College Students are Struggling to Read

by Zahra Muhsin, MA “The decline in adult literacy means not merely a decline in the capacity to read and write, but a decline in the impulse to puzzle out, brood upon, look up in...

Knowing Your Vitals: Work-life Balance and Work-life Wellbeing in Residency and Fellowship Decision-Making

by Dr. Julie Hau and Zahra Muhsin When individuals are making decisions about which medical school to attend, they may also be considering residency and fellowship. That is, where they would like to work, live,...

Mental Fitness and Test Prep

by Loren Deutsch LAS incorporates mindfulness training, meditation, and self-reflective practices into most individual education plans, particularly for standardized test prep. We have done so since the start of our company and this is why...

Breath Work: An underrated test-prep tip

By Kweku Bentum, MS Do you find yourself often feeling frustrated with an exam or zoned out in the middle of the exam because you just want to get the exam “over with?” Do you...

PSAT Crash Course

The LAS Crash Course for PSAT preparation combines one online workshop (2-5 students) with one-on-one coaching for individual test prep. One-on-one sessions support individual learning goals.

Back-to-School Countdown: T-30 days

The first day of school is less than 30 days away. How soon is too soon to think about the back-to-school season? Retailers have put their notebooks, backpacks, and lunch boxes back on the shelf...

The Common App Workshop 2024

Registration Deadline: September 3, 2024 Online Common App Writing Lab: September 15, 2024 Online sessions with LAS Coach September 16  - October 21, 2024 The LAS Common App Workshop is designed for rising high school...

Tips in medical education

by Loren Deutsch After the 4th of July, rising first-year medical students (M1s) are getting ready for school, and first-year residents (PGY1s) have already started their clinical training, on the path to becoming tomorrow’s medical...

ACT Returns as the Illinois High School Graduation Testing Requirement

By Zahra Muhsin From 2016 to 2024, students took the SAT exam to satisfy the Illinois High School graduation requirement. Initially a paper exam, then phasing into the Digital SAT in 2023, students across the...

Identity in Medicine: Proud Medicine

Identity in medicine transcends the conventional notion of verifying credentials and authorizations. It encompasses the multifaceted identities that medical professionals bring into their practice, shaped by their characteristics, relationships, experiences, and the broader social and...

The Case for Disruption

By Zahra Muhsin In Martin Luther King Jr’s writing from Birmingham Jail, he cautioned against more devotion to ‘order’ than to justice. He warned against those who preferred “a negative peace which is the absence...

The Great Resignation: Recalibrating in Medical Education and Health Care

by Julie M. Hau, Ph.D., and Loren Deutsch, MA, MEd, LCSW During the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Great Resignation rippled through the U.S., and approximately one in five healthcare workers quit their jobs (Yong, 2021)....

Prepping for SAT and ACT

By Loren Deutsch LAS Coaches are often asked when students should begin prepping for the SAT or ACT, how to mitigate test-taking anxiety, and how to request test accommodations. Some of these questions are asked,...

Launching your Student

A frequent topic of conversation among LAS Coaches and families involves high school students transitioning to college. Timing matters, so this is more like a perennial conversation during springtime, as high school seniors navigate college...

Stepping Up to Step 2CK

This Step 2CK plan is a roadmap for high-stakes test prep. The study commitment includes maintenance of knowledge, recall practice w/spaced repetition, + self-assessments for progress tracking.

The SAT has Changed (Again)

Is your student prepared for the Digital SAT? College Board, the non-profit organization that administers the SAT, has launched its Digital SAT. Students, internationally and domestically, will take the digital exam in 2024, as the...

How and When to Study for Step 2CK

Each year, medical students contact LAS with questions about how and when to study for Step 2CK. Some are concerned because they have not taken Step 1, or they took it but did not pass...

I’ll always think of myself first, as a teacher

By Katie Huber   June 2023, I locked the door to my 2nd and 3rd-grade classroom, returned my keys, and walked away from teaching. I’m not sure when (or if) I’ll be back, I just...

Affirmative Action in Medical Education: Meeting Market Demands and Cultivating Empathetic Doctors

By Shereese Maynard There’s no way around it; affirmative action is a contentious topic, especially in areas of higher education. In the realm of medical education, affirmative action emerges as an even more pressing concern....

Back to School: Turbulent Transitions

After the summer, students have myriad emotions about going back to school. The kindergartener’s first day of school is tearful; the 9th grader entering high school is excited yet apprehensive; and the high school junior...

A Roadmap for Learning in Medical Education

“…your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.” -David Foster Wallace Medical students are inundated with opinions, resources, and strategies from professors, upperclassmen, peers, mentors, and online forums. While the...

Bridging the Gap (Year)

By Dr. Julie M. Hau Gap years can equal great years. It is increasingly common to take a year off before college or between the undergraduate and graduate degrees. A gap year is spending a...

LAS is a Referral Resource in Medical Education

For more than 27 years, LAS has helped hundreds of students and residents learn, achieve, and succeed in measurable ways. LAS is a referral resource to medical schools, allied health programs, and medical centers. Individually,...

Gap Years can be Great Years

By Dr. Julie Hau Gap years can be great years. It is increasingly common to take a year off before college or between undergraduate and graduate degrees.  A gap year is spending a year or...

Anti-LGBTQ Legislation and Its Impact on LGBTQ Physicians

The medical profession is built on principles of equal care and support to all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, the LGBTQ community continues to face discrimination and marginalization throughout the United...

REST: Medical school and residency are stressful

Medical school and residency are stressful and worthy endeavors. As you travel through your journey to becoming a board-certified physician, remember to REST. Read the medical school or residency handbook. In a book, the preface...

Artificial Intelligence: Inside the Classroom and Beyond

A student types into ChatGPT: “Write a 1500-word essay on major themes in Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.” The student clicks “enter” and ChatGPT begins working, accessing its infinite data sets from various networks. A large...

Clinical training and shelf prep: pointers for med students

Before you begin your clinical training, review the learning objectives at your medical school and consider the following checklist. Prioritize clerkship assignments such as presentations, EPAs, OSCE, and assigned practice cases (e.g., Aquifer for Pediatrics)....

From rejection to redirection: What matters for college?

In the spring, celebratory videos flood social media with high school seniors opening their admission decisions! Surrounded by friends, family, and school staff, these videos show the fear, suspense, and joy of the students' efforts...

Error Analysis: A Self-Reflective Habit for Learning and Achievement

Test preparation can be daunting for many students. While resources are abundant online, implementing an empirical assessment of test readiness is often difficult. Pretesting and error analysis are among the LAS study tools useful for...

On Student Apathy

At LAS, we are curious about our students' narratives, and one of our goals is to understand how they learn from their perspectives. Educational Coaches meet students where they are and work together to delve...

LAS Test Prep Method™

LAS Coaches use an individualized approach to test preparation. But LAS Test Prep is based on learning and achievement goals, so the components of an LAS Test Prep Plan are consistent, whether we are teaching...

BASIC Exam Group Prep in Anesthesia

Removing Barriers in MedEd

In this episode of HIT Like a Girl, Loren talks about solving big problems within a collaborative model. She discusses the importance of coming together as a community and supporting one another to solve complex issues.

Removing Obstacles in Medical Education

When we come together as a community or to collaborate on a problem, it can be much more meaningful than if you try to solve it all on your own.

Barriers to Entry and Success in Medical Education

Despite monumental and ongoing demographic shifts, inequality still marks post-graduate education, including medical education. Female college students have outnumbered males in the United States since the 1980s, but it wasn’t until 2019 that women represented...

Microaggression and Medicine

Medicine and medical education are currently undergoing a period of transition around addressing and welcoming diversity and inclusion. To that end, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has developed a Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit...

Top 5 Supplies for Distance Learning

So, you have your computer or iPad, a bunch of pens at your desk, some old post-it notes, your trusty calculator, and your phone. Are you ready for distance or hybrid learning this fall? How...

Turning uncomfortable conversations into necessary conversations

Talking about race and racism can seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Being open to conversations about race requires humility and acknowledgment that you are just now stepping into a one-sided conversation that...

Takeaways from We’re here, but are you listening?

LAS recently collaborated on a two-part chat with Iboro Umana, MD, PhD based on his presentation, We're here, but are you listening? These discussions were part of the LAS series, Culture of Silence in Medical...

Takeaways from we’re here,
but are you listening?

LAS recently collaborated on a two-part chat with Iboro Umana, MD, PhD based on his presentation, We’re here, but are you listening? These discussions were part of the LAS series, Culture of Silence in Medical...

We’re here, but are you
listening?

Recent acknowledgement of America’s systemic racism and police violence, resulting protests and demonstrations, impact all of us, but disproportionately, they impact people of color.

The emotional effects of standardized testing: Fireside at Five, Chat 1

LAS and Fireside at Five, a solution-driven group fostering world-wide conversations and community-based opportunities, held the first of four scheduled online, video chats centered around mental health and education. The first chat, Shame, Anger, and...

Prolonging your study plan

Life has changed a lot in the past few weeks and our rear view mirrors reflect a different world than the one we live in today. Altering personal routines to accommodate social distancing, work and...

Access, support & social distancing

I recognize this is an uncertain time and know that many feel heightened concerns about all the changes in our day-to-day lives. It is my hope that this letter provides some reassurance about a constant...

Step-by-step prep for Step 1

If you’re an M2 you’re probably getting ready for Step 1, the first of four physician licensure exams. It’s a little stressful to say the least. Adding to that stress is the significance of Step...

A state of perplexity

Easy is a relative term. It can mean something different to everyone. Last week I hiked Quandary Peak in Colorado. It was my first 14'er, and as many websites indicate it is among the most...

Hope and the daisy!

Mistakes that are made during practice are opportunities for the future.

Burnout, medical education & design thinking

There are higher rates of burnout in UME and GME programs than in the general population and students, residents, and early career physicians can suffer in a culture of silence.

Last minute test prep

Some last minute test prep tips for the Anesthesiology ITE!

McPherson’s St. Nicholas & Reflection

Can learning for a test without learning how to learn miss the point?

LAS Themes for 2019

A few weeks ago I wrote about pushing pause in order to take time and reflect. It was intentional given the new year and provided a bridge from an earlier post I had written about...

Organizational strategies: The Mary Poppins Move

Benjellica, an LAS Scholastic Manager and Intake Coordinator , discusses organizational strategies for physical materials which students can use during and after the academic term.

Happy 2019!

As I reflect on the past 12 months, I look at my goals from 2018, what they were, whether I pursued them and whether I achieved them. It can be an interesting way to review...

The LAS Review / Redo Strategy

Each year, some of our students and doctors-in-training designate a little holiday-time to prepare for their board exams. If you’re prepping during this break, consider The LAS Review/Redo Strategy, because we know that making mistakes...

The “Finals” Stretch: Study Strategies

In this series of posts, I aim to answer a few frequently asked questions and help students approach their final exams with confidence. Last week I answered the question, “How can my student prepare in...

The “Finals” Stretch: Getting Started

Year after year, LAS gets a similar set of questions from parents and students about how best to prepare for finals. In the next few posts, I aim to answer a few frequently asked questions...

Cultivating Compassion in the Classroom

For the past several years, I have been researching and teaching on compassion in medicine and education. On World Kindness Day 2018, I want to take a few moments to reflect on how compassion can...

Make it stick: The Science of Successful Learning

This is an interesting time to think about learning – almost every fact is at my fingertips via Google and if I need to know how to do something, YouTube has a tutorial with detailed...

Creativity and the Brain

Left brain, right brain, whole brain, no brain. I’m kidding with the last one--brains are important to our pursuits as humans. However, recent neuroscientific endeavors have found that the act of creativity surpasses the popular...

Curiosity: Igniting and Reigniting the Candle of Learning to Shine from Within

The act of being curious can guide us to new discoveries to better understand the world. For medical students and residents, curiosity about how the human body works, understanding mechanisms of action and tracing the...

Does resilience ever do harm? We say no.

Today the following quote from Alexander den Heijer caught my eye as I scrolled past it on Instagram: “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower” Resilience...

Resiliency!

LAS instructors talk about ways students can build up resiliency!

Why we ask “Why?”

Recently, a Freakonomics broadcast on NPR, called How to Launch a Behavior-Change Revolution, caught my attention. During the 45-minute episode two professors from the University of Pennsylvania, Angela Duckworth and Katy Milkman, talked about their...

10 Tips for Taking the SAT or ACT

Taking a standardized test can seem like a daunting task, but here are some tips that have worked for students prepping at LAS workshops. Focus first on content, then on process The first step is...

Time-limited medical coaching @LAS

The LAS coaching model is an evidence-based approach to academic support and wellness in medical education. It integrates study skills development and mentorship to support students and residents in learning how to learn in medical education. Although...

Guided meditation for test anxiety

For underperforming students, anxiety around academic performance is incredibly common. When anxiety is running high, simply relaxing seems like a herculean effort, especially before a high-stakes exam. Last month, I walked the LAS staff through...

Ensuring support for all students!

In early October, all LAS employees came together to participate in our annual training and planning retreat. We are currently comprised of 14 individuals but when we come together as a group, we are a small...

Meaningful Reflections

Once you’ve found a memorable, impactful story, you’re well on your way to an excellent college admissions essay! Now you need to add in some reflection. The narrative parts of your essay tell the story...

Finding a Story to Tell

Last week, I discussed the importance of detailed stories in Common App essays. But how, exactly, does one decide what story colleges want to hear? The vague and open-ended nature of the prompts offers students...

Putting the Personal in Personal Essays

This summer, I had the privilege of designing a new Common Application Essay Workshop curriculum for LAS. I thought about writing, I thought about editing. I read the prompts, and I thought about life writing....

Time-limited coaching in med ed

In the U.S. and Canada, academic support in medical education is variable and non-standardized. Most academic support relies on a deficit model based largely on exam remediation of written or clinical skills’ assessments. To address...

Top 5 ingredients for SAT and ACT success

Based on your test date, establish a 2-3 month study plan and stick to it Identify a limited number of study resources that include practice questions for spaced repetition, explanations and strategies, for each answer....

Essential Ingredients for Test Prep!

Taking a standardized test? Make sure to practice. Practice is a highly effective study tool for any test prep plan. The experience of practicing and revisiting the process of remembering is critical for learning. Often...

5 Ways to Overcome Nervousness, According to Science

LAS uses evidence-based approaches to help learners mitigate symptoms of stress and anxiety on high stakes exams. When practiced prior to and during test taking, these approaches help students learn, achieve, and succeed at demonstrating...

An unintended trend in medical ed

There’s an expectation that when students are accepted into medical school, they will naturally know how to learn and achieve. This expectation is often reinforced by faculty, families, and students themselves, making underachievement in medical...

Outgrowing the Five Paragraph Essay

One of the simultaneously challenging and exciting aspects about teaching college writing is the fact that students enter into college with varying degrees of writing ability. On top of that, students begin college with such...

Video: How does Loren Academic Services use PROCESS and CONTENT to help their students?

Loren Deutsch, Executive Director and founder of LAS, Inc., explains the distinction between content and process, and why delivering support at the point of need is so crucial for academic development.

Why do medical students come to LAS, Inc. for academic support?

People outside of the health sciences are usually surprised to discover that support services and remediation plans are not uncommon in medical education. In medical education, students must learn in a time-sensitive framework. This requires...

Practice, Practice, Practice Questions

I have never met a student who enjoyed taking standardized tests. On the contrary, common reactions to these tests include frustration, anxiety, and even downright panic. High stakes testing like the ACT and SAT is...

Video: The LAS Approach to Common App Essays

Last month, Jeff, one of our scholastic managers, wrote about his approach for helping his students tackle the Common App Essay. We followed up with him for a brief interview about how LAS, Inc. helps...

Video: The LAS, Inc. approach to ACT Prep

Rachel Williams, our ACT Coordinator, has helped countless students prepare for the ACT. Whether she's leading a workshop or working one-on-one, her approach has a proven-track record when it comes to preparing students for the...

Getting Started with the Common App Essay

College applications have become more competitive and increasingly complex over the last ten years. Each institution has their own requirements and the Common Application serves to streamline the process for students and allow them to...

Once more, with feeling

Loren shared a recent New York Times article with me by Claire Needell Hollander about the danger of assigning texts without feeling. She calls these types of reading “agnostic texts.” In order to meet the...

LOFT Finals Schedule

For local high school students, final exams are here! Like last year, the LOFT will have extended drop-in hours to accommodate students preparing for their exams. Please see the calendar below for the week's modified schedule.

Cultivating Confidence

Whenever I get ready to call my parents these days, I have to psych myself up.  Not because I don’t want to talk with them, but because I know I have to bring my “A”...

Memory is only half of it: Training for tests

[caption id="attachment_1381" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo courtesy of Elvert Barnes[/caption] I’ve noticed an interesting trend when working with medical schools and hospitals to design curriculum. When students/residents find themselves underperforming on important exams, they often change...

A Lesson In Luck

[caption id="attachment_1383" align="alignleft" width="300"] Photo by Daniel X. O'Neil[/caption] Two weeks ago I had the privilege of attending two graduation ceremonies that have left me feeling inspired and energized, aware that working hard is equally...

Review of Ungerleider’s Educational Therapy in Action

Establishing a working relationship with our students is one of the most important features of educational therapy. Within that learning alliance, an essential ingredient is trust. In Dorothy Ungerleider’s most recent book Educational Therapy in Action:...

Hitting the Books: When in Doubt…Practice!

In my last blog I wrote a lot about reading and practice questions and how both are necessary to for memory consolidation and performance on tests. Below is a shorter explanation about why this is the...

Hitting the Books: Training for Tests

When we think of learning, we often think of reading. Reading is one of the ways we acquire new information, particularly in school. A lot of the work I do with students relates to reading...

Homeboy Industries

Have you heard of an organization called Homeboy Industries? I've just begun to learn about them and am fascinated. They provide jobs and training for people getting out of prison. They are located in Los Angeles...

Hitting The Books: Avoiding the pitfalls of ineffective studying

Last time, I touched on the problems with reading for memorization in preparation for tests. With that in mind, I’d like to explore some concrete strategies that can help avoid studying pitfalls. Here are a...

Why Didn’t I Do Better on My Tests if I Knew the Material Well?

Today in education, the term executive function is being used interchangeably to refer to everything from organization and time management to emotional regulation and memory. Yet, how many people really understand the term and all...

Demystifying the Executive Functions and Their Effects on Students

Today in education, the term executive function is being used interchangeably to refer to everything from organization and time management to emotional regulation and memory. Yet, how many people really understand the term and all...