October 26, 2025 • 31 mins
We're back today for another Student Story: celebrating successfully beating a high-stakes test, and learning all the study techniques that made the difference between pass and fail.
Our guest today is veterinary dermatologist Alissa, who confidently passed her specialist exam after spending some time as my coaching client - she put in the hard work, studied smarter and took home a well-deserved win.
Alissa shares her practical tips on what made the difference to her confidence and studying success:
- how she learnt to balance a schedule of digital studying with the demands of a hectic family life
- how she prioritised effective flashcard technique for an information-heavy exam
- mastering holistic, calming exam tactics to make a difference on the day
- and the benefits of working with a study coach (me!) to personalise the techniques we discuss here on the podcast to your own needs
**
Find out more about Exam Study Expert:
Hosted by William Wadsworth, memory psychologist, independent researcher and study skills coach. I help ambitious students to study smarter, not harder, so they can ace their exams with less work and less stress.
• BOOK 1:1 COACHING to supercharge your exam success: https://examstudyexpert.com/coaching/
• Get a copy of Outsmart Your Exams, my award-winning exam technique book, at https://geni.us/exams *
Podcast edited by Kerri Edinburgh.
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases on suggested books.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to the Exam Study Expert Podcast.
I'm your host, WilliamWadsworth, learning and memory
psychologist, and complete nerdabout studying effectively and
helping you ace your exams thesmart way.
You're listening to the showthat's had over one million
downloads to date from studentsaround the world, and we've had
so many success stories in thattime from students who have been
(00:27):
successful using the advicethey've learned on the show, and
in many cases from listenerswho've been working with me
privately as their exam coachtoo.
One such listener is here withme on the show today.
She was facing her third attemptat a challenging professional
certification exam as aveterinary specialist in
veterinary dermatology, of allthings.
(00:47):
She was reaching out to toactually do a little bit of
private coaching with me as asas we did, and she'd written the
following.
I've been a veterinarian formany years, and I successfully
passed my certification tobecome a vet on the first try in
back in 2005 with an 85 score,which is a very good score.
(01:07):
She'd done very well.
She writes, I'm no longer 25 andsingle, uh, so I do feel very
disorganized on some days, andthere's a huge amount to
memorize for this exam.
I've listened to approximately70 of your podcast, which have
helped, and well gosh, thank youfor listening to all those
episodes.
Uh, and I'm restructuring theway I create my flashcards.
Uh, but I still find myselfdoing some of my old habits, uh,
(01:27):
for example, rereading material,watching pre-recorded webinars,
uh, and I don't know how toprioritize my time and and and
fit everything in effect.
So when we met and we we had abit of a chat, we identified
three pillars we'd be working ontogether.
We wanted to help her optimiseher approach uh to learning
effectively, especially giventhat challenge of having, you
know, a really huge amount sheneeded to learn in a relatively
(01:48):
limited available amount oftime.
Secondly, we wanted to help herstay organized, prioritize what
she was working on, balance herdifferent commitments in the
different areas of life, job,family, with carving out some
time for study, um, and alsojust helping infuse a little bit
more of a sense of calm andfeeling in control throughout
the process.
And she did a really fantasticjob and aced her exam on the
(02:09):
next attempt.
So much so that she was actuallyinvited by the exam board that
sets this exam uh to come backand give a talk at a big
conference for the followingyear's exam candidates about uh
you know what she did, how shewas so successful, uh, the
ingredients that had uh hadallowed her to do so well uh in
on that final attempt.
And so I thought it would be a areally nice uh conversation to
(02:30):
bring her onto the show today totalk through some of those big
learnings from her and what shelearned along the way and how
she and ultimately ended upbeing so successful.
So this episode forms part ofour ever-popular student story
series where we take perhaps alittle bit of a pause on
learning brand new theory, uhbrand new strategies, and really
kind of dive deep into a realcase study from a real student
(02:51):
who has actually put thattheory, put those strategies
into action, how they did itexactly, what they learned along
the way, any tips or tricks theyfigured out uh that they can
share with us all here on theshow uh to help us all make
progress.
And there's quite a lot ofdetail, sort of practical,
tactical things in thisconversation today.
So if you're facing achallenging exam of any kind on
the horizon, uh be sure tolisten in closely today.
(03:13):
Uh, there's some reallyinteresting detail uh that I
think you'll likely find quiteinstructive.
So without further ado, let'sdive right in.
So, Alyssa, a very warm welcometo the Exam Study Expert
Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
It's great to catch up again.
So I I wonder, just for sort ofa little bit of a context for
people, if we could maybe justyou take us right back to give
us a sort of a bit of a sense ofAlyssa the scholar, take us back
to I even like college or oreven high school.
Like what kind of a student wereyou back then?
Like how would you characterizeyourself?
How was your work effort?
(03:49):
Did you kind of pick things upeasily?
Yeah, just give us a bit of asense of kind of who you were as
a as a student back in your kindof full-time studying days.
SPEAKER_01 (03:56):
Sure.
Well, I think when I was youngerand I had um, I didn't have the
family obligations and thedistractions at home.
I was a very type A personalityand very OCD about being
organized.
And I did quite well in classes.
I did well through high school.
I received a four-year bachelordegree from college, and then I
(04:21):
received my doctorate inveterinary medicine in 2006, and
I did very well in my umveterinary medical examination.
I didn't need to do any retakesituation, or um, it was a
really easy process for me.
Moving into my career, I did alot of clinical work for well
(04:43):
over 15 years before Iapproached this exam.
And I started a residencyprogram later in life.
I guess 12 years into working iswhen I started a three-year
residency program.
Um, and it was definitely a biggap from being in an academia
environment and being a singleperson to having a family.
(05:05):
Um, I'm a mother with threechildren, so I have a lot going
on in my household.
So it was a different experiencebeing an older student, circling
back to learning how to studyagain.
SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Right, right.
I'm sure we'll get into some ofthe some of the challenges and
how you ultimately overcame themin in a moment.
For those of us that arelistening that that aren't uh
veterined or even medicalspecialists, what is a
residency?
Kind of where does that fit intothe career journey of a, in your
case, a vetmed uh specialist?
SPEAKER_01 (05:36):
I'm a veterinary dermatologist.
So for veterinary dermatology,we specialize in skin problems,
dermatologic issues, allergies,ear, nose, and throat issues.
So it's a pretty complex andintense program.
And we have a three-yearpostdoctorate training program
(05:58):
or residency program that'sinvolved to uh obtain board
certification.
So, you know, certainly taking alittle bit of time away from
academia and then going backinto a program this intense is a
process.
And it took some time to kind ofget back into the mode.
My clinical practice skills wereexcellent, and I have been doing
(06:19):
it for some time, but gettingback into the mode of studying
and root memorization was alearning curve again.
SPEAKER_02 (06:26):
It was a learning curve, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And your exam in particular, andhow sort of easy or challenging
is that exam generally regardedas being by by people in the
field?
SPEAKER_01 (06:38):
It's pretty intense.
There's about 400board-certified veterinary
dermatologists in the AmericanCollege of Veterinary
Dermatology throughout NorthAmerica.
We also have someboard-certified dermatologists
in Australia that are part ofour program.
And then certainly there's otherprograms like the European
(06:59):
College of VeterinaryDermatology or the ECVD.
Um, and there's an Asian programnow for board certification, but
there is a lot to thecertification process.
You have to do a lot of clinicaltraining hours, you have to
publish a paper in apeer-reviewed scientific
journal.
You need to um at the time whenI did my certification, we had
(07:23):
to do two case reports that wereabout 20 to 30 pages apiece that
were almost like publishingpapers individually, and they
were peer-reviewed as well.
And then we have we end ourprogram with the culmination of
this exam, which is a one-dayexamination and takes about six
(07:44):
hours to complete with foursections.
And it's unfortunately an allonce-a-year event that's
offered, and it is a scaledexam.
So it's a pretty intense testingprocess.
There's only about 20 candidatesa year that take the exam.
And I want to say it's maybe alittle over 50%, maybe 60% pass
(08:06):
rate per year.
So it's fairly low to be able toget to the point where you
qualify to take the examinationand then to pass it is a big
achievement.
SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
Certainly is a big achievement.
I I mean, a number of peoplehave told me that this is
regarded compared to perhapsother you can be a resident in
in a number of differentspecialities, uh different
specialisms.
The the word on the street thatthat I've kind of picked up over
the years is this is perhaps aparticularly challenging
specialism as they go, uh, youknow, particularly in terms of
the the sheer kind of volume ofof information you need to learn
(08:38):
and commit to memory.
It's it's it's a very demandingone.
And and so um, Alyssa, maybejust tell us a little bit about
your your your journey with thisexam.
SPEAKER_01 (08:46):
So I think part of my personal issues taking this
exam were I was a student thatwhen I graduated from college
and from my veterinary medicineprogram, I did a very
analog-based study system whereI would handwrite flashcards and
read through my handwrittennotes and highlight, and
(09:09):
everything was very pen topaper.
And unfortunately, everythinghas become more of a digital
world.
And because there was a good,you know, 10 to 15 year spread
between me studying um in auniversity setting to, you know,
independent studying with afamily, it was a big challenge
(09:29):
learning how to organizeeverything on a digital platform
and finding the right digitalplatform to put all of the
information in to use it mostefficiently, because I feel I
was making my flashcards verywordy, if that's I had a lot of
run-on paragraphs and a lot ofinformation, and I wasn't
(09:50):
getting to the key points.
So that was a big challenge Ihad as far as studying, um,
where I had to get my thoughtsorganized in a more clear
fashion, and I had to be able todo retrieval practice in a way
that would make sense that Icould get through the
information effectively.
SPEAKER_02 (10:09):
So you mentioned, you know, the the approach to
learning, and and we mightcircle back and talk about some
more details there in a moment.
But but just in terms of kind ofthe overview, you know, for for
for you, like what would youconsider as some of the big, I
guess, kind of headline thingsthat that you know ultimately
you know kind of fell into placethat allowed you to be
successful, you know, in theend?
(10:29):
You know, so we've kind of gotlearning strategy.
I think you hinted at anotherone in in in our kind of
introduction.
You mentioned, you know, you'veyou've got you've got a got a
family, you've got threechildren, and and kind of
fitting in the time, I guess abig challenge.
So so yeah, kind of apart fromthe the learning strategy, what
are some of the other kind ofthe big building blocks, uh
maybe maybe kind of the otherbig challenges that you
ultimately uh were able toovercome?
SPEAKER_01 (10:51):
I think finding the most efficient time to study in
my schedule made sense andmaking sure I'm carving out that
time, you know, when the kids goto bed after dinner in the
evening throughout the week, theweekends to make sure, because
when you're doing this as aworking parent, I think that
there is a lot more demands atyour home life schedule than
(11:14):
perhaps somebody that's more ofa single individual student
where you can't just focus allof your time on studying.
So I had to figure out do I getup early in the morning, do I
stay up later in the evening?
Um, and sometimes that variedweek to week as far as what my
kids' sports schedule or schoolschedules look like as far as
(11:34):
that time, but I had to makesure I was meeting the hour
requirements every week to makesure I was getting enough study
time in.
Um, and I did a lot ofpreparation work leading up to
the exam.
I know we talked last time Itried several different
flashcard platforms.
And in the end, I think I foundBrainscape was the one that was
most helpful.
But creating a lot of flashcarddecks throughout categories that
(11:58):
I knew were going to beimportant for the exam, I found
beneficial.
So that when the time came toactually study and I was six to
eight weeks from the examactually happening, instead of
going into panic mode, I couldsit down with those flashcards
and do 20 flashcards at a timefor each topic.
And they made sense so that Ididn't have to just open up my
(12:20):
textbooks continuously andhighlight and try to reread
things that I wasn't necessarilyretaining.
SPEAKER_02 (12:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, I guess for thebenefit of with the benefit of
hindsight and and you know, forthe benefit of anyone that's
sort of following in yourfootsteps and taking a
similarly, you know, demandingexam, particularly with with
with lots to know.
You know, what was when it comesto that first pillar we talked
about, you know, how to learneffectively.
Yeah, what are some of your kindof big lessons learned?
What are some of the big thingsyou did that helped you
(12:48):
ultimately be successful?
SPEAKER_01 (12:49):
I think we talked about some calming strategies
too, and I think that did helpas well.
I remember we talked aboutwatching like David Attleboro
videos before taking the examand maybe not stressing um and
studying right before going intothe examination, um, but
actually relaxing.
I think that that made a bit ofa difference, maybe taking a
(13:11):
night off before the exam andnot stress studying, but just
understanding that any crammingthat you get in the day before
is probably not gonna make adifference.
In that if you can studyeffectively those six to eight
weeks leading up to it, you'regonna in a more calm approach
and not a stressed approach.
Um, I did try to work a littlebit on like, you know, taking
(13:32):
some deep breaths and readingthrough the question and make
sure I wasn't rushing throughthe answers because I think that
that makes a difference too, tomake sure that you're not
missing a keyword in the way thequestions are being asked.
Um, because sometimes thequestions will lead you astray.
And if you're not reading everydetail, um, you can kind of miss
the right direction for whatthey're actually asking, um, and
(13:56):
kind of reading througheverything at the end of each
section to make sure that myanswers were appropriate when I
would close a section.
SPEAKER_02 (14:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we've kind of always got liketh three, three, three big
things that ultimately cametogether, you know, how how you
approach the learning, uh, youknow, fitting in the time and
finding the time amid your yourkind of busy schedule to
actually do the learning, uh,and then you know, that kind of
combination of both sort of examtechnique ideas and then also
the the kind of the mindset andand and going in with the right
(14:24):
sort of mental game to win aswell.
Yeah, so I mean you've alreadymentioned a couple of things
along the way already.
So I mean if we maybe just justkind of double-click on each of
those uh three bits in in turn,you you you know, w when it
comes to kind of approach tolearning, you know, you've
already mentioned you know, youyou're ultimately very
successful with with flashcardsand and you found the Brainscape
(14:44):
platform uh particularlyhelpful.
Now, even as regular listenerswill know, I never kind of
recommend a specific platform,but but I'll certainly work with
people as we did to kind of helpfind the best approach, the best
platform for your needs.
Yeah, like what do you feel itwas about your kind of learning
strategy that you used in theend?
So kind of brainscape-basedflashcards.
Like how was that different towhat you were doing at kind of
(15:07):
earlier points in your journey,and and what kind of a
difference did that make?
SPEAKER_01 (15:11):
So I may be saying this inappropriately and it
might change since I took theexam, but I feel like we had
like eight categories that wewould split our examination into
immunology being a really heavyfocus on our exam.
And then there were othercategories like nutrition,
structure, and function.
So there were these big broadcategories that there was just
an immense amount of informationin each section.
(15:34):
And I think trying to breakthose into smaller components
and build out those flashcardswithin each section helped.
Um, so I might have 20 sets offlashcards for each section, but
if I could take them intosmaller pieces and chunk them
out a little bit better, it mademore sense to me than trying to
have, you know, 200 flashcardsper section.
(15:56):
It was a bit overwhelming to tryto, and I think that's how I
initially was trying to approachthis exam, is to just lump
everything together and notsection it out as well as we
did.
Um, I also found that, you know,when I would attend review
sessions, because our college isreally nice in the fact that
(16:16):
they host a lot of residentreview sessions and learning
experiences at conferences.
I would take my notes each dayand I would try to make
flashcards as I was at theconference or as I was coming
home and traveling.
Um, I would take that time whilethat information was fresh in my
head to build out what I took asthe most important messages from
that conference so that myflashcards seemed like they were
(16:39):
um would have all those triggerpoints available.
And hopefully when the time cameto study, it would be a memory
refresher.
And I found that approach wasless overwhelming than the panic
study approach I was previouslytaking to this exam.
SPEAKER_02 (16:55):
Well, I I'm kind of interested.
So I was looking back on ournotes from from some of our
early sessions, and kind of oneof my takeaways, which I think
is really interesting forpeople, is I didn't teach you
how to do flashcards, right?
You know, you already knew howto do flashcards.
So there's kind of an element ofrefining the technique, which
you know, you've you've shared afew details on.
There's certainly some kind ofrefinement we did.
(17:15):
But but I feel like inhindsight, there was a big piece
about having the confidence andthe comfort to say no to other
things, you know, in the sensethat we can't do everything.
We don't have time to doeverything.
And and I remember doing, youknow, it's an exercise I do with
with many of my coaching clientswhere we'll kind of audit like
all the like we'll list out anddo a big audit of like all the
different things you could dowith your time.
(17:37):
And it's like far more than wecould ever possibly fit in
before the exam.
And so we kind of go through aprocess of choosing what is the
most important things, what arethe most important ways to use
our time, and actually beingcomfortable in what we say no to
and making peace with the factthat we're just gonna focus over
here and we're gonna say no tosome of this other stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (17:54):
Yeah, and that's a hard thing, is when you have
this much volume of material andyou know that you can, you know,
watch video reviews, you can,you know, read just textbooks,
you could attend journal clubsessions, or, you know, do you
study with a group that's takingit because there were resident
groups forming?
(18:15):
And I think at the beginning ofmy study process, I was studying
as part of some of those groups.
And then I found that um Ipersonally was getting more when
I stepped away from some ofthose groups and I tried to
study more independently and Itried to work on the areas that
I was having the most troublewith because I found sometimes
in those group sessions, as theexam got closer, they were
(18:37):
really helpful at the beginningof the study process.
But as you approached the exam,sometimes there was a group
panic studying approach thatwent on where we someone would
say something and we wouldrealize that nobody knows
anything about that topic andmaybe it's going to be on the
exam.
And then it would study, itwould start a whole process of
anxiety.
And I think for me, getting thatanxiety in control and knowing
(19:00):
that I can only, you know, coverso much material.
And there's a point where I justhave to be able to shut it down
and be confident that I knowenough to approach the exam was
a better approach than goinginto it kind of panicked and
stress studying and not sleepingwell the night before, because
that was another component, too,is whether you have to take
(19:21):
NyQuil or some melatonin thenight before, you know, bring
airplugs, a sleep mask, um,whatever you need to sleep well,
because uh this exam is givenmore in a hotel environment in a
study type facility.
And you don't always sleep wellin that kind of environment
going into an exam becauseyou're not in your own bed, you
(19:42):
don't have your own schedule,and um, that does induce it's
whole a whole nother type ofstress that you have to kind of
think through the process of howyou're gonna get a good night's
sleep because I do think thatmakes a difference as well.
SPEAKER_02 (19:54):
Definitely.
I think you do the kind ofholistic approach to to exam
success.
It's not just about thelearning, it's about uh, you
know, about kind of that, yeah,that real kind of holistic
holistic uh uh process.
Were any other kind ofparticular lessons learned or or
little little sort of hints andtips you might give to people on
the I guess that more kind ofholistic consideration and and
(20:15):
and doing the mindset and andand winning the mental game, so
to speak.
Any other sort of lessonslearned?
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
I think it's just learning how to self-gear and
make sure that you'reestablishing some personal
boundaries.
It's okay to say no to, youknow, I I feel like I missed a
lot of events and I felt badabout that.
Like I missed some of the sportsgames, I missed some of the
friend parties and everything,because you just have to say no
to things because you have toput yourself first.
And, you know, uh two or threemonths before the exam, it has
(20:43):
to just be about the exam and,you know, taking care of
yourself, getting enough rest,make sure you're eating well,
you're still getting thatexercise and going out for walks
during the day, taking thosestudy breaks, because you can't
just sit there and studycontinuously, or at least I felt
I couldn't for two hoursstraight.
I needed to kind of separatethat out a bit with some study
breaks to get the material toactually stay in my brain as
(21:06):
well.
And then, you know, revisit itand come back to it because the
retrieval practice and kind ofthe repetition of it, I think,
helps.
If I could read somethingthrough three times, I think it
would stay in my brain a littlebit better than just getting
through it once.
So that's where the flashcardswere helpful because I could do
more retrieval practice withthem.
SPEAKER_02 (21:27):
If there's one thing you wish you'd figured out
sooner uh in in the process, Iguess uh does that does anything
come to mind?
Is it sort of like a particularthing that, oh yeah, I wish I'd
wish I'd crack that a bitsooner.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Well, I wish I had found you sooner in the process.
Um, because I do think that thebig picture, you're really good
as far as you know, putting itall together, as far as
everything that you need to dofor the self-care, for making
time to study and studying moreeffectively with the time that
you do have, especially as aworking parent, because carving
(22:00):
that time away, you have to beefficient with what you're
organizing for your studymaterial and um how you're going
through that material.
And I feel like you were able tohelp me create a schedule that
made a little bit of sense.
Like if you only have this muchtime, then you know, at this
point in the exam, four to sixweeks out, you need to just be
doing this or just focus onthis.
And just having someone elsewalk me through that schedule, I
(22:23):
think helped organize everythingand gave me a little bit more
clarity as far as the process ofhow I need to approach it.
And it suppressed having more ofthat panic mode going into the
test, which I, you know, startedto get to that point because
it's just overwhelming thematerial.
And then you inevitably comeacross something you haven't
(22:44):
read, and then that's the onething that just keeps sticking
with you is I don't know this,or uh there's something else I
don't know.
And that material might not evenbe on the exam.
It's just that, you know, it's aPandora's box when you start
thinking of everything you don'tknow and you're not focusing on
what you do know.
And shutting down distractions.
Um, I mentioned, you know, wehad a lot of distractions going
(23:04):
on in my home life at the time.
We were building a house, therewere delays with our house.
We had moved in temporary withmy mother with our children, you
know, two weeks before I triedto approach this exam, which,
and then we had some illnessesin the house, and there were
just so many personaldistractions that if you can
shut some of those down, which Iknow is impossible to do because
(23:25):
you still have to live yourlife, especially when you have
the family life at home thatyou're trying to tackle, but
trying to shut down as much ofit as you can until after the
exam, I think is the bestapproach to the best of your
ability.
I mean, there's only so much youcan do, you know, w when you
have children, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:46):
Well, uh since you sort of kindly brought it up, um
may maybe I mean we have a lotof people that listen sort of
quite casually to the podcast.
We we have a lot of people thatlisten very, very regularly for
for a long, long time.
And, you know, I'm sure there'sa lot of people listening that
have either kind of notconsidered taking the next step
to to kind of work, you know,reach out and sort of work and
do the coaching, or or maybethey've sort of thought maybe
(24:07):
it's not for me.
You know, how would you sort ofsum up your experience with the
coaching and would you recommendit to others preparing for for
challenging exams?
SPEAKER_01 (24:14):
Absolutely.
I've already recommended it to alot of my colleagues and you
know, other students that I knoware going through the same
process.
And we've had discussions aboutmy own children because I do
have three kids at home that areteenagers now, my oldest, and
they're just starting thisprocess of standardized testing
and um, you know, the stress ofthat.
So we've already discussed youmeeting with my kids as well,
(24:36):
because I think that there's abenefit there having a more
efficient study technique.
I think having all these toolsthat we do in a digital form has
made it a more effective studyapproach, especially with this
amount of material.
But it's also made it a littlebit stressful if you don't know
the most effective way to usethose study tools.
(24:58):
And for my case, I don't think Ihad made that complete swap from
doing analog studying to digitalstudying.
And um, I did feel a little bitmore effective once I understood
the best program that was goingto work and how to use, you
know, the software mostappropriately and to kind of
save everything and what I coulduse in my archive.
(25:19):
I think that that helped.
SPEAKER_02 (25:21):
Yeah, fantastic.
Well, I mean, it was such apleasure to to to work together
and really, really well done onon your result in the end.
How are you enjoying lifewithout having studying to do
every week?
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
Well, yeah, that I mean it's been a little bit of
time now, but it's nice beingback in.
I'm definitely more designed forclinical practice than to be
studying on a regular basis andbe taking these kind of, you
know, exams.
I enjoy just being with patientsone-on-one and more of the
clinical side of medical careversus, you know, just reading
(25:53):
through and trying to answer theacademic answers is but at least
I know what the answers are nowand the best piece place to
resource that information.
So there's value to these tests,but it's a stressful process.
SPEAKER_02 (26:07):
I often think that, you know, I've I've seen this
pattern before.
There's some excellent exact I Iwork a lot in the in those sort
of medical and and veterinarymedicine fields.
And you know, I I often comeacross individuals who who, you
know, I are sort of excellentclinicians and and for whatever
reason it there's there's beeneither a kind of life
circumstance or just sort ofhasn't quite clicked into place
(26:28):
to to kind of get that um boxtick of getting the exam passed.
And so it's always reallyrewarding, you know, for for a
on a personal note to to kind ofhelp people like that get
through the exam and and thenyou can do what you're obviously
you know really, really good atdoing and and do the work that
you're uh I guess put on thisearth to do uh you know, support
support the people and the uhanimals in your case, uh and in
(26:50):
in getting back to health.
And you know, it appears thatthe career is career is
thriving.
You're you've got your got yourpraxis, and and uh yeah, sort of
for those listening to thepodcast, you've got very very
very smart set of I don't whatdo you call it?
I mean it's not scrubs, is it?
I don't what what would you callyour uh your work work outfit?
SPEAKER_01 (27:08):
They're scrubs.
SPEAKER_02 (27:09):
You call it scrubs, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:10):
They wash well because we do see a lot of
crested patients that have umskin disease.
So and a lot of them aremultidrug resistant bacterial
and fungal infections that youdon't want to be touching.
SPEAKER_02 (27:22):
Oh my gosh, Alyssa, you trigger warning needed at
the start of this podcast.
Uh for those for those squ forthose that are squeamish and
have vivid mental images,imagery.
Amazing, amazing.
Uh well, thank you ever so muchuh for joining today.
It's been really uh exciting.
It's been it's been really goodto revisit some of the things
that made a difference for youand be able to share some of
(27:42):
your lessons learned withpeople.
Wonderful.
Well, I wonder if you have aclosing message for our
listeners today.
Uh, any kind of words ofencouragement, any final words
of wisdom to leave us with?
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
I think the biggest thing is to have grit, and
that's not something you canlearn, is that if you feel the
initial process once, because Idid have to take this again to
get through the process, and Iwas grateful to find you.
But these types of exams, um,you know, any of these
standardized tests, some of themcan get so detailed, um,
(28:14):
especially when they're in aspecialty, that it takes a lot
to work through your failures.
It's a lot easier to workthrough, you know, the positive
achievements that you're making.
And that's what everybody wantsto talk about.
But no one wants to talk aboutwhen, you know, they have to do
retakes and there's failures andum the best way to organize
(28:36):
yourself and to kind of pickyourself up and to have that
determination to kind of pushthrough.
And um, it is, it takes a lot tohave that motivation to want to
study further and um find themost effective strategies to
accomplish that because it feelsoverwhelming.
So having a support team likewhat you offer is it's just so
invaluable that I just wish thatit's something that I had found
(29:00):
at the beginning of the processbecause I feel like I would have
had a less stressful journey atthe beginning because it
definitely triggers anxiety andPTSD moments.
The more times you kind of gothrough this process and you're
not successful, that you know,being able to feel confident
going into an exam thischallenging is really, I think
(29:22):
that that takes a lot of thestress off is if you can go into
it relaxed and confident andfeel like you've just done
everything you can possibly do.
Um, which I think the way youapproach the process just gives
you more confidence at thebeginning.
SPEAKER_02 (29:35):
Uh thank you for kind words.
And Alyssa, again, you workedsuper, super hard and very, very
smart, not only hard, but alsosmart uh in all areas of the,
you know, not just the actuallearning, but how you approach
the whole process generally.
And great credit to you forgetting through such a
challenging exam with flyingcolours and very best wishes
with the rest of your careerbeyond that.
Thank you ever so much forcoming on this show.
(29:57):
And uh yeah, we wish you all thebest.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (29:59):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
Well, thank you again, Alyssa, for that episode
today and for being so generousin sharing your experience with
us.
And remember, if you're facing achallenging exam yourself,
whether you're a new listener orwhether like Alyssa, you've been
here for quite a long timealready, remember that I am here
to help, not just as yourpodcast host, but also as your
private coach.
(30:22):
I've worked with many hundredsof students and professionals
just like you over the years.
I'm very good at helping youshortcut your way to the optimum
strategy to help save you timein learning smarter, not harder.
I of course I've tried to covera lot of great principles on the
show, but the practicalimplementation of those
principles is so often where thereal juice is.
And everyone's situation is alittle bit different.
(30:44):
So that's where the real powerof a personalised plan comes
into play.
Book your introductory chat withme today over at
examstudyxperts.com forwardslash coaching, link in the
episode description, and we'lltalk through how you're getting
on, how things are going for youtoday, and come up with a plan
to support you in your successthis year.
(31:04):
It'd be my pleasure to help youace your upcoming exams the
smart way.
That's examstudy experts.comforward slash coaching.
And with that, I just want tosay thank you as always for
tuning in today, and I will lookforward to seeing you very soon.
Wishing you every success, asalways, in your studies.
SPEAKER_00 (31:22):
Well, that was good, wasn't it?
I found myself taking notes.
If you need a reminder ofanything from today, head to the
website for a write up of thisepisode, as well as lots more
top notch advice and resources.
That's examstudyexpert.com.
See you next time.
Hello and welcome to the Exam Study Expert Podcast.
I'm your host, WilliamWadsworth, learning and memory
psychologist, and complete nerdabout studying effectively and
helping you ace your exams thesmart way.
You're listening to the showthat's had over one million
downloads to date from studentsaround the world, and we've had
so many success stories in thattime from students who have been
(00:27):
successful using the advicethey've learned on the show, and
in many cases from listenerswho've been working with me
privately as their exam coachtoo.
One such listener is here withme on the show today.
She was facing her third attemptat a challenging professional
certification exam as aveterinary specialist in
veterinary dermatology, of allthings.
(00:47):
She was reaching out to toactually do a little bit of
private coaching with me as asas we did, and she'd written the
following.
I've been a veterinarian formany years, and I successfully
passed my certification tobecome a vet on the first try in
back in 2005 with an 85 score,which is a very good score.
(01:07):
She'd done very well.
She writes, I'm no longer 25 andsingle, uh, so I do feel very
disorganized on some days, andthere's a huge amount to
memorize for this exam.
I've listened to approximately70 of your podcast, which have
helped, and well gosh, thank youfor listening to all those
episodes.
Uh, and I'm restructuring theway I create my flashcards.
Uh, but I still find myselfdoing some of my old habits, uh,
(01:27):
for example, rereading material,watching pre-recorded webinars,
uh, and I don't know how toprioritize my time and and and
fit everything in effect.
So when we met and we we had abit of a chat, we identified
three pillars we'd be working ontogether.
We wanted to help her optimiseher approach uh to learning
effectively, especially giventhat challenge of having, you
know, a really huge amount sheneeded to learn in a relatively
(01:48):
limited available amount oftime.
Secondly, we wanted to help herstay organized, prioritize what
she was working on, balance herdifferent commitments in the
different areas of life, job,family, with carving out some
time for study, um, and alsojust helping infuse a little bit
more of a sense of calm andfeeling in control throughout
the process.
And she did a really fantasticjob and aced her exam on the
(02:09):
next attempt.
So much so that she was actuallyinvited by the exam board that
sets this exam uh to come backand give a talk at a big
conference for the followingyear's exam candidates about uh
you know what she did, how shewas so successful, uh, the
ingredients that had uh hadallowed her to do so well uh in
on that final attempt.
And so I thought it would be a areally nice uh conversation to
(02:30):
bring her onto the show today totalk through some of those big
learnings from her and what shelearned along the way and how
she and ultimately ended upbeing so successful.
So this episode forms part ofour ever-popular student story
series where we take perhaps alittle bit of a pause on
learning brand new theory, uhbrand new strategies, and really
kind of dive deep into a realcase study from a real student
(02:51):
who has actually put thattheory, put those strategies
into action, how they did itexactly, what they learned along
the way, any tips or tricks theyfigured out uh that they can
share with us all here on theshow uh to help us all make
progress.
And there's quite a lot ofdetail, sort of practical,
tactical things in thisconversation today.
So if you're facing achallenging exam of any kind on
the horizon, uh be sure tolisten in closely today.
(03:13):
Uh, there's some reallyinteresting detail uh that I
think you'll likely find quiteinstructive.
So without further ado, let'sdive right in.
So, Alyssa, a very warm welcometo the Exam Study Expert
Podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (03:27):
Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02 (03:28):
It's great to catch up again.
So I I wonder, just for sort ofa little bit of a context for
people, if we could maybe justyou take us right back to give
us a sort of a bit of a sense ofAlyssa the scholar, take us back
to I even like college or oreven high school.
Like what kind of a student wereyou back then?
Like how would you characterizeyourself?
How was your work effort?
(03:49):
Did you kind of pick things upeasily?
Yeah, just give us a bit of asense of kind of who you were as
a as a student back in your kindof full-time studying days.
SPEAKER_01 (03:56):
Sure.
Well, I think when I was youngerand I had um, I didn't have the
family obligations and thedistractions at home.
I was a very type A personalityand very OCD about being
organized.
And I did quite well in classes.
I did well through high school.
I received a four-year bachelordegree from college, and then I
(04:21):
received my doctorate inveterinary medicine in 2006, and
I did very well in my umveterinary medical examination.
I didn't need to do any retakesituation, or um, it was a
really easy process for me.
Moving into my career, I did alot of clinical work for well
(04:43):
over 15 years before Iapproached this exam.
And I started a residencyprogram later in life.
I guess 12 years into working iswhen I started a three-year
residency program.
Um, and it was definitely a biggap from being in an academia
environment and being a singleperson to having a family.
(05:05):
Um, I'm a mother with threechildren, so I have a lot going
on in my household.
So it was a different experiencebeing an older student, circling
back to learning how to studyagain.
SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
Right, right.
I'm sure we'll get into some ofthe some of the challenges and
how you ultimately overcame themin in a moment.
For those of us that arelistening that that aren't uh
veterined or even medicalspecialists, what is a
residency?
Kind of where does that fit intothe career journey of a, in your
case, a vetmed uh specialist?
SPEAKER_01 (05:36):
I'm a veterinary dermatologist.
So for veterinary dermatology,we specialize in skin problems,
dermatologic issues, allergies,ear, nose, and throat issues.
So it's a pretty complex andintense program.
And we have a three-yearpostdoctorate training program
(05:58):
or residency program that'sinvolved to uh obtain board
certification.
So, you know, certainly taking alittle bit of time away from
academia and then going backinto a program this intense is a
process.
And it took some time to kind ofget back into the mode.
My clinical practice skills wereexcellent, and I have been doing
(06:19):
it for some time, but gettingback into the mode of studying
and root memorization was alearning curve again.
SPEAKER_02 (06:26):
It was a learning curve, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And your exam in particular, andhow sort of easy or challenging
is that exam generally regardedas being by by people in the
field?
SPEAKER_01 (06:38):
It's pretty intense.
There's about 400board-certified veterinary
dermatologists in the AmericanCollege of Veterinary
Dermatology throughout NorthAmerica.
We also have someboard-certified dermatologists
in Australia that are part ofour program.
And then certainly there's otherprograms like the European
(06:59):
College of VeterinaryDermatology or the ECVD.
Um, and there's an Asian programnow for board certification, but
there is a lot to thecertification process.
You have to do a lot of clinicaltraining hours, you have to
publish a paper in apeer-reviewed scientific
journal.
You need to um at the time whenI did my certification, we had
(07:23):
to do two case reports that wereabout 20 to 30 pages apiece that
were almost like publishingpapers individually, and they
were peer-reviewed as well.
And then we have we end ourprogram with the culmination of
this exam, which is a one-dayexamination and takes about six
(07:44):
hours to complete with foursections.
And it's unfortunately an allonce-a-year event that's
offered, and it is a scaledexam.
So it's a pretty intense testingprocess.
There's only about 20 candidatesa year that take the exam.
And I want to say it's maybe alittle over 50%, maybe 60% pass
(08:06):
rate per year.
So it's fairly low to be able toget to the point where you
qualify to take the examinationand then to pass it is a big
achievement.
SPEAKER_02 (08:15):
Certainly is a big achievement.
I I mean, a number of peoplehave told me that this is
regarded compared to perhapsother you can be a resident in
in a number of differentspecialities, uh different
specialisms.
The the word on the street thatthat I've kind of picked up over
the years is this is perhaps aparticularly challenging
specialism as they go, uh, youknow, particularly in terms of
the the sheer kind of volume ofof information you need to learn
(08:38):
and commit to memory.
It's it's it's a very demandingone.
And and so um, Alyssa, maybejust tell us a little bit about
your your your journey with thisexam.
SPEAKER_01 (08:46):
So I think part of my personal issues taking this
exam were I was a student thatwhen I graduated from college
and from my veterinary medicineprogram, I did a very
analog-based study system whereI would handwrite flashcards and
read through my handwrittennotes and highlight, and
(09:09):
everything was very pen topaper.
And unfortunately, everythinghas become more of a digital
world.
And because there was a good,you know, 10 to 15 year spread
between me studying um in auniversity setting to, you know,
independent studying with afamily, it was a big challenge
(09:29):
learning how to organizeeverything on a digital platform
and finding the right digitalplatform to put all of the
information in to use it mostefficiently, because I feel I
was making my flashcards verywordy, if that's I had a lot of
run-on paragraphs and a lot ofinformation, and I wasn't
(09:50):
getting to the key points.
So that was a big challenge Ihad as far as studying, um,
where I had to get my thoughtsorganized in a more clear
fashion, and I had to be able todo retrieval practice in a way
that would make sense that Icould get through the
information effectively.
SPEAKER_02 (10:09):
So you mentioned, you know, the the approach to
learning, and and we mightcircle back and talk about some
more details there in a moment.
But but just in terms of kind ofthe overview, you know, for for
for you, like what would youconsider as some of the big, I
guess, kind of headline thingsthat that you know ultimately
you know kind of fell into placethat allowed you to be
successful, you know, in theend?
(10:29):
You know, so we've kind of gotlearning strategy.
I think you hinted at anotherone in in in our kind of
introduction.
You mentioned, you know, you'veyou've got you've got a got a
family, you've got threechildren, and and kind of
fitting in the time, I guess abig challenge.
So so yeah, kind of apart fromthe the learning strategy, what
are some of the other kind ofthe big building blocks, uh
maybe maybe kind of the otherbig challenges that you
ultimately uh were able toovercome?
SPEAKER_01 (10:51):
I think finding the most efficient time to study in
my schedule made sense andmaking sure I'm carving out that
time, you know, when the kids goto bed after dinner in the
evening throughout the week, theweekends to make sure, because
when you're doing this as aworking parent, I think that
there is a lot more demands atyour home life schedule than
(11:14):
perhaps somebody that's more ofa single individual student
where you can't just focus allof your time on studying.
So I had to figure out do I getup early in the morning, do I
stay up later in the evening?
Um, and sometimes that variedweek to week as far as what my
kids' sports schedule or schoolschedules look like as far as
(11:34):
that time, but I had to makesure I was meeting the hour
requirements every week to makesure I was getting enough study
time in.
Um, and I did a lot ofpreparation work leading up to
the exam.
I know we talked last time Itried several different
flashcard platforms.
And in the end, I think I foundBrainscape was the one that was
most helpful.
But creating a lot of flashcarddecks throughout categories that
(11:58):
I knew were going to beimportant for the exam, I found
beneficial.
So that when the time came toactually study and I was six to
eight weeks from the examactually happening, instead of
going into panic mode, I couldsit down with those flashcards
and do 20 flashcards at a timefor each topic.
And they made sense so that Ididn't have to just open up my
(12:20):
textbooks continuously andhighlight and try to reread
things that I wasn't necessarilyretaining.
SPEAKER_02 (12:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, I guess for thebenefit of with the benefit of
hindsight and and you know, forthe benefit of anyone that's
sort of following in yourfootsteps and taking a
similarly, you know, demandingexam, particularly with with
with lots to know.
You know, what was when it comesto that first pillar we talked
about, you know, how to learneffectively.
Yeah, what are some of your kindof big lessons learned?
What are some of the big thingsyou did that helped you
(12:48):
ultimately be successful?
SPEAKER_01 (12:49):
I think we talked about some calming strategies
too, and I think that did helpas well.
I remember we talked aboutwatching like David Attleboro
videos before taking the examand maybe not stressing um and
studying right before going intothe examination, um, but
actually relaxing.
I think that that made a bit ofa difference, maybe taking a
(13:11):
night off before the exam andnot stress studying, but just
understanding that any crammingthat you get in the day before
is probably not gonna make adifference.
In that if you can studyeffectively those six to eight
weeks leading up to it, you'regonna in a more calm approach
and not a stressed approach.
Um, I did try to work a littlebit on like, you know, taking
(13:32):
some deep breaths and readingthrough the question and make
sure I wasn't rushing throughthe answers because I think that
that makes a difference too, tomake sure that you're not
missing a keyword in the way thequestions are being asked.
Um, because sometimes thequestions will lead you astray.
And if you're not reading everydetail, um, you can kind of miss
the right direction for whatthey're actually asking, um, and
(13:56):
kind of reading througheverything at the end of each
section to make sure that myanswers were appropriate when I
would close a section.
SPEAKER_02 (14:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we've kind of always got liketh three, three, three big
things that ultimately cametogether, you know, how how you
approach the learning, uh, youknow, fitting in the time and
finding the time amid your yourkind of busy schedule to
actually do the learning, uh,and then you know, that kind of
combination of both sort of examtechnique ideas and then also
the the kind of the mindset andand and going in with the right
(14:24):
sort of mental game to win aswell.
Yeah, so I mean you've alreadymentioned a couple of things
along the way already.
So I mean if we maybe just justkind of double-click on each of
those uh three bits in in turn,you you you know, w when it
comes to kind of approach tolearning, you know, you've
already mentioned you know, youyou're ultimately very
successful with with flashcardsand and you found the Brainscape
(14:44):
platform uh particularlyhelpful.
Now, even as regular listenerswill know, I never kind of
recommend a specific platform,but but I'll certainly work with
people as we did to kind of helpfind the best approach, the best
platform for your needs.
Yeah, like what do you feel itwas about your kind of learning
strategy that you used in theend?
So kind of brainscape-basedflashcards.
Like how was that different towhat you were doing at kind of
(15:07):
earlier points in your journey,and and what kind of a
difference did that make?
SPEAKER_01 (15:11):
So I may be saying this inappropriately and it
might change since I took theexam, but I feel like we had
like eight categories that wewould split our examination into
immunology being a really heavyfocus on our exam.
And then there were othercategories like nutrition,
structure, and function.
So there were these big broadcategories that there was just
an immense amount of informationin each section.
(15:34):
And I think trying to breakthose into smaller components
and build out those flashcardswithin each section helped.
Um, so I might have 20 sets offlashcards for each section, but
if I could take them intosmaller pieces and chunk them
out a little bit better, it mademore sense to me than trying to
have, you know, 200 flashcardsper section.
(15:56):
It was a bit overwhelming to tryto, and I think that's how I
initially was trying to approachthis exam, is to just lump
everything together and notsection it out as well as we
did.
Um, I also found that, you know,when I would attend review
sessions, because our college isreally nice in the fact that
(16:16):
they host a lot of residentreview sessions and learning
experiences at conferences.
I would take my notes each dayand I would try to make
flashcards as I was at theconference or as I was coming
home and traveling.
Um, I would take that time whilethat information was fresh in my
head to build out what I took asthe most important messages from
that conference so that myflashcards seemed like they were
(16:39):
um would have all those triggerpoints available.
And hopefully when the time cameto study, it would be a memory
refresher.
And I found that approach wasless overwhelming than the panic
study approach I was previouslytaking to this exam.
SPEAKER_02 (16:55):
Well, I I'm kind of interested.
So I was looking back on ournotes from from some of our
early sessions, and kind of oneof my takeaways, which I think
is really interesting forpeople, is I didn't teach you
how to do flashcards, right?
You know, you already knew howto do flashcards.
So there's kind of an element ofrefining the technique, which
you know, you've you've shared afew details on.
There's certainly some kind ofrefinement we did.
(17:15):
But but I feel like inhindsight, there was a big piece
about having the confidence andthe comfort to say no to other
things, you know, in the sensethat we can't do everything.
We don't have time to doeverything.
And and I remember doing, youknow, it's an exercise I do with
with many of my coaching clientswhere we'll kind of audit like
all the like we'll list out anddo a big audit of like all the
different things you could dowith your time.
(17:37):
And it's like far more than wecould ever possibly fit in
before the exam.
And so we kind of go through aprocess of choosing what is the
most important things, what arethe most important ways to use
our time, and actually beingcomfortable in what we say no to
and making peace with the factthat we're just gonna focus over
here and we're gonna say no tosome of this other stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (17:54):
Yeah, and that's a hard thing, is when you have
this much volume of material andyou know that you can, you know,
watch video reviews, you can,you know, read just textbooks,
you could attend journal clubsessions, or, you know, do you
study with a group that's takingit because there were resident
groups forming?
(18:15):
And I think at the beginning ofmy study process, I was studying
as part of some of those groups.
And then I found that um Ipersonally was getting more when
I stepped away from some ofthose groups and I tried to
study more independently and Itried to work on the areas that
I was having the most troublewith because I found sometimes
in those group sessions, as theexam got closer, they were
(18:37):
really helpful at the beginningof the study process.
But as you approached the exam,sometimes there was a group
panic studying approach thatwent on where we someone would
say something and we wouldrealize that nobody knows
anything about that topic andmaybe it's going to be on the
exam.
And then it would study, itwould start a whole process of
anxiety.
And I think for me, getting thatanxiety in control and knowing
(19:00):
that I can only, you know, coverso much material.
And there's a point where I justhave to be able to shut it down
and be confident that I knowenough to approach the exam was
a better approach than goinginto it kind of panicked and
stress studying and not sleepingwell the night before, because
that was another component, too,is whether you have to take
(19:21):
NyQuil or some melatonin thenight before, you know, bring
airplugs, a sleep mask, um,whatever you need to sleep well,
because uh this exam is givenmore in a hotel environment in a
study type facility.
And you don't always sleep wellin that kind of environment
going into an exam becauseyou're not in your own bed, you
(19:42):
don't have your own schedule,and um, that does induce it's
whole a whole nother type ofstress that you have to kind of
think through the process of howyou're gonna get a good night's
sleep because I do think thatmakes a difference as well.
SPEAKER_02 (19:54):
Definitely.
I think you do the kind ofholistic approach to to exam
success.
It's not just about thelearning, it's about uh, you
know, about kind of that, yeah,that real kind of holistic
holistic uh uh process.
Were any other kind ofparticular lessons learned or or
little little sort of hints andtips you might give to people on
the I guess that more kind ofholistic consideration and and
(20:15):
and doing the mindset and andand winning the mental game, so
to speak.
Any other sort of lessonslearned?
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
I think it's just learning how to self-gear and
make sure that you'reestablishing some personal
boundaries.
It's okay to say no to, youknow, I I feel like I missed a
lot of events and I felt badabout that.
Like I missed some of the sportsgames, I missed some of the
friend parties and everything,because you just have to say no
to things because you have toput yourself first.
And, you know, uh two or threemonths before the exam, it has
(20:43):
to just be about the exam and,you know, taking care of
yourself, getting enough rest,make sure you're eating well,
you're still getting thatexercise and going out for walks
during the day, taking thosestudy breaks, because you can't
just sit there and studycontinuously, or at least I felt
I couldn't for two hoursstraight.
I needed to kind of separatethat out a bit with some study
breaks to get the material toactually stay in my brain as
(21:06):
well.
And then, you know, revisit itand come back to it because the
retrieval practice and kind ofthe repetition of it, I think,
helps.
If I could read somethingthrough three times, I think it
would stay in my brain a littlebit better than just getting
through it once.
So that's where the flashcardswere helpful because I could do
more retrieval practice withthem.
SPEAKER_02 (21:27):
If there's one thing you wish you'd figured out
sooner uh in in the process, Iguess uh does that does anything
come to mind?
Is it sort of like a particularthing that, oh yeah, I wish I'd
wish I'd crack that a bitsooner.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Well, I wish I had found you sooner in the process.
Um, because I do think that thebig picture, you're really good
as far as you know, putting itall together, as far as
everything that you need to dofor the self-care, for making
time to study and studying moreeffectively with the time that
you do have, especially as aworking parent, because carving
(22:00):
that time away, you have to beefficient with what you're
organizing for your studymaterial and um how you're going
through that material.
And I feel like you were able tohelp me create a schedule that
made a little bit of sense.
Like if you only have this muchtime, then you know, at this
point in the exam, four to sixweeks out, you need to just be
doing this or just focus onthis.
And just having someone elsewalk me through that schedule, I
(22:23):
think helped organize everythingand gave me a little bit more
clarity as far as the process ofhow I need to approach it.
And it suppressed having more ofthat panic mode going into the
test, which I, you know, startedto get to that point because
it's just overwhelming thematerial.
And then you inevitably comeacross something you haven't
(22:44):
read, and then that's the onething that just keeps sticking
with you is I don't know this,or uh there's something else I
don't know.
And that material might not evenbe on the exam.
It's just that, you know, it's aPandora's box when you start
thinking of everything you don'tknow and you're not focusing on
what you do know.
And shutting down distractions.
Um, I mentioned, you know, wehad a lot of distractions going
(23:04):
on in my home life at the time.
We were building a house, therewere delays with our house.
We had moved in temporary withmy mother with our children, you
know, two weeks before I triedto approach this exam, which,
and then we had some illnessesin the house, and there were
just so many personaldistractions that if you can
shut some of those down, which Iknow is impossible to do because
(23:25):
you still have to live yourlife, especially when you have
the family life at home thatyou're trying to tackle, but
trying to shut down as much ofit as you can until after the
exam, I think is the bestapproach to the best of your
ability.
I mean, there's only so much youcan do, you know, w when you
have children, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:46):
Well, uh since you sort of kindly brought it up, um
may maybe I mean we have a lotof people that listen sort of
quite casually to the podcast.
We we have a lot of people thatlisten very, very regularly for
for a long, long time.
And, you know, I'm sure there'sa lot of people listening that
have either kind of notconsidered taking the next step
to to kind of work, you know,reach out and sort of work and
do the coaching, or or maybethey've sort of thought maybe
(24:07):
it's not for me.
You know, how would you sort ofsum up your experience with the
coaching and would you recommendit to others preparing for for
challenging exams?
SPEAKER_01 (24:14):
Absolutely.
I've already recommended it to alot of my colleagues and you
know, other students that I knoware going through the same
process.
And we've had discussions aboutmy own children because I do
have three kids at home that areteenagers now, my oldest, and
they're just starting thisprocess of standardized testing
and um, you know, the stress ofthat.
So we've already discussed youmeeting with my kids as well,
(24:36):
because I think that there's abenefit there having a more
efficient study technique.
I think having all these toolsthat we do in a digital form has
made it a more effective studyapproach, especially with this
amount of material.
But it's also made it a littlebit stressful if you don't know
the most effective way to usethose study tools.
(24:58):
And for my case, I don't think Ihad made that complete swap from
doing analog studying to digitalstudying.
And um, I did feel a little bitmore effective once I understood
the best program that was goingto work and how to use, you
know, the software mostappropriately and to kind of
save everything and what I coulduse in my archive.
(25:19):
I think that that helped.
SPEAKER_02 (25:21):
Yeah, fantastic.
Well, I mean, it was such apleasure to to to work together
and really, really well done onon your result in the end.
How are you enjoying lifewithout having studying to do
every week?
SPEAKER_01 (25:32):
Well, yeah, that I mean it's been a little bit of
time now, but it's nice beingback in.
I'm definitely more designed forclinical practice than to be
studying on a regular basis andbe taking these kind of, you
know, exams.
I enjoy just being with patientsone-on-one and more of the
clinical side of medical careversus, you know, just reading
(25:53):
through and trying to answer theacademic answers is but at least
I know what the answers are nowand the best piece place to
resource that information.
So there's value to these tests,but it's a stressful process.
SPEAKER_02 (26:07):
I often think that, you know, I've I've seen this
pattern before.
There's some excellent exact I Iwork a lot in the in those sort
of medical and and veterinarymedicine fields.
And you know, I I often comeacross individuals who who, you
know, I are sort of excellentclinicians and and for whatever
reason it there's there's beeneither a kind of life
circumstance or just sort ofhasn't quite clicked into place
(26:28):
to to kind of get that um boxtick of getting the exam passed.
And so it's always reallyrewarding, you know, for for a
on a personal note to to kind ofhelp people like that get
through the exam and and thenyou can do what you're obviously
you know really, really good atdoing and and do the work that
you're uh I guess put on thisearth to do uh you know, support
support the people and the uhanimals in your case, uh and in
(26:50):
in getting back to health.
And you know, it appears thatthe career is career is
thriving.
You're you've got your got yourpraxis, and and uh yeah, sort of
for those listening to thepodcast, you've got very very
very smart set of I don't whatdo you call it?
I mean it's not scrubs, is it?
I don't what what would you callyour uh your work work outfit?
SPEAKER_01 (27:08):
They're scrubs.
SPEAKER_02 (27:09):
You call it scrubs, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (27:10):
They wash well because we do see a lot of
crested patients that have umskin disease.
So and a lot of them aremultidrug resistant bacterial
and fungal infections that youdon't want to be touching.
SPEAKER_02 (27:22):
Oh my gosh, Alyssa, you trigger warning needed at
the start of this podcast.
Uh for those for those squ forthose that are squeamish and
have vivid mental images,imagery.
Amazing, amazing.
Uh well, thank you ever so muchuh for joining today.
It's been really uh exciting.
It's been it's been really goodto revisit some of the things
that made a difference for youand be able to share some of
(27:42):
your lessons learned withpeople.
Wonderful.
Well, I wonder if you have aclosing message for our
listeners today.
Uh, any kind of words ofencouragement, any final words
of wisdom to leave us with?
SPEAKER_01 (27:52):
I think the biggest thing is to have grit, and
that's not something you canlearn, is that if you feel the
initial process once, because Idid have to take this again to
get through the process, and Iwas grateful to find you.
But these types of exams, um,you know, any of these
standardized tests, some of themcan get so detailed, um,
(28:14):
especially when they're in aspecialty, that it takes a lot
to work through your failures.
It's a lot easier to workthrough, you know, the positive
achievements that you're making.
And that's what everybody wantsto talk about.
But no one wants to talk aboutwhen, you know, they have to do
retakes and there's failures andum the best way to organize
(28:36):
yourself and to kind of pickyourself up and to have that
determination to kind of pushthrough.
And um, it is, it takes a lot tohave that motivation to want to
study further and um find themost effective strategies to
accomplish that because it feelsoverwhelming.
So having a support team likewhat you offer is it's just so
invaluable that I just wish thatit's something that I had found
(29:00):
at the beginning of the processbecause I feel like I would have
had a less stressful journey atthe beginning because it
definitely triggers anxiety andPTSD moments.
The more times you kind of gothrough this process and you're
not successful, that you know,being able to feel confident
going into an exam thischallenging is really, I think
(29:22):
that that takes a lot of thestress off is if you can go into
it relaxed and confident andfeel like you've just done
everything you can possibly do.
Um, which I think the way youapproach the process just gives
you more confidence at thebeginning.
SPEAKER_02 (29:35):
Uh thank you for kind words.
And Alyssa, again, you workedsuper, super hard and very, very
smart, not only hard, but alsosmart uh in all areas of the,
you know, not just the actuallearning, but how you approach
the whole process generally.
And great credit to you forgetting through such a
challenging exam with flyingcolours and very best wishes
with the rest of your careerbeyond that.
Thank you ever so much forcoming on this show.
(29:57):
And uh yeah, we wish you all thebest.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01 (29:59):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_02 (30:02):
Well, thank you again, Alyssa, for that episode
today and for being so generousin sharing your experience with
us.
And remember, if you're facing achallenging exam yourself,
whether you're a new listener orwhether like Alyssa, you've been
here for quite a long timealready, remember that I am here
to help, not just as yourpodcast host, but also as your
private coach.
(30:22):
I've worked with many hundredsof students and professionals
just like you over the years.
I'm very good at helping youshortcut your way to the optimum
strategy to help save you timein learning smarter, not harder.
I of course I've tried to covera lot of great principles on the
show, but the practicalimplementation of those
principles is so often where thereal juice is.
And everyone's situation is alittle bit different.
(30:44):
So that's where the real powerof a personalised plan comes
into play.
Book your introductory chat withme today over at
examstudyxperts.com forwardslash coaching, link in the
episode description, and we'lltalk through how you're getting
on, how things are going for youtoday, and come up with a plan
to support you in your successthis year.
(31:04):
It'd be my pleasure to help youace your upcoming exams the
smart way.
That's examstudy experts.comforward slash coaching.
And with that, I just want tosay thank you as always for
tuning in today, and I will lookforward to seeing you very soon.
Wishing you every success, asalways, in your studies.
SPEAKER_00 (31:22):
Well, that was good, wasn't it?
I found myself taking notes.
If you need a reminder ofanything from today, head to the
website for a write up of thisepisode, as well as lots more
top notch advice and resources.
That's examstudyexpert.com.
See you next time.
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