The struggle is real. Not for all med students (or vet, Pharm D, or PA students). But for the students we work with, medical school can be tough — sometimes it's even the first time a student has struggled academically. In our newest podcast miniseries, recent STATMed Study Skills Class alumni share the events that led them to take the Class and how it transformed their approach to studying.  In this episode, Ryan sits down with six recent STATMed Study Skills Class students from different schools, different regions and at different points in their careers who all had one thing in common: they were struggling in med school, PA school, or on the boards. In part one, we meet each of the students who share their reason for taking the STATMed Study Skills Class.  “I was on the brink of failure. I sat through two meetings on my performance and issues within the classroom. The first was patently unhelpful. On the second, I took command and decided to discuss a leave of absence instead of going through the specificity of that course. I found STATMed after doing a thorough search of what’s available within the marketplace. ...I had emailed a couple of them for information and got back quotes that were absolutely outrageous on the hourly fees. And I thought well, I don’t really want to spend $5,000 on a contract for tutoring when I know that I don’t need to be taught what’s going on in the classroom, I need to be helped with what’s not sticking for me. …I typed portions of vignettes of my story directly into Google and found a testimonial of one of your former students that was my story on the page. I thought okay, I could have written this story, so this is the place I need to start.”  -Elise, a first-year medical student