1st year SPT must haves???

[dobsonek]

Hey everyone, I’m set to start my program in august and I’m super excited!! For those currently in PT school/recently graduated, what are some things that you feel definitely helped you succeed your first semester/year? What are some must-haves that you think might get forgotten/overlooked in the hype of getting everything together?

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[kdubz7w7]

Hey everyone, I’m set to start my program in august and I’m super excited!! For those currently in PT school/recently graduated, what are some things that you feel definitely helped you succeed your first semester/year? What are some must-haves that you think might get forgotten/overlooked in the hype of getting everything together?

Stress management
Importance of study groups
Don't bother buying textbooks
I found I had a strong preference for studying using drawing pads with lots of colored markers

Congrats & good luck

 

[ya1]

Hey everyone, I’m set to start my program in august and I’m super excited!! For those currently in PT school/recently graduated, what are some things that you feel definitely helped you succeed your first semester/year? What are some must-haves that you think might get forgotten/overlooked in the hype of getting everything together?

Congrats!!!
Being organized, planning/following your studying schedule, being responsible and independent.
Agreed with the comment above about NOT buying textbooks!!!

 

[dobsonek]

Congrats!!!
Being organized, planning/following your studying schedule, being responsible and independent.
Agreed with the comment above about NOT buying textbooks!!!

Why do you say not to buy your textbooks? Do you mean don’t get them at all or rent them???

 

[kdubz7w7]

Why do you say not to buy your textbooks? Do you mean don’t get them at all or rent them???

I not once used them. There's just no time to read a textbook, and in undergrad and my master's degree I was an AVID textbook-reader. I found all my professors gave me adequate-enough notes that it wasn't necessary.

They're hideously expensive.

I personally don't do well with multiple sources of information. It is easy to go down a rabbit hole of information that you won't get tested on because your teacher never even covered it.

In my entire degree, I can think of literally two textbooks that I thought were godsends, one of which I rented.

I also occasionally borrowed my teacher's texts if I wanted to look at something more closely but that was very much the exception, not the rule.

And hopefully you don't have those a-hole teachers that test you on the reading ie not covered in class but it's on the exam. That happened on occasion but IF it did it was 1-2 questions out of the whole exam. To my way of thinking, I can spend hours memorizing X number of chapters in the hopes of answering those 1-2 questions, or I can spend my time and energy on the 98% of material that will most definitely be on the exam.

 

[TravelGoalsAndArterioles]

on the subject of textbooks, I would suggest that it depends on the program - I got a lot of use out of Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation from Donald A. Neumann in my kinese class, and the Magee Ortho/Patho books in my ortho series. Fully agree with the other posters though about stress management - we lost 3 people from my cohort, and 2 of the 3 were because they couldn't cope with the intensity of the program. Both individuals were very smart and very well equipped: mental health and self-care are not jokes. I would also add that you should pick a note-taking system and stick to it. I love OneNote, the software is pretty versatile and having my notes searchable is so helpful.

 

[ya1]

Why do you say not to buy your textbooks? Do you mean don’t get them at all or rent them???

Don't get them at all. I believe all the schools provide you with online material nowadays. That is the material they will use in exams. It is usually more condense (let's say 10 pages or 30 slides vs 100 pages in a textbook).
If you must have a textbook for whatever reason, get an older edition (even if it is 10 years old) which you can often download for free. There are no changes in the material (they may add an extra couple of pages or an extra couple of manual techniques in a new edition), so those new books are definitely not worth the price they are asking.

 

[DtownTexasDpt]

Don't buy books and for the love of God, Don't buy a skeleton.

 

[KorbinL]

Don't buy books and for the love of God, Don't buy a skeleton.

Definitely did both, and both (especially the skeleton) were useless!

 

[dobsonek]

Definitely did both, and both (especially the skeleton) were useless!

This is really helpful esp bc you’re in my program 😂