From anatomy cadaver labs to long back-to-back lectures, community placements to jam packed social calendars, my first year of med school has been a tumultuous rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. It’s a brand-new chapter in my journey to becoming a doctor and I hope my recap can bring some insight into life as a med student.
During school we’ve been conditioned into feeling comfortable within a small classroom setting. University is very different, and I don’t think I was prepared for the switch in teaching styles. After three back-to-back embryology lectures in our first week, saying that I was baffled and confused would be an understatement. Luckily after talking to all my friends, I realised that I was not the only one feeling this academic whiplash and this gave me some level of comfort. By enlisting the help of older students and discussing learning styles with my peers, within the first term I got a grip on how to approach this new teaching format. By doing a trial run of loads of learning methods like, note-making, Anki, re-watching lectures, making schematics and many more, I slowly eased myself into the course. The hand-holding approach of teaching back in school was also gone and I was, at first, lost in this newfound academic independence. Some concepts were really tricky to wrap my head around initially. But I will say, nothing is more satisfying than those lightbulb moments when you finally understand a topic all by yourself. Overall, I think this new form of teaching is very much a tough love approach of setting students up for success in their careers where this level of independence is truly necessary.
Our modules for this year were jam packed but very interesting. Personally, my favourite was circulation and breathing. This module combined anatomy, physiology, imaging, maths and a bit of physics and I really enjoyed seeing how everything fit together. We also had our first dissection lab in this module which was an amazing way of putting all the neat and tidy anatomy diagrams in a real-world setting. I remember being quite anxious on our first dissection day but by the time our final session came around, it became like second nature. Also, nothing can replace the feeling of putting on the white lab coat for the first time and truly feeling like a future doctor. We also had a year-wide module called CPP where we had lectures and weekly small group sessions discussing the ethics, law, data science, sociology and psychology surrounding medicine. These were great places to discuss and debate issues with our peers and see the real-life application of medicine beyond the scope of the core science.
Between our busy schedules of lectures, revision, and tutorials, we also got some time to let off steam with many social activities and societies. At UCL we are lucky to have RUMS (The Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students’ Association), a student body representing all med students, and they organised many freshers’ socials for us to meet everyone. After this, I started getting involved with university cultural societies and I joined a competitive dance team. Balancing all of this with uni life and the stress of living by myself was jarring at first and I fell out of a good routine in the first term. But slowly, I figured out a good way to balance my time and really I made the most of both worlds, academic and social. Next year I will be holding committee positions for multiple societies/initiatives which I’m excited for.
The first year of uni has been all that I hoped for and more. The dream of studying the course I love was what kept me motivated throughout the difficult med school application process and I definitely feel like all my efforts paid off. I hope my blog post has given you a little peak into life as a med student. If you are a prospective applicant reading this post, keep up the hard work and best of luck in your studies.
