Am I the only one?

[RADPT21]

Hi everyone,

I recently started PT school (a little over 7 weeks ago) and I am very frustrated at my performance.

I am currently taking anatomy lecture/lab, so I get tested weekly, and for some reason, I have barely managed to pass every single quiz. My school requires a B- to pass a class, but an 83 (B) to be considered in good academic standing. Ever since I started school, I have scored no more than 83 (sometimes 80-82) in my quizzes, and I get very frustrated because I do not know what am doing wrong. I spend pretty much 80% of my day between classes and studying, so it is not like I am procrastinating and trying to cram everything the day prior to the test.

I know grades are not everything and I shouldn't give so much importance about getting just A's, but my scores are below class average. I am not scoring as good as I would like to, and I do not want to be in borderline between passing/failing a class and risk being on probation. I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't help to stop comparing myself to the rest of my classmates, and knowing I am not performing as well as the rest.

The first 5 weeks of school were very stressful because I was dealing with the transition of moving into a different state for graduate school all by myself, and had failed my first quiz, which added a lot of anxiety to my daily life. My anxiety has been slowly decreasing, but I still get very anxious on the test day, and sometimes go completely blank because of the fear of failing the quiz.

Sometimes while taking the quizzes, I tend to choose the wrong answer even though I know it doesn't make sense or that it is not the right answer. I don't know why this happens? I think a lot of it is anxiety, overthinking and doubting myself about my knowledge. English is not my first language, so there have been times that the way the question is phrased makes me confused about what I am being asked or takes me a little bit longer to understand a concept. I do understand the material well, but sometimes I can't get the whole "picture" because I get so caught up in trying to know every single minor detail of the lecture material and make dumb mistakes because I overthink things during the test.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I know the program is very demanding and that it takes a while to get used to the new workload/differences between undergrad and grad school. I am also aware that I might not know which study technique/habits work for me right away.

My main concern is that if I am already struggling to get good grades with just two classes, I fear that when the fall semester comes and I am taking 7+ classes, I am going to find myself very stressed/anxious and unable to succeed in PT school :/

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how to improve my study habits and reduce anxiety? What has worked for you guys in the past?

Thank you so much for your help!

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[kdubz7w7]

Hi everyone,

I recently started PT school (a little over 7 weeks ago) and I am very frustrated at my performance.

I am currently taking anatomy lecture/lab, so I get tested weekly, and for some reason, I have barely managed to pass every single quiz. My school requires a B- to pass a class, but an 83 (B) to be considered in good academic standing. Ever since I started school, I have scored no more than 83 (sometimes 80-82) in my quizzes, and I get very frustrated because I do not know what am doing wrong. I spend pretty much 80% of my day between classes and studying, so it is not like I am procrastinating and trying to cram everything the day prior to the test.

I know grades are not everything and I shouldn't give so much importance about getting just A's, but my scores are below class average. I am not scoring as good as I would like to, and I do not want to be in borderline between passing/failing a class and risk being on probation. I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't help to stop comparing myself to the rest of my classmates, and knowing I am not performing as well as the rest.

The first 5 weeks of school were very stressful because I was dealing with the transition of moving into a different state for graduate school all by myself, and had failed my first quiz, which added a lot of anxiety to my daily life. My anxiety has been slowly decreasing, but I still get very anxious on the test day, and sometimes go completely blank because of the fear of failing the quiz.

Sometimes while taking the quizzes, I tend to choose the wrong answer even though I know it doesn't make sense or that it is not the right answer. I don't know why this happens? I think a lot of it is anxiety, overthinking and doubting myself about my knowledge. English is not my first language, so there have been times that the way the question is phrased makes me confused about what I am being asked or takes me a little bit longer to understand a concept. I do understand the material well, but sometimes I can't get the whole "picture" because I get so caught up in trying to know every single minor detail of the lecture material and make dumb mistakes because I overthink things during the test.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I know the program is very demanding and that it takes a while to get used to the new workload/differences between undergrad and grad school. I am also aware that I might not know which study technique/habits work for me right away.

My main concern is that if I am already struggling to get good grades with just two classes, I fear that when the fall semester comes and I am taking 7+ classes, I am going to find myself very stressed/anxious and unable to succeed in PT school :/

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions on how to improve my study habits and reduce anxiety? What has worked for you guys in the past?

Thank you so much for your help!

Of course you're not the only one.

The first month & first semester is stressful for pretty much everyone...as well as the entire degree. It is what it is, you'll adjust to the stress and the workload. Most people initially scramble with figuring out how to study, some people it clicks right away or they have magical recall and they're the ones bragging about their A's (not everyone who gets A's obivously, some people are humble) - just ignore them and focus on you. Hardly anyone brags about struggling and poor grades, so you aren't hearing the other silent struggles.

You sound as though you are studying too much / not studying efficiently. Focus on mastering the basics before you get caught up in the fine details. Don't bother attempting to learn all the sub-sub-sub nerve branches if you don't even know the major ones, etc.

Don't try to force wrong answers to be right ("but maybe if X happens, and this rare thing Y is going on, then B might be the answer"). There is very seldom an exotic, rare exception as the correct answer. Try to make what feels like the right answer to be wrong - try to force every option to be wrong. If you can't, then that's your answer.

Study with other people. I never studied with other people a whole lot until PT school. They can help you to prioritize and not get caught up in the smaller details that don't matter, and quizzing each other is a great way to overcome quiz/exam anxiety. Being put on the spot feels terrible initially but pays off. It helps to ask people "are you making sure you really learn this / how much time are you spending on this section" and when everyone is like hell no I'm not wasting time on those finicky details, listen to them and move on with your life. That really helped me from going down rabbit holes.

Try to stop worrying about the future. Just focus on right now and keeping your head above water. My first semester I think my GPA was like a 3.2, and I graduated with a 3.6. And my classmates with a 3.0 got the same degree as me, so while I agree it isn't comfortable hovering around/above passing, it's all you NEED.

 

[ya1]

I am currently taking anatomy lecture/lab, so I get tested weekly, and for some reason, I have barely managed to pass every single quiz.

I was in the same boat and exactly with anatomy QUIZZES! They discouraged me soooo much that I started thinking when I should drop out before I take too much debt! I was advised by my SO to continue until the end of the semester since the school would not return my tuition for that semester anyway... So I did study for exams and I did manage to get low 80%-s. Quizzes sucked though until I discovered that the answers for all quizzes were at the end of the course notes... To study for exams, I would also use quizzes and their answers. I would filter out repetitive information in course notes and focus on studying ANATOMY, not reasoning.

I know I shouldn't do this, but I can't help to stop comparing myself to the rest of my classmates, and knowing I am not performing as well as the rest.

Don't compare yourself with others! Focus on getting the PASSINg grade for now. It is NOT a competition.

I do understand the material well, but sometimes I can't get the whole "picture" because I get so caught up in trying to know every single minor detail of the lecture material and make dumb mistakes because I overthink things during the test.

Of course you don't get the whole picture! You are just at the beginning of PT school! And many of the details will never matter in the real life! Just focus on the material your school provides you and learn\stupidly memorize what they want you to to pass your tests. Memorize what they want you to even if it does not make any sense and apply that memorization to your tests questions. I did find it very helpful to save quizzes questions and correct answers (you may need to ask correct answers from your professor) and use those to study for exams. Sometimes they have the same questions for exams.

My main concern is that if I am already struggling to get good grades with just two classes, I fear that when the fall semester comes and I am taking 7+ classes, I am going to find myself very stressed/anxious and unable to succeed in PT school :/

1st semester and anatomy in particular was the most challenging class for me. After I passed anatomy and 1st semester, I had a better understanding what school wanted from me. II also discovered the most officiant way for myself to study. For me, the 1st semester was the most challenging because as a new PT student, you still do not know how to study in PT school, WHAT to study (they give you LOTS of information, but it does not mean you must know all of it, so you must narrow it down and focus only on what you need to pass exams ), and how to study. If you can manage to pass the 1st semester, don't worry about passing classes anymore, just do exam same thing you did in the 1st semester. I managed to graduate with GPA 3.7 despite that I failed quizzes (and a couple of exams) in anatomy and a few other classes after that.

 

[dgt329]

I had a professor in undergrad give me advice that transformed (and drastically improved) my approach to tests and quizzes. "Predict the questions you'll be asked, and study for those". Look at previous quizzes and look for trends and patterns, which are different for each professor. Put yourself if the professor's shoes and write practice quiz questions. Then, when the actual quiz happens, it'll almost seem familiar. When you're studying, don't ask yourself "ok what's the OINA for every muscle in the forearm" but "how would professor ______ write a question about the forearm muscles?"

 

[wiseOldPT]

Talk to your professor! They want to help you! They will help figure out how to best study. It seems like the approach you are using might not work. Is your studying more passive (reading over notes) or active? Drawing was incredibly helpful for me. For example, upper extremity anatomy, I'd draw out (and really badly, I'm a horrific artist) all the bones, the key features, muscle attachments, nerves, etc. Do this without your notes and see what you miss.

Anxiety is also a culprit here. You probably get free or very low cost counseling provided through your school. They are use to helping with these sorts of problems- difficulty adjusting to grad school, test anxiety, confidence issues, etc.

You aren't the only one by a long shot! Get help and set up a good system for yourself now and that will serve you well going forward.

 

[RADPT21]

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your replies! I appreciate all the feedback/suggestions/words of encouragement.

I think one of my main mistakes is to not think outside of the box when it comes to the test. I am caught up on what I learned/reviewed on my lecture slides that I struggle when the question is worded differently or includes terms I didn't see in lecture. For my study habits, I tend to read and re-read the information over, make my own study guide with terms that are easier to remember as well as making diagrams that involve different terms that are related to one another. I also like to draw muscles together to have an idea where their location is in comparison to the other muscles.

I do seek out help from my professor constantly. I meet with him once a week to go over my test and see what I got wrong. Sometimes, I completely miss the question because I definitely chose the wrong answer, but other times are the small mistakes I make (putting left instead of right, putting origin instead of insertion type of mistake, etc) that get me. He tells me I should try different ways to study and that instead of focusing so much on the small details, I should focus on thinking outside of the box and not relying completely on the material that is on the slides.

Another thing that I truly believe is a big factor that is not helping me succeed is my extreme fear of failing the quizzes and consequently, failing PT school. I just had my midterm and I felt pretty confident with it the days prior to the exam because I knew the information/material well enough, but I started freaking out the night before because I was so afraid I was not gonna do well, and started thinking I was going to forget everything last minute.... I let that fear/anxiety took over me and indeed, I did not do good because of it.

I feel like does not matter what I do or how much I study, the information doesn't seem to click completely in my brain. I have a study buddy that helps me a lot, and she even tells me she can tell I know the material, but I doubt myself. I have the idea in my head, and I know I know the material, but when I try to explain it to other people, I second-guess myself.

I started seeing a counselor to see in which ways I can reduce my test anxiety & feel better emotionally (moving to a different state by myself and away from all my loved ones has been very hard on me) with this life transition, and hopefully it helps. I'm trying to think of this as a marathon and just trying to keep my head above water for now and focus on passing anatomy. It will take time (hopefully not too long), but I am sure I will find a way to study efficiently and hopefully all this stress and fear of failing PT school goes away soon.

Thank you so much for all your replies! I truly appreciate it.