Elise Cantu (00:19)

Hey, Onco PT and welcome to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. If you have listened to the past few episodes, you know the theme and this is where we are going to sum everything up because today’s episode is all about my honest advice. If you are two weeks or less out from your own ABPTS oncology exam. Now, if you listened to last week’s episode, you know, I got a little spicy like and it was necessary. It was very

very important, especially if you were in that state of like, don’t know. Okay. That’s not what today is about. We are all about really getting clear, ultra clear on what you need to be doing for this last dash towards the finish line. Right? If you are running a marathon, because let’s face it, I don’t think

I would consider the ABPTS oncology exam prep process a marathon. I think it’s like an Ironman or a 100 mile race. mean, talk about ultra endurance activity that you have been doing over the past few months with your brain. So this is like the last five miles of that 100 mile race, right? How do you finish well?

And at this point, right, you have been doing this for a long time. You are probably really feeling that emotional heaviness of the race. ⁓ I have never done a race that long previously. I don’t know that I will ever do a race that long. The longest I’ve ever done is half marathon, which is pretty big for me considering I’m a fish out of water when it comes to running. So when I was doing the half marathon, the one time that I ever did it. So here in Fort Worth, they do the Cowtown Marathon.

And they run all throughout Fort Worth, which I just love because I love our city. love seeing all the things around it. And.

At that time, little over halfway through the race, think it was, you’re on a relatively flat surface and then you run up this long, long bridge to get into town. And it was, I mean, it was a grind. And so after that, you you run through downtown a little more and then you really get to like the home finish. Like you can actually see

the stadium where they end the race and it’s just like, can, you’re almost there. It’s like, you can taste it. You can taste it. Excuse me. So where we’re at right now is after that bridge of despair, but before you totally get to where you can see the finish line, right? We’re in this sweet spot of like, my gosh, I’m so tired. I’m so over this. Before you hit that euphoria of I’m almost.

So we’re in this sweet spot. This is where we’re at for today’s episode. So there’s a lot of emotional intensity that you have been feeling, especially over these past few weeks. It hits different, right? You have been in the throes of this work and this preparation and you are doing the things that you need to do and you know it’s gonna pay off eventually. You just have to get there.

you just have to make it honestly to the testing center on the day that you’re going to take your test. Like that’s kind of the attitude. And so what can happen is that a last minute overcorrection and panic can do more harm than good at this point. And so we don’t want to increase our excitement, our intensity, our anxiety too much at this point. We are just trying to finish the race strong.

at this point. And so you can definitely be feeling maybe some anxiety during this point. And anxiety is not a clear definitive indicator of how things are going. Anxiety can spike even when your preparation has been absolutely solid. And so I want to warn you about this potential anxiety. Maybe you’ll experience it, maybe you won’t, right?

I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I don’t want this anxiety to derail your study plan, the system, the structure that you have implemented, like we talked about a couple weeks ago on the podcast. Two weeks out is not the time to change everything. In fact, I would say now is the time to like complete opposite. Keep things the same. Keep things steady because last minute overhauls are going to

increase your stress and undermine your confidence in the systems that you have put into place and the work that you have put into this process. Stability is what we are going for right now. Stability is the goal, is the key. Novelty, newness, excitement, not what we want. Okay, we are going for stability over novelty right now. Now it’s okay to make some adjustments, small shifts.

We’re okay. Big ones, no, please don’t do that, right? We are trying to maintain a steady pace. If we’re going back to our running example here, we’re trying to just maintain a steady pace to get to the finish line at this point. There will be time as you get closer to the exam where that… ⁓

adrenaline is going to hit that excitement is going to hit. And maybe you pick up pace a little bit, right? Like maybe you run a little faster because you can see the stadium and you can see the finish line and you can start to hear the crowd noise cheering you on. That’s okay. Right. But until we get to that point, we are trying to be steady and not overall like terribly exciting. And the confidence that you can experience at this stage of the game, again, going for finish line at this point.

comes from focused execution, that application of your knowledge. Again, you have heard me talk about application so dang much in these past few podcast episodes. It is on purpose. It is extremely intentional that I bring this up again and again and again, because this is where you need to be spending your time. If you haven’t already, like friend, come on. I don’t know what to tell you at this point.

but this focused execution, not from cramming more information into your brain, is what is really going to build and solidify your confidence going into this exam. When you know what you are focusing on in your study sessions, your energy goes into doing rather than doubting yourself, rather than questioning or second guessing.

what you know and how you’re applying that information. ⁓ At this point, like we talked about two weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, you by now have a system that you have implemented. And like I said, it’s not the time to overhaul it. It’s not the time to make big shifts, really, really zoom in on what is most important application, application, application. And it does take a degree of trust. And that can be kind of hard, especially as you get, again,

closer and closer to the exam, maybe that anxiety that we mentioned earlier, starting to rear its ugly head or make its presence very well known.

There is a degree of trust that you have to have in yourself that what you have done over these past many months to get to this point is working and you are going to complete the path, right? You are going to finish the race. The months of prep have got you to this point. You have to continue forward steadily. Remember, stability is what we’re going for in order to make it to the finish line and not trip and fall on your face before you get there.

⁓ because we all don’t want to do that. How embarrassing is that, right? So how we do that is again by acknowledging the anxiety. If that’s something that you deal with, we have to acknowledge it. We can’t just, you know, push it down and hope that it doesn’t come back. And this is how we replace panic with calm. So we manage anxiety, unchecked anxiety, right? That we don’t acknowledge, that we try to push aside, that we try to avoid.

is going to interfere with recall. Like literally we’re now talking about brain processes here. Unchecked, unmanaged anxiety is going to impact your brain’s ability to recall information and make decisions, right? Apply it to these hypothetical patient situations. Even when your knowledge is solid, right? You could have absolutely zero gaps in your knowledge.

But if your brain is allowed to basically overpower itself, that affects application. That affects our ability to really use, retrieve that information and use it effectively with these patient cases, with these patient scenarios. And this is not a personality thing, okay? I am not attacking your personality and I hope you don’t feel that I’m attacking your personality. This is a skill. This is something that has to be practiced.

this may be a new skill or a newer skill for you that you really have to work intentionally to practice. But when we allow that anxiety to basically run amok and do its own thing, that is more layers that your brain has to sift through in order to get down deep into all those beautiful brain folds that you have, pull that information out to the surface,

and package it in a way that you can actually use it when you’re encountering a 33 year old ⁓ woman diagnosed with ⁓ stage two triple negative breast cancer who did, et cetera, right? So making sure, acknowledging like, hey, if this is anxiety, then this is part of what I need to be working on. This is part of what I need to be, you know,

being aware of number one awareness and then taking steps to not let it derail my thinking derail my study session and this is what’s really going to help you feel assured and confident and that clarity that we need going into the actual exam day and having this clarity going into exam day is really going to protect your confidence because i want you to walk in

to that exam with absolutely like, what’s the equivalent here? I don’t wanna use.

Let me use this instead, because I think it’s a little more ⁓ maybe listener friendly. Big hair energy. When I have, this is me, you have an equivalent of yourself, right? When I have big curly hair, like the higher the heaven, what is it? The higher the hair, the closer to heaven. When I have big hair energy, I feel unstoppable.

nothing can go wrong. And I, I love my hair. Like that’s probably one of my favorite features about myself. I have this beautiful, long, brown hair that I’ve had my whole life. And I love when it’s a big and curly, cause it just makes me feel powerful and unstoppable. And pair that with a loud pair of high heeled shoes and like the clip, clop, clip.

clap, walking down the hallway with, ⁓ my gosh, fearless, unstoppable. I feel like a superhero at that point, right? Whatever that is for you, that is the energy we need to harness going into exam day. So what you need to do, I’m serious. I’m taking a little pivot from what I plan to close this episode with, but I think it’s really important. I want you to know what your big hair energy is. How are you going to walk in

to your testing center with the biggest hair energy that you can possibly muster, right? What do you need to do? How do you need to set yourself up so that you can walk in, even if you are not feeling 100 % confident, you walk in with the energy of being 100 % confident, right? Not saying do your hair a different way and wear high heels to the exam, because I don’t know that you would be very comfortable with the high heels part. Maybe you will.

but going in with the absolute most audacious energy to this exam. Right? You’re probably going to feel a little nervous on the exam, totally normal. But how can we also make you feel amazing and amazingly confident in yourself going into this exam? So the more that we can just build up your confidence going into the exam, the better off. And this is why we talk so much about clarity.

as you’re going into this exam and why we talk about not changing your plan in the last two weeks before the exam. Because when you trust your plan, you are less likely to spiral under pressure and more likely to perform consistently. So I talked earlier in this episode about my running example, again, of my one half marathon that I have done previously and how this process is like an

ultra marathon, a hundred mile race. Because when you get to the exam, you know, because you have looked in this, you have prepared, et cetera, that this exam is also an endurance race. It’s like the last endurance race at the end of a very long endurance race kind of situation. And having trust in your plan is exceptionally important when you’re going into an exam experience that is longer, right? Like when I write

exams for my undergrad students, they’re usually about an hour long, not even, truthfully. They’re not even an hour long because that’s how long class is generally. I write exams and some students will finish them lickety split, how they do, that’s their own business. Some students, excuse me, patients, some students will take a little longer. But in general, that’s a pretty short, pretty confined amount of exam time that they’re doing.

This exam, the ABPTS oncology exam, it’s a bit longer. There are multiple exam blocks with lots of questions. It is crucial that you are able to keep command of yourself and your faculties and your energies during this time. And so in order to do that, again, really, really being ultra clear on how, what you are doing going into exam day.

and how you are preparing over these last couple weeks, however long that is for your exam so you feel really, really good. This trust is going to carry you through that exam and across the finish line. You don’t need over these next couple weeks to do more and more, right? I’m not saying double your studying time and make sure that every waking minute you have is devoted towards this exam content.

You don’t need to do more. You need to stay focused and clear. Remember, clarity, clarity, clarity, clarity on all of this. You have prepared, my friend, for this exam. You have put in countless hours.

to becoming the best version of Onco PT that you can be for your patients. And this calm execution is what is going to carry you through the exam and across the finish line and then out into the parking lot where you’re going to scream and do a happy dance. And I’m so, so excited for you. I can’t wait. I literally cannot wait to see your happy dances. We do have to get there first. And how we do that is with a clear

confidence that you are focused on the right things and that no matter where you are in this process and maybe how much more time, how many more days, how many more weeks you have, you have clarity about what you are doing and how you are going to approach this exam. And that is going to serve you far beyond just this exam, but also professionally when you encounter difficult situations. So with that,

That is the last big sister advice I am going to leave you with for this episode, except one more thing, which is you’ve heard me talk about the YouTube playlist that we’ve been talking about. If you want a little more guidance, a little more information on how to do this in a visual broken down way, I have a YouTube video for you. It’s in my playlist called ABPTS Oncology Exam Prep, How to Study with Clarity and Confidence. I have linked that

in your podcast player. remember, most importantly, because we are getting super clear on this, remember only watch this if this is going to be helpful for you, not just to watch another thing on YouTube, right? If this is something that you actually need and is going to be helpful, then I want you to check it out. Again, I’ve linked it in your podcast player and in the show notes for this episode. And I can’t wait to see you over there if that’s what you choose to do with your time.

No matter the outcome, I’m so, so proud of you. I am so proud of the work that you have put into all of this. And as I mentioned in previous episode, you have no idea how big this impact is going to be, how big your impact, your legacy of helping and healing is going to be. And this is one step in that journey. And I’m really, really excited to continue to see where that takes you and where it leads you and…

What kind of stories you have about the kind of impact that you’re having in your community. And I look forward to hearing those someday, but until then remember, get clear and stay clear on your plan. Anxiety is a common thing that can happen that can rear its head during these last few weeks of the exam. Can’t avoid it. So you might as well manage it now. How we do that.

is not by adding more to our plate, but rather getting super clear on what we need to do to move forward, how we need to structure our plans and stick with the plan. Execute the plan to completion and walk into your exam with big hair energy, right? Find out what that big hair energy is for you. I would love to hear it. You know, I know, like I said, my hair is my thing. ⁓ I’d love to know what yours is.

So feel free to message me on Instagram about that. Otherwise, I am rooting for you. We are cheering you on and we cannot wait to see you on the other side of this exam. So until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.