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Fun fact - to become a physician assistant (PA), you not only have to successfully complete both the didactic and clinical portions of the program, but you also have to pass an exam at the end called the PANCE - Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam. And yes, we pronounce it “pants.”
To continue to be a PA, every 10 years you must take a recertification exam called the PANRE, and although many PAs specialize, this is a general test. For PAs like myself who have only ever worked in a specialty, this is a bit daunting. Since I am in my 8th year as a PA, it’s time to start studying and brushing up on the other 96% of medicine I’ll be tested on outside of dermatology! That’s where Picmonic comes in to save the day.
When I was in PA school, I adopted a mindset early on during the didactic portion that I was studying for not only the end of subject test, but also boards, the entire time. Once I figured out the resources that worked best for me, I stuck to those throughout the program. I’m a note-taker by nature and need a way to put together the information I’m seeing and hearing to apply it to real-life situations. This happens on rotations, but how can you learn that same way before being thrown into the real world?
Visual tools that combine memory devices with application, like Picmonic, are great resources that weren’t available when I was in school. Now that I have to start over, I’m so grateful I can use Picmonic in my studying for the PANRE and I’ve seen how it would have been such a great supplement to the death by PowerPoints we sat through for 8 hours a day. Here’s my approach for studying using Picmonic.
The PANCE/PANRE is made up of 14 subject areas in the PANCE Blueprint that are each assigned a percentage. Dermatology is a whopping 5% compared to the cardiovascular system at 13%.
Luckily, Picmonic is organized into the same categories with the main subjects broken down into digestible bite-size videos. From a broad perspective, Picmonic is an audiovisual learning system with unforgettable stories and characters to help you remember everything you need to know for school. The quick little anecdotes stick with you throughout clinical rotations and tests as a long-term memory retention tool. If you’re anything like me, finding little connections and different word similarities to remember quick facts helps so much with recall on test day.
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