There’s a time when you’re whitewater boating where you’re just above the rapids, trying to figure out the line you want to take. The water around you is calm, but you know eventually you’ll be in rapids and at that point you’ll have hopefully picked out that line because it can be very hard, downright dangerous to change your line through the rapids once among them.

I’ve left that area just above the rapids and now I’m in them. So far the line I’ve picked to navigate the rapids appears to be working. I’ve got some Class III maybe some Class IV rapids ahead, but I’ve navigated one class III already and just passed some Class II rapids and the boat is still upright with me in it.

I am of course talking about my first semester of PA school so far. I mentioned in a previous post about trying to figure out where the return on benefits for studying is for each class. At some point doing more studying one topic won’t make that much of a change to my grade so I spend that time on a different topic. So far, based on my last few test, I think I’ve hit that mark. Yeah, I could get a marginally better grade on a few of the tests, but I’d have to steal the time from elsewhere.

At the start of the semester they mentioned there were some Grad Assistant (GA) positions available that included a stipend. One of the positions is to lead what they call Study Sessions. I applied for that position and I’m one of 3 in my cohort at this campus (we have 3 counterparts in Glenside) get the position. While they’re called Study Sessions, they’re more accurately (and I’m working to get the name changed) Student Led Review sessions. The idea is that for a particular upcoming exam one of us will work with our counterpart at the other campus and develop a slide deck of practice questions covering objectives that we feel are critical for us and our peers to understand for the next exam. We submit our deck to the course professors for review. After they’ve signed off on it, then we use a tool called “Pear Deck” to make it into an interactive slide show that students can run on their computer to submit answers to the questions while we can then show the results. It’s pretty cool.

The first three Study Sessions were run by professors. I was the first GA at my campus to run a student led one. From the feedback I received, it went really well. This was good to hear. There are several reasons I signed up for the GA position. The stipend, while minor was among them, but a small reason. Another was because, as many of my readers are probably aware, I love to teach. So being in front of a classroom, especially of my peers, is something I enjoy. But there was also a final, somewhat selfish reason for signing up: I can’t teach what I don’t know.

Now, to be fair, the topic for the first lecture was Genetics. I had taken an entire course in this as one of my pre-reqs and as a result found the objectives covered to be pretty much review. That certainly helped me in preparing the slide deck, but even then I found myself referring to my notes and the lecture notes to confirm I really understood a specific point. Nothing would be more embarrassing than asking a question and then confidently telling the students the wrong answer!

The next topic I will be covering is Cardio-physiology and pathophysiology. I have not taken a class in this specifically in the past, but some I learned previously in my undergrad A&P and some from working in the ED. But there’s definitely some I need to review before I present.

I have one or two more opportunities to present more during this semester. I’ll decide in the next 48 hours what I will end up doing.

But that’s it for now. So far it appears I’m putting in about the right amount of effort for the grades I want to get and I’m helping my fellow students review for particular exams so we can all do the best we possibly can.

And I’m still loving it!