The first week of term was only for medical students, we learnt about the course structure, and our exams, met our PBL groups and learnt to thoroughly wash our hands in clinical skills. A common highlight of the week was receiving our shiny new iPads, which we will use for exams and to make notes on the wards in our clinical years. Between these lectures, I explored the town, quay and had multiple flat pizza nights. In our second week of term, we were joined by the many thousands of students at Exeter University. I used this week to try many societies, such as kayaking in the quay and joining the Swimming society in the city pool. We also officially met our medic parents, 2 lovely second-year students, who were only a WhatsApp message away to answer our many questions.

Soon the academic term started. I felt like I was thrown into the deep end (despite my swimming and Kayaking practice the previous week). There were so many new terms to navigate and new teaching styles. From attending the same school for 7 hours per day for 7 years, to having 2 hours of contact a day and lecture teaching, the university learning style was challenging for me to adapt to.

Slowly, I learnt to structure my week to meet PBL deadlines, understand new concepts, swim and food shop. It was difficult at first to find which websites had the best resources. Often I felt I was building knowledge from scratch and I would never be able to sift through all the content required for our exams. How much knowledge was too much? How much was too little? What did I need to understand? What did I need to memorize? Honestly, I am still unsure now.

From long evenings at the beach to Halloween costumes to 5.30 pm darkness, the Christmas holidays were in sight. However, we had our first exams to overcome! These were OSCEs and a SSU. (OSCEs are examinations testing your clinical skills and SSUs (student-selected units) are research projects requiring you to read many research papers and create an essay evaluating your findings). Having studied Maths and Further Maths for A-Levels, writing an essay was a daunting task. Reading research papers, writing abstracts and referencing was a new skill I had to face. Fortunately, my medic parents provided invaluable advice on how to approach these assessments.  I am pleased to say that I passed!

I was rewarded with a 2-week Christmas holiday, which I spent revising for my mid-year.

Medical school often feels like there is so much to do and the fear of resists can be the main motivation to keep you working. But you must also take time to enjoy friendships, try new things and discover who you are as an individual. There are so many things that I am continually trying to figure out. But I now appreciate that it is okay to not know things and with time the challenges and hurdles of medical school will get easier.

If I could tell September me 3 things, it would be:

• Start making your revision notes early! It saddens me to admit that the revision techniques which I used for A-Levels were not translatable for medical school.
• Learning medicine does get easier as words become more familiar and concepts link together.
• Finally, have fun along the way and widen your friendships.

I hope you have a lovely week, and remember it is perfectly normal to feel uncertain throughout your academic life.