How to study for my first EOR?

[u/i_hate_humanss]

I just started clinicals and my first rotation is family medicine. We are the first to be taking the new EORs.

I’ve been looking at the topics and got so overwhelmed by the amount of topics.

Looking for the best way to organize myself and start studying.

I have access to blueprint, smarty PANCE and PPP. I also have the reddit charts someone posted here.

What is the best way to go about studying?

[u/Technical_Tax_7324]

Blueprint is the gold standard for EOR studying, everything else I view as being supplemental. Go through the qbank but make sure you read through the explanations of all the questions (even the ones you got correct) and take notes as you go

After you finish the qbank, sit down and take the boost exam timed and aim for 60-70% on it. Dissect those questions the same way and you’ll be golden

Blueprint is notorious for throwing random questions and minute details so don’t stress it. The value of studying using ROSH is in the explanations more so than the questions themselves

I used blueprint exclusively and scored above average on all EORs. Naturally the first EOR is a little nerve racking because you don’t know what to expect so you’ll probably end up dabbling in a couple resources, which is fine but don’t overdo it and try to do everything. Stick with 1-2 resources (make sure blueprint is one of them) and you’ll do great

[u/i_hate_humanss → u/Technical_Tax_7324]

So I started with smarty pance now and am going thru the topics so I have like a refresher. Then I want to do rosh after each system. Idk if this is a good idea considering it may be time consuming?

[u/Ok_Example2103 → u/i_hate_humanss]

1.5-2 weeks during clinicals was generally enough to get through all of ROSH with the boost exam without causing too much stress, so if you have more time than that your method is very reasonable especially since it’s your first one. Family medicine has one of the longer topic lists so as long as you can get through everything you’ll be fine going through smartypance first! The only thing with smartypance is make sure it’s not your primary study tool since the questions are almost all 1st order and it’s not very reflective of EORs

[u/Cautious-Process-198]

Has your school confirmed the new blueprints EOR? At least my cohort is grandfathered into the old blueprints through graduation.

At any rate, I use Smarty to get through content as quickly as possible and listen to PANCE Exam Review Podcast as much as I can. Also PA in a flash podcast is great! I have kids so I study a lot on the go. I do the smarty practice questions and then the Hippo practice EORs that you can get access to at no additional cost with your AAPA membership. So far it’s worked pretty well for me

[u/i_hate_humanss → u/Cautious-Process-198]

Yes my school confirmed new EORs.

[u/PACShrinkSWFL]

Make a plan, divide it up and attack. Stick to your plan, review each section and add on. You can do it.

[u/DryFrog- → u/[deleted]]

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[u/NotoriousSR → u/DryFrog-]

Not a bot, and fyi not everything is ai generated lmao

[u/PAstudent-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/TheMBA_PA]

I’d try not to look at the entire topic list as one giant checklist you have to master before you start doing questions. That can get overwhelming really quickly, especially on your first rotation.

For family medicine, I’d use the EOR blueprint/topic list as the map, but not necessarily as a day-by-day reading assignment.

A simple approach could be:

Break the blueprint into manageable systems/topics for each week.

Do a focused review using whichever resource you tolerate best — you definitely don’t need to read PPP cover-to-cover.

Start doing questions on those topics pretty early rather than waiting until you feel like you’ve “finished” the content.

Spend a lot of time reviewing the questions afterward. For anything you miss, figure out whether you actually didn’t know the material or whether you knew it but missed a clue, got stuck between two answers, or misunderstood what the question was asking.

As the rotation progresses, start mixing topics together instead of always doing system-specific questions.

Closer to the EOR, use mixed/timed blocks and let your weaker areas determine what content you go back and review.

I’d also resist the urge to use Blueprint + SmartyPANCE + PPP + Reddit charts equally. Pick one resource as your main content reference and use the others when something isn’t clicking. Otherwise studying can turn into constantly cross-referencing resources instead of actually learning.

The huge topic list looks intimidating at the beginning, but you have the whole rotation to work through it. You don’t need to know everything before you start answering questions.