As of this weekend, I have finished my first week of PT school, although I won’t have had two of my six classes until this afternoon. So far, it’s been quite the ride. The experience feels a bit like high school in the sense that once again I’m in a class of 65’ish students and we’re all taking the same classes. Also, we have lockers! In college, my major was too big to meet people, so unless I happened to end up in a class with a friend, my social life and academic life were pretty separate. It’s nice to make new friends and also be able to relate to them about our schoolwork.
And I have a feeling that we’re really going to need each other. Just the first week has been really hard already. There is a large amount of information to take in, and since we’re in six classes all day during the week, there’s a limited amount of time to learn it. These courses form the framework for what we’ll need to know for the rest of our careers, so unlike in undergrad, I can’t skim over something if I find it uninteresting or difficult and decide to focus on the rest of the material. I find myself reading and rereading my text books, making sure I understand everything and writing down questions to ask professors for the material I don’t. I’m also developing the habit of constantly reviewing what we’ve already learned because while midterms don’t start for another month, I know I need a jump-start on the large amount of material we’re covering.
It’s been pretty intimidating so far, but I realize that this is probably the hardest semester, and that things are always tougher at the beginning before I get used to them. I remember in undergrad anatomy, I was unsure how I’d learn everything we needed to know about the upper limb bones for our first weekly quiz. I spent all week studying and after reviewing each night, finally knew the material well. In subsequent weeks, once I was used to the process of studying anatomy, I didn’t need to spend quite as much time studying. I’m hoping for something similar to happen here.
The week’s also been really exciting though. It’s interesting to finally start learning principles of physical therapy, and thrilling to finally be on the direct path to becoming a PT. I can’t believe that in three years (plus a lifetime of continued learning, of course), I’ll actually know as much as the PTs I worked with all last year, and won’t just be the kid that helped them. I know it’s not going to be an easy few months ahead, but I’m eager to dive in.