8 Simple Ways
===
[00:00:00] If you're an occupational therapist looking to develop your skills in hand therapy. This podcast is for you, your host, Tron, occupational therapists, and certified hand therapists turned serial entrepreneur with her own therapy clinic in Miami. Hoang is an author and successful coach helping occupational therapists get jobs, develop their skills and become certified hand therapists so they can become experts in their.
[00:00:24] Hoang worked with occupational therapists from across the United States and around the world. She talks about everything from hand therapy, skills, career development, leadership skills, money, mindset, and business. You two can become an expert CHT certified hand therapist, business owner, and have more choices in your career.
[00:00:41] Subscribe now.
[00:00:43] Hello. We're gonna talk today about some ways in which to make studying for the CHT exam easier. Now, if you're someone like me, I've always heard that the CHT exam is really hard. Have you guys heard about how hard the exam is or. Have other people told you how hard it is.
[00:01:02] So that's what I wanna talk to you today about, because this is a recurring theme that I constantly hear about like how hard the exam is. And sometimes when you hear about how hard something is it kind of discourages you, right. Am I right here? Mm, let me know in the chat. If, if you keep hearing. How hard it is.
[00:01:26] And I'd love to have your take in terms, I keep shaking the table. In [00:01:30] terms of what you think, you know, is it doable? Do you think it's hard or do you think it's a breeze? Let me know, type into the chat. And I'd love to hear where you're tuning in from today. I'm here in my own clinic here in Miami, Florida, the weather has been on and off.
[00:01:48] It's just been rainy and then sunny and the rainy. It's Miami weather. What can I tell you? We're getting ready to host our workshop today, but I've been talking on the phone with several different people all through the week in terms of what they need to do in creating a plan for them to prepare to study.
[00:02:08] Wanted to share with you some eight simple ways in which you can make studying for the CHC exam, easier for you. Has anyone told you that? I'm not saying it's a breeze. I am not saying that you don't need to study. You absolutely need to study, but don't you think it's funny sometimes how times can change your perspective?
[00:02:31] One thing that I always say. Good things happen, bad things happen. And only time will tell which one is which right. Do you remember how hard school seemed to be? Whether it was high school, whether it was going into college or trying to get through graduate school? All those things seemed really, really hard, especially getting through OT school.
[00:02:55] I remembered never seeming to ACE any class, like [00:03:00] never seeming to ACE. Any classes never seemed really easy for me. No matter how long I studied, no matter how hard it seemed that I studied. And even this one time when I applied to be a teacher's. System in the anatomy class, how you know, I applied for the position and out of all of us, I was the only one.
[00:03:20] I was the only one that didn't get the position. and I think what made it worse than not getting it. Was how all my friends were like, propping me up, you know, as they should. Right. They're my friends. They're like, you can do it well. Like, if anyone can do it, you can do it. And so they talked me up and they talked me up and then that's the only one that didn't get the, the position.
[00:03:44] But that's okay. You know, that's okay. I, I just wanna tell you, like, the point is like, you can't win them all. You're, you're never really gonna get the, you know, you don't have to be the person who gets the perfect scores on the exam. You don't have to be the person that, that, oh, everything comes really easy to you.
[00:04:06] You know, I was talking to someone and, and I certainly said this. Self years ago that I was not a very good test taker and truth be told I wasn't a very good standardized test taker, but how I studied and how I approached things in my twenties so much different than now. Right. And so that's kind of what I wanna share with you.
[00:04:27] A little bit of my experience. [00:04:30] and some of what I've been doing to help the therapists that come into my clinic and help them pass, help them study and, and the people who are coming into my program, helping them study and helping them pass. Right. So there, there really isn't anything like the CHT exam.
[00:04:45] I mean, in the sense, like everything you've done before in terms of being a therapist, like passing your boards and all that stuff it isn't, it isn't like exactly the same, but you can knowing that you can approach it a little bit differently. Right. So let's work together to make it a little bit easier.
[00:05:02] Right? How about that? Let's make it a little bit easier cuz we don't have to keep making it so challenging. I want to encourage you all. If, if you have thought about becoming a certified hand therapist, I wanna encourage you to do it because I think that if you have any kind of feeling or inkling towards it, I think it's always gonna be that thing in the back of your head, that like, you want to do it.
[00:05:28] So it's going to eat at you and it's gonna eat at you throughout your whole career until one day you decide to do it. Right. And if you're feeling like I've had conversations about burnout, I've had conversations about. You know, being bored in your position, you know, like, oh, maybe I should do something else.
[00:05:44] And but today I wanna really focus on it. But so if, if you're, if you're one of those people are just like, oh, I just, I don't know. I, I wanna be that voice to encourage you to just go for it. If you have the years and you have the hours, then it [00:06:00] really comes down to making one simple decision. Right?
[00:06:03] One simple decision to study. And then once you make that decision to study, then it becomes, what's the decision next that you want to make, which is to, to pick your test date, right. To pick your test date. And I, I think that's the two decisions that you need to make. Here are some simple ways I just wanna share with some simple ways in which you can make setting for the CHT that much easier.
[00:06:27] So number one, you wanna work with the right resources, right? Hello here. Hello? Can we just work with the right resources so we can make our lives easier? I know that reading through the rehab of hand is really challenging. It's still my number one most important resource. And one of the reasons why I say that, cuz all the pertinent information is in one.
[00:06:52] Right. There's other, there's other resources, other books and stuff like that that you can use for sure. But rehab in the hand most by far has the, the most comprehensive amount of information all in one place. Right. And I have a list of reference like of resources in which you can use and stuff like that, but really it just takes, comes down to like picking the right resource if you are using.
[00:07:16] Old OT. I had someone tell me, I've had several people tell me they're using old OT books from school. And that isn't, that just isn't gonna cut it. It really isn't gonna cut it. We're not passing the OT boards. We're passing to become [00:07:30] specialized. And so you need the resources that will help you do just that.
[00:07:34] Our hand exam prep program can be the right resource for some people. There's gonna be some people. It does amazingly well for, so if you're someone who needs to read and wants to read this program but you're having difficult reading because it's like thick material. The program has a lot that helps you cut down that time, cut down that reading, and it's gonna give you that structure and organization.
[00:07:56] Right. So working with the right resource is going to make study for the CHT exam. That much easier for you now. Number two. A simple way that you can make your life easier is to limit the, the research or the search that you're doing online. Right. And I say, I say that even though I'm online hand therapy, secrets is online.
[00:08:19] You can search us up on YouTube. You can start putting video, like you can start saying how to do X, Y, and Z and hand therapy seekers will pop up for you. One of the reasons why I say. You wanna limit the, your search is because searching can. Lead down lots and lots of different paths. So let's say you start researching on one thing and that's gonna lead you down these other paths that might not have anything to do with what you need to know.
[00:08:52] As a certified hand therapist. Now you're down this path of like surgery in depth anatomy that you don't even need to [00:09:00] know. Now you're like, shit, I gotta know all this. I gotta memorize all this. And so it can lead you astray. How you can simplify it is, you know, just limiting your, your search and always keeping in mind.
[00:09:15] What do I need to know as a certified hand therapist so that it can make your life easier? Cause let's face it. You can lose hours upon hours upon hours of just trying to research and doing stuff on your own. If you had one resource where it could like really bring all the information together for you.
[00:09:36] wouldn't that cut down on your time? Wouldn't it give you such clarity of what you need to know since you're not second guessing you're not wasting time looking for more stuff. Right. So limit the amount of search, because right now we're living in information age where we have so much information that sometimes we don't know what to do with that amount information.
[00:10:02] Right. My third way of keeping it nice and easy for you is actually just to sit, keep your area clean. I say that as my area is a hot mess right now, but when I'm studying and when I'm preparing for class and stuff like that, I really do. Like I put all myself away, I get myself really organized and it just helps to when you declutter your space, you declutter your mind when you declutter your.
[00:10:29] You [00:10:30] declutter your mind, so you can create a sense of a space for all the information that you need to know. I kind of think about it like a really great chef keeps his or her area clean. Right. Instead of having like all the scraps all over the place, just being able to keep organized, it helps. With the speed in which you're working and it helps in the efficiency in which you're working.
[00:10:50] So keep your area clean number four. So it's work with the right resources, limit your search online, keep your area clean and then four is get organized. And the way I think about organizing is, think about how you want to organize your notes, your flashcards, your calendar, all of. so I'm a person who organizes with one subject notebooks.
[00:11:13] when I was studying for the CHT exam, I made a bunch of note cards. What can happen with the note cards is that you can start to have way too much of them and you can have. You can have way too many and you, you might have way too much stuff written down on them, which is not necessarily really good.
[00:11:36] If you think about how no card should be done, it's kind of like, you know, on one a topic and then an explanation of the bottom on the back. So it's kind of the things that you need to memorize, right? Flashcards. But when you're trying to understand concepts, you might need some paper, you might need some, you know, just a regular notebook and then just organize S yourself in that way [00:12:00] and organization.
[00:12:01] Isn't just how you're writing stuff down or how you're putting stuff on note cards, but it could be how you organize your calendar, how you organize your topics, you know, have a very structured way of doing my curriculum. You, you guys have heard me say two weeks of hands, two weeks of risk, two weeks of tendon.
[00:12:19] There's a reason for that, so that you stay organized and you keep going especially three months before the exam. So right now it's a great time to get started. This it's a great time to get started in the hand exam program because you have several months and you can start to watch the videos.
[00:12:34] You can start to organize your, your information all in. Right. And then as you get closer to the exam, you've already studied all of the topics for the most part. And then you're gonna go into what I call an intense review. So it's not like it's the very, very first time you've heard of this stuff. Right.
[00:12:53] But then it gets you to make sure that you're covering all topics. One thing that I'll often hear about that happens to people studying for the exam is that they'll, they'll get stuck in a particular topic and they get stuck in it because they have this feeling that they need to know everything, this feeling of perfection needing to know everything is a thing that's gonna stop you from moving forward.
[00:13:18] And usually it's because there's an insecurity. That you, you, you're not retaining or you're not remembering the stuff that you learn. Right. And sometimes you do ask cuz you're trying to memorize everything, probably [00:13:30] understand, understand concepts, and you're gonna be able to know how to apply that through everything between how to evaluate someone, how to move them along in the treatment and the actual treatment that you're providing.
[00:13:42] All right. So get organized and. In your, like how you study your calendar and even your resources right now, number five to make it easier for you is you've got to schedule your time, schedule your time. Let's be realistic, right? Let's be realistic about how you want to schedule your time. You want to chunk.
[00:14:09] Not just your topics, but your time. So if you work on during the weekday, which most of us work, right? How do you chunk out your time so that you are doing 30 minutes, five minute break, 30 minutes, five minute break, something like that. So you're getting a good chunk of studying in an hour to an hour and a half.
[00:14:28] And then however many days you need to, not everyone needs to study every day. Not. Works every day. Some people with some of my students, they have four day shifts and then their Fridays are off, right. Or their Tuesdays are off. Who knows, but you can schedule yourself out and especially on the weekends, you know, schedule that out, wake up early, get your studying done, break it up.
[00:14:55] That you can study a little, you know, study a good chunk of [00:15:00] time, then maybe take a break to do something and then study a little bit more and you can break it up. However you want. I remember when I was studying, I would study the whole weekend and it wasn't like I was studying eight to 10 hours. I would just, you know, study for like two or three hours, go do something else and then come back and study for like another hour or two.
[00:15:18] Right. But I was studying every day and especially right before the exam, I was definitely setting a lot. right. So how do you make that exam? Easy part of it's just, you gotta study part of it's. You just gotta schedule your time. Whatever is on your calendar is something that you will do, right. If it's written down it's on your calendars, you're more likely to do it then if you're like, oh yeah, maybe I'll do it.
[00:15:42] Maybe I will do it. You know, so definitely put that on your calendar. number six. One of the ways to make it really easy for you is to create a realistic schedule or plan. And that's what I do. If you're, if you're interested in joining the program, go ahead and apply. I believe if you're on Instagram, the link is in the bio and if you're on YouTube and Facebook, it's gonna be the link under this video.
[00:16:10] But one of the things that I do. You know, if you apply to come into the program, one of the things I do is I will help you create a, a realistic plan and schedule if we're trying to make it in the easiest way possible. And I do have a philosophy on it, [00:16:30] of studying six months or a year and getting it done, at least taking the exam the longer you drag it out, the harder it become.
[00:16:39] Now, of course, there's always time for like, someone has an incident or something comes up. I mean, you can't always help those, those things. Right. But for the most part, you're creating a plan. Let's create a realistic plan otherwise. It just, it's just so much harder to, to do right now. Number seven, how to make it easy.
[00:16:59] I think that this is the hardest. Tip of all of them that I have and it's creating boundaries and actually keeping them, right. This is a, this is a challenging one. Cuz you have a purpose, you know what you wanna do, you know what you need to do. And people who are, who are your friends, they love you, your family member.
[00:17:20] They know that you want to become a certified hand therapist. But they can't help themselves. But to kind of like push those boundaries that you create, right? So you gotta make sure you set them and, and, and keep them so that you can actually get setting done. Right. Be careful with who you allow to take your time and also be careful with who you allow that you give your energy away.
[00:17:50] Right? So you've gotta set boundaries and the closer you get to the exam the more like the more important it is, I remember. And it's important [00:18:00] throughout the whole process, but some in some places you can give, but what happens is you start giving, you'll start to give it away all the time. Six months before the exam, I got stricter three months before the exam, I just got stricter.
[00:18:13] and, you know, I wouldn't even talk to my mother because she would drain my energy. the woman didn't mean to, I love her to piece it. She loves me, but that's probably why we kind of clash a little bit. Right. And I, you know, you kind of, sometimes you just have to say, Hey, I need a certain amount of time.
[00:18:33] Maybe it's your job. Maybe it's your job. Stealing your time stealing your energy, but you know what? They can't steal because you're probably giving it away. So how do you make it easy for yourself? You gotta create these boundaries and you've got to keep them right. When you say yes to the exam, you've got to say no to something else.
[00:18:59] And sometimes that no has an expiration date. Hey, I need this amount until November. right. I need until November after November, I'm gonna be all yours. I'm going, I'm gonna do more things with you. I'm gonna talk to you every day. I'm gonna talk to every many days you want, I can work extra. I can, whatever, but until then I need to focus because this is the thing that I said I wanted to do, and I want to do it so that I can feel good [00:19:30] doing the thing that I said I was gonna get done.
[00:19:32] Right. So you've got to, you know, create those boundaries and keep 'em that's number seven. Number eight, number eight is having a positive attitude. I know. You're like what I am. I do have, I am happy. Have you ever, have you ever had that happen? I am happy. Damn it. Don't you know, saying. You know, saying is easier, but you can't, you can't fake it to your brain, right?
[00:20:00] You can't fake it to your brain. You have to have real positive attitude. Now you're a therapist, you know, you've seen this where. you've seen two, two bad injuries, right? Two bad injuries, but one person has a really like, go get it positive attitude. Like I, I can do this and not just I can do this, but I'm doing the things that are necessary to achieve my goal, to get it done to then you've got the one who's got more of a negative, you know, energy, a negative vibe, a negative attitude.
[00:20:34] And everything is getting in their way, but the, this, but then, then that. And because they have that negative attitude, right. Your eyes only see, and your ears only hear all the things that your brain is saying. So if your brain is saying and talking shit, Right. If your brain is talking shit, then you're only gonna see shit and you're gonna hear shit.
[00:20:57] And that turns into a lot of [00:21:00] negative mindset and like a negative attitude. And so it deters you from doing the things you need to do, which is one to prepare, but. But prepare in a way that allows you to connect the dots so you can understand, so you can pick the best answers on the exam, comes down to making decisions, making key decisions.
[00:21:22] Right. And then you've got that positive. So think about your patients. You've got one patient that's positive and they're like, yeah, I'm gonna do everything. I am doing everything. And because I am doing everything because I am doing those steps and because I. Doing the program as I'm supposed to do.
[00:21:36] And because I am showing up, you know, as I'm supposed to, I'm seeing and feeling results and because I'm seeing and feeling results. Have
[00:21:54] somebody who is, you know, they're because they keep thinking it's hard. And because they keep thinking it's negative and I can't get it done. And, and this person's against me or that thing is against me, then it deters them and they're not doing the thing. So because they're not doing the thing, it's like that.
[00:22:13] Perpetual cycle, right? I'm not doing the things, so I'm not feeling the results and I'm not seeing the results. It's like your patients. It's like our patients that. So that's why I say one of the most important things to, to simplify your life. When it comes to studying is to keeping that [00:22:30] positive attitude, how to keep that positive attitude.
[00:22:32] You just take, you put one foot in front of another, right. One foot in front of another, you keep studying one thing after another. And because you keep doing it, you're gonna feel. And you're gonna see the results. That one time I ate that one salad , it's not enough to be healthy, lose weight, all that good stuff.
[00:22:50] Right. So the one time you crack to open that book to try to study, like, it's not enough, how do we make it easy? You know, we make it easy by doing the work that we need to do to prepare for the exam. And that's how we can make it that much easier for us. Right. Number one, use the right resources.
[00:23:11] Number two, limit your search online. Number three, keep your space clean. Right. Number four, get organized in so many ways in the setting and your calendar. Number five, schedule that a time and you gotta schedule it in. Write it in, put it on your calendar. Number six, create a realistic plan. So then you can stick with it.
[00:23:33] It's doable. It's fun. So you can stick with it, right? Create boundaries, number seven, create boundaries and keep them in number eight, have a positive attitude and put all those things together. And it's going to simplify how you study and how possible it is for you to study in a way that helps you to pass and become a certified care.[00:24:00]
[00:24:00] Right. You have any questions in terms of what the hand exam prep program can do or what I can do to help you in terms of studying. Please let me know, just send me a message on Instagram. You can send me a message on Facebook and YouTube. You can certainly send me a message. You can find me at hand therapy, secrets.com.
[00:24:20] We have a page where you can apply to. To, to enroll into the hand exam prep program so we can help keep you structured. We can keep you accountable and we can keep you focused so that you are studying and doing things that are gonna help you pass. Right? What do we need to do? What do we need to study?
[00:24:39] What do we need to know as a certified hand therapist? Everything else does not matter right now when you're studying for the CHD. That's it. You. You gotta stay focused you gotta stay focused. What do you need to do? What do you need to think about? So what do you need to know as a certified hand therapist so that you can answer those questions correctly so that you can get a 75 so that you can pass and become a certified hand therapist after that and do whatever the hell you want.
[00:25:11] You wanna study more anatomy? You wanna know all these, like things that, that, you know, the doctors know doing surgery. you can do that afterwards. Then it becomes so much more about skills, right? But when you're studying to pass, you gotta focus. It's gotta be laser focus. What's gonna be on the exam.
[00:25:29] [00:25:30] How am I gonna think through those questions so that I can get so I can make a decision. So I'm make a decision and I wanna pick the right answer and I need to pick enough of the right answers to pass, cuz we don't need to be perfect. Right. Perfect is about procrastination. We don't need that. We need to do it now.
[00:25:49] Today is today to get started, right? Not, not one person I've ever spoken to said, oh no, I could have studied less. Not one person said, oh, I could have started studying later. Every person, every person said I could have started earlier. Every person could have said, you know, , you know, I, I needed to, I did what you know, I needed to do yesterday when it comes to studying for the exam.
[00:26:15] All right. So don't delay do it today. I'm just fine. You should not very good at writing. So anyway, enjoy your time. And I thank you for coming and watching and listening. And if you have any questions and if I can help you to be bold and be brave and to just, you know, prepare. To become a certified hand therapist.
[00:26:38] I am happy to do all right, guys, let me know if you have any questions. I will talk to you soon. Bye.
[00:26:48] Hey, thanks for listening to Hoangs world podcast. If you are brand new to the hand therapy world, head over to my website, www . Hand therapy secrets.com, where you can get started with some of our [00:27:00] free guides and paid programs for both OTs and PTs diving into the world of hand therapy. Or if you've been listening for a while watching on our YouTube channel and you think you could benefit from developing and moving your career further along in hand therapy, reach out to me and my team at info @ Hand therapy.secrets.com and tell us exactly what you're looking for, By the way, if you know someone who could benefit from today's show, please share.
[00:27:25] Thanks. See you on the next episode.
