.”
After trying for a few minutes, Luke gives up.
Yoda walks over and using the Force, gently lifts the spaceship out of the murky swamp and sets it safely down on dry land.
“I don’t believe it!” exclaims Luke.
“That is why you fail,” Yoda responds.
Luke failed for the same you reason you struggle on tests. You don’t believe you can do well. One reason you don’t believe in your ability to take tests is that you’ve never trained to take tests. You’ve learned a bunch of stuff, but training? Nope.
The March issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars is going to demonstrate to you a few techniques to use during your exams. Just like Luke, you’ll need to practice them a little but moving rocks on day one is still really cool. It’s not shooting lightning from your fingertips (you’ll get there my young apprentice), but it’s a huge improvement over NOT moving pebbles around.
Join me and I will teach you the power of the Dark Side.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace