I got an email from someone not too long ago. I didn’t ask permission from them, so I won’t share their name. But they had a question that comes up a lot. And by a lot, I mean probably every day.
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After listening to your podcast during my winter break, I realized a lot of the high yield topics you discussed were showing up on my exams. In an effort to focus my studies to what is most pertinent and get a better grasp on concepts I thought your study materials could be useful in narrowing down my focus. I have a problem with wanting to know too much or getting lost in the details which is not helpful when we have such limited time in PA school.
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This is a place where students go to get slaughtered. They try to memorize everything. They try to highlight and read everything.
They put their mouths all the way around the opening of the hose on the fire hydrant. Then they gleefully give the thumbs up sign to have it turned on full force. Then wonder why they are drowning. You need some filters. You need some dampeners between you and that river of information.
You can get so lost down in the weeds that you have no idea what’s going on. You are literally studying medicine at a microscopic level, and have no clue how to smile, say hello to a patient, and ask them how they are feeling.
I don’t cover details. I don’t look through microscopes.
What I do is look at the big picture.
I figure out the key ideas. The key concepts. The most important, most relevant, and most likely to be asked on a test material – and then I hit that hard. I sort of let the rest fade out.
You may be smarter than me. You may have a better memory than me (I know I can’t hold it all). But I am smart enough and experienced enough to know I don’t have to.
Tim Ferris, author, entrepreneur, etc., won the gold medal at the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships in 1999. He didn’t do it by being better at kicking and punching than everyone else. According to Ferris, in his book, “The 4-hour Work Week,” he did it by using two techniques.
#1 – Completely dehydrating himself the day of weigh-ins and then rehydrating right before the match. This allowed him to fight people 3 weight classes down.
#2 – Exploiting one of the rules. If someone fell off the platform 3 times during a fight, they were disqualified. Ferris pushed his opponents off the platform. He never needed to throw a punch.
No one liked him, but he won.
You decide what’s more important. Knowing every detail or passing the exam?
I know I can’t do both. I choose passing the exam.
That’s why I wrote The Final Step. Go get your copy.
Grab the low hanging fruit. There is plenty of it.
Brian Wallace
P.S. If you’re willing to run a group order for your classmates, I can offer a significant discount on The Final Step. Shipping is a huge part of the cost, and group orders are much cheaper to ship. You don’t need to set up the whole group – you just need to be willing to let people know about the discount.
If you’re interested, hit reply and I’ll send you the details.
